Park’s cheeks turned a bit pink. “I was just doing some research. I really don’t know much about it. Some forums suggested getting started on the vows early if you weren’t going traditional,” he mumbled. “It’s only a rough draft.”

Cooper couldn’t even bring himself to respond, stuck on the thought of Park studying wedding planning forums.

“Unless you did want to do something traditional?” Park asked tentatively.

“No,” Cooper said, then fell awkwardly silent again.

“Okay,” Park said slowly. “Your heart is beating a mile a minute right now. Did you want to just skip the whole vow thing entirely? ’Cause I’m not going to be hurt—”

“No, I want to vow,” Cooper said quickly. He took a deep breath and grabbed Park’s hand, looking him in the eye. “I really do want to. It’s just a list of things I love about you followed by some promises, right? How hard can it be?”

Park studied him with a skeptical albeit fond look on his face. “For you?”

Cooper scoffed. “I know what I love, Oliver. Right off the bat, you’ve got ten toes. Eight of them aren’t too weird. That’s eight lines right there. What’s next, your ankles? Those aren’t bad, either. Calves? Genuinely sexy.”

“Okay, okay,” Park said hastily. “Let’s keep some mystery alive. I look forward to hearing your non-shallow list soon enough.” He squeezed their hands together and then let them drop so that only their pointer fingers were hooked around each other. He swung their arms gently between them as they both continued down the hall. “And for the record, my pinkie toes are not weird looking.”

“Mmmm, but are they vow-worthy, though?” Cooper freed his hand reluctantly, knocked on James Finnigan’s hotel door just in case, and then unlocked it to let them in.

The thing about big chain hotels was that no matter how fancy the lobby, the hotel room still looked like a hotel room. Inoffensive art, offensive carpeting, neutral bedding, risky curtains. Everything always just a tad dated. If not for the phone charger hanging from the wall by the bed and the front desk’s assurance they hadn’t been allowed in for the last three days, Cooper would have been worried the staff had already cleaned out the room, it was that neat. That...empty.

“Where’s all his stuff?”

“Well, the man’s place did just burn down.” Park said, opening the nightstand drawer to reveal a pair of glasses, Vaseline, a pack of gum, and a book on North American poisonous plants.