Love Is an Eternal Sacred Light (Josh)

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Despite the codependency of their first relationship, both Sean and Josh had demonstrated restraint after their reconciliation; specifically, they had failed to lapse back into being one of those couples that couldn’t go two or three hours without speaking with one another. Perhaps the nearly three decade break, and the two decades they lived in separate states had contributed to that development, but, whatever it was, they didn’t have to spend their entire lunch breaks on the phone with one another.

Half the time, their lunch breaks didn’t even sync up.

Yet, when they had plans to make, or to change, or when one or the other had news to share, they would call or email, or, occasionally, Josh would text the telepath, although it was Sean’s least favorite method of communication. The keypad on his phone was too tiny to type comfortably, and, if they were both glued to their phones anyway, he would prefer to hear his partner’s voice.

He had less than twenty minutes until his next session, but he had spent most of his lunch break on the phone discussing a serious matter. He’d barely had time to touch his tuna sandwich, and so, he unwrapped the tin foil and dialed Josh’s number, waiting for his partner to answer.

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh had only just returned to the office after a client meeting when his phone began vibrating in his pocket. He glanced at the number -- Sean's, it turned out, which he would have known had he not turned his phone to vibrations for his meeting; he'd set his phone to play a O What a Thrill by The Mavericks when Sean's number called.

"Hello, Sean! It's nice to see your number. Are you on break?"

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Poor timing had led Sean to take a bite of his sandwich while waiting for his partner to answer the phone, resulting in a full mouth when he heard Josh’s voice. He hoped that his partner wouldn’t misinterpret the combined sounds of breathing through his nose and chewing as one of those phone calls. The telepath certain had no qualms with intimate telephone calls, as he and Josh engaged every so often, but he wouldn’t do so in his office at work, and certainly not when he had precious little time before his next appointment.

He finished chewing and swallowed with a cough, before sipping his coffee to wash everything down. Now he could breathe and talk without problems.

“Hello Josh.” Polite as always, he returned the greeting before answering his partner’s question. “For the next twenty minutes I am. Are you?”

He knew that Josh had a somewhat busy morning today, and he also knew that client meetings ran long. He didn’t want to interrupt the other man if he had work to do, even if he did want to talk immediately. He possessed enough patient and self-restraint to set aside the latter desire to allow the former to take precedence if necessary.

[Joshua Bernstein]

"I'm great!" Josh shut the door to his office and flung himself gratefully into his chair, causing it to roll and bump into his desk. "I just finished up my meeting, so I can be! Wait, if I'm going to be on break then let me go get my lunch from the break room."

He hadn't been sure how long his meeting would last, so he had packed a lunch for once, placing it in the tiny refrigerator that adorned the break room.

He stood again, flinging open the door and marching towards his sandwich with determination.

"It's always nice to hear your voice."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

“Take your time,” Sean encouraged him. Although he only had a few minutes during which he could converse with his partner, he didn’t want Josh to go without eating; not skipping meals, coupled with eating healthier, were high on the list of health improvements that the younger man needed to maintain his blood pressure.

Likewise, the telepath took advantage of the brief interlude to take another bite of his own sandwich. Fortunately, he had swallowed before Josh returned to the phone.

“It’s nice to hear your voice too.” That had never changed. They had known each other for over thirty-seven years, and he still felt a warm, peaceful glow when hearing his partner’s voice, either over the telephone, or, particularly, in person.

“I have some news I wanted to share, so I’m glad to catch you,” he admitted. He had a smile on his lips from his telephone call earlier, and he idly contemplated projecting that into his partner’s mind. Josh’s office, located within the town limits of Pilot Ridge, remained in Sean’s telepathic range. However, he decided against that. If he was going to go that far, he could have simply contacted Josh that way to share the news itself.

[Joshua Bernstein]

"Oh?" Josh asked, opening the fridge and grabbing his sandwich. He nearly ran back to the office, slamming