-Oliver-

I'd been looking forward to today for a long time. It was one of my days off and I was finally going to visit Cooper at work to see what he did and meet his coworkers.

As I drove down highway 101, my thoughts drifted to what had been on my mind a lot lately. In two weeks, Cooper was going to leave for his annual fishing job. He'd be gone for four months and would miss most of the summer here. I'd have to explore hikes on my own or try to find someone to go with. It wasn't ideal, but Cooper said he'd be back in time for us to do some hiking in the fall when the leaves were changing colors.

I was going to miss him a lot, and we both knew we were taking a risk with a long distance relationship after we'd only been together a few months. Cooper was afraid I'd lose interest in our relationship while he was at sea or decide I couldn't handle him being gone for several months out of the year, and I was nervous about being on my own in a new place. It was going to be weird living in Cooper's house without him there. I knew I could hang out with his family and I'd see them at least once a week for family dinner, but that might feel weird too.

I turned off the highway onto a gravel road. Cooper had assured me my car would be fine on this particular road, and I was relieved to see he was right. After a few minutes on the road, I came around a curve and saw a huge clearing in the trees. Part of this area was filled with dirt, tree stumps and branches, and another section had piles of trees and logs. There was a lot of heavy machinery and several men in orange hard hats. Some of them were operating machinery to load logs onto a log truck, and the others were using machinery to strip branches off the trees that still needed processing before being transported.

I parked near a pickup truck and got out, scanning the men for Cooper. He must have spotted me first, because he came jogging over. "Hey! You made it!"

"The road wasn't bad at all." I gave him a hug and inhaled deeply. He smelled like a mixture of pine, dirt, and sweat. Even after he'd been working all day, he always smelled good to me.

He kissed me on the cheek and then grabbed my hand. "Come meet the guys. You can finally put faces to all the names."

I was a little nervous to be meeting the guys, but I reminded myself that Cooper considered most of them friends and that it was his dad's logging company, so no one was going to be outright rude to me.

The men who weren't currently operating some of the machinery gathered around Cooper and I, and I tried my best to remember everyone as he introduced me to the group of men. A lot of them were stocky like Cooper, but a few of the guys were on the thinner side.

"So, he finally brings you around," said Dave, one of the thinner guys and the only one without a beard. "Cooper never shuts up about you."

I looked over at Cooper, and he just shrugged and grinned at me.

Dave shook his head. "When we're all standing around complaining about our wives and girlfriends, Cooper pipes up about how amazing you are. It's fuckin' annoying." 

I could tell from the twitch at the corner of his mouth that he was teasing and meant no harm. I also knew that he was one of Cooper's best friends, so none of what he said was going to be malicious.

"Give it time. They'll be complaining about each other eventually," Gary said. He had the longest beard of anyone and looked old enough to have retired already.

I laughed. "Maybe, but not anytime soon. Cooper's leaving in a couple weeks for his next fishing job and I'm going to miss him a lot."

I chatted with the guys for a few minutes and was glad to find that most of them were friendly, but there were a few guys who were more standoffish. It didn't surprise me given that we were in a rural, blue collar area that likely had more conservative values.

Over the next hour, Cooper gave me a tour of the site and explained the different tasks the guys were working on. My favorite part was when I got to ride in one of the log trucks with him to pick up some logs from another area further down the road. For a few minutes, it was just the two of us in the cab of the truck, rumbling down the dirt road surrounded by trees. Cooper needed both hands to drive this huge truck, so he didn't reach over and hold my hand like he would in his own truck. He settled for glancing over at me and smiling as he explained more about the job.

Before we got out of the truck, Cooper pulled me in for a kiss. "I like my job and I always have fun, but it's even better with you here. Thanks for spending some of your day off at work with me."

I kissed him back. "I'm happy to. I like being around you, and besides, I wouldn't turn down a chance to watch my sexy lumberjack in action."

Cooper's eyes gleamed. "Maybe one of these days you can fuck me in one of the trucks."

I cracked up laughing. "Okay, that went from 0 to 100 real fast. I'm pretty sure that'd be an OSHA violation anyway."

