The idea that his mere existence was an annoyance to Cooper would have made Grayson unendingly proud. Cooper had the same affect on him, but Grayson felt that at least he had enough reason to justify his distaste. Grayson noticed the flinch, his eyes locked on Cooper, tension turning his spine to steel. He liked that, liked the affect heâd forced out of Cooper and knew it was the sort of thing he should feel guilty about, but heâd worry about that later.
"I donât care,â Grayson shot back quickly, not wanting Cooper to think that for one second Grayson was interested in his excuses. There wasnât a good enough reason in the world to willingly cause Saylor pain, at least as far as Grayson was concerned.
âRelationship?â Grayson snorted derisively, giving a small shake of his head. âYouâre delusional.â Grayson couldnât believe that there was anything quite so serious between Saylor and Cooper. He trusted too much in their friendship, believed that Saylor would have told him if Cooper had come back into her life in such a meaningful way. âShe made a mistake with you once, sheâs not going to do it again.â It worried him, though, Cooperâs mention that Saylor had been with him the night before. He didnât keep tabs on his friend, but he thought that something like running into Cooper again would have ranked high enough on the emotional scale that Saylor would have at least mentioned it to him. He wasnât naive enough to think that they didnât keep secrets from each other, but he didnât think that these were the sort of things sheâd keep from him.
As someone who always tried to keep to himself, he had a hard time doing that right now. Grayson was in his face and Cooper hated every minute of it. The man knew he shouldn't of opened up his damn mouth, but he also knew that Grayson wouldn't of stopped if he didn't. Taking a deep breath, the man was really tired of all of this. Cooper was a grown adult, was allowed to do whatever he wanted, be in love with whoever he wanted. According to Grayson however, he couldn't and that really ticked him off.Â
 He couldn't take it anymore, all the frustration was building up and Cooper felt like he was going to explode. "You see this"" He questioned, lifting his shirt just a bit to show the other man his badge and Cooper shook his head "I'm a Detective and I got pulled out and went Undercover for a whole fucking year. That's where I was. I left without a word because I couldn't tell anyone. I left without a word to fucking protect her because I'm in love with her" Cooper spat and then felt his chest begin to breath heavy Cooper realized that now wasn't the time to do this, and Cooper realized now was NOT the time to get into a fight.Â
He listened to Grayson talk, and Cooper felt a lump form in his throat. He hated this guy, well he didn't, he just hated what he was saying because it was probably the truth. "I.." Stopping himself, Cooper let out a breathe he didn't know he was holding it. There it was, that word again. No one has called him a mistake in such a long time, and Cooper felt all that anger inside im explode. "Fuck off man. You really don't want to be near me right now." He said loudly, his hands still curled up in fists. It was hot in here, and people at the get together were now staring at the two. Cooper looked at him "I'd back away if I were you.."