"Wanna find out?" Cooper asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Tempting, but I don't want you to get fired today."

"My dad wouldn't fire me."

"Yeah, Coop, I think he would."

Cooper laughed as we got out of the truck, and I kept my eyes glued to him as I watched from a safe distance while the guys finished up their work before lunch. Then, I joined them as we all sat on tree stumps and ate.

When Cooper was distracted joking around with Dave, the man sitting on the other side of me, Merle, leaned over. I guessed he was in his fifties, and he looked a bit rough. His beard was almost as long as Gary's.

"You're okay with Cooper going off for months out on the open ocean?" Merle asked me, the scent of cigarettes on his breath.

I pulled away slightly, but gave him a half smile. "I have to be okay with it. I don't really have a choice, and I knew what I was getting into when I moved here to be with Cooper. I met him on a plane when he was coming back from a fishing job."

"Fishing is dangerous work sometimes," Merle said.

"I know. I wish at least one of his jobs was safe. Logging seems more dangerous to me now that I've seen some of what you guys do."

"It can be," Merle agreed, holding up one of his hands. Most of his pinky and ring finger were missing.

My eyes widened, but before I could say anything else, Merle got to his feet. "If you want an idea of what deep sea fishing is like, watch that movie 'The Perfect Storm'."

-

Two hours later, I was back at home in front of the TV. I stuck around the logging site for a little longer after lunch, but then I left to let the guys, especially Cooper, get back to work without any distractions.

I'd heard of the movie 'The Perfect Storm', but I hadn't gotten around to seeing it in theaters when it was released. I knew it was based on a true story about a fishing boat that got caught in a storm and sank. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to watch it, but I was curious and wanted to know what it would be like when Cooper was at sea. I found the movie on one of the streaming sites Cooper and I paid for and settled in to watch.

-Cooper-

I walked through my front door in a good mood. It had been nice to spend some time with Oliver and show him what my job was like, and I had also been proud as hell to show him off to the guys. It didn't matter that none of them were interested in men. Oliver was amazing and anyone should be able to see that.

The TV was on and Oliver was sitting on the couch. Oddly enough, he hadn't turned around to greet me even though whatever he'd been watching seemed to be over. I glanced at the credits rolling on the screen and the name of the movie displayed in the corner, and my heart sank.

"Oliver, no." I went to him and saw his face wet with tears, so I sat next to him and wrapped him up in a huge bear hug. "Why did you watch that?"

He pulled away and stared at me. "Can that happen?" he asked, his eyes large and welling with tears. "That huge wave at the end?"

I sighed. "It was a freak situation. Sometimes there are storms, but not like that."

"But something can still go wrong."

"Something can go wrong in any job, or at any time. Something could go wrong with logging, or when we're out hiking, or when you're driving to work."

"I know, but deep sea fishing is a dangerous job. Both of your jobs are dangerous."

I couldn't deny that, so I stayed quiet and slowly rubbed his back instead.

He leaned over and rested against my chest. "I don't want anything to happen to you," he said, his voice muffled against my shoulder.

"It won't," I reassured him.

He lifted his head and looked at me, a pained expression in his eyes. "You can't promise that."

"I can promise that safety will be my first priority, more than it ever has been. I want to make sure I get back to you. There's no greater motivation."

Oliver didn't reply. He just held on tightly to me and let me rub his back.

"Seriously though, why did you watch that?" I asked again.

"Merle told me to. He said it would give me an idea what deep sea fishing is like."

"Fucking Merle," I growled. "He's gonna get knocked on his ass when I see him tomorrow."

Oliver sat up. "It's not his fault. He was just trying to prepare me for what it's like to have a partner out at sea."

"No, he wasn't. He did it to freak you out. He always does shit like this."

"Really? He seemed like a straightforward guy."

"Don't be fooled. Merle loves to start drama."

For some reason, that made Oliver laugh. It broke the tension in the room and I was happy to see him smile again and see those adorable dimples in his cheeks. I gently tackled him, pushing him back on the couch, and we ended up kissing.

"I love you," I murmured. "We're going to get through the time apart, and I'm going to come back home to you."

He kissed me again. "You better. I love you too much to lose you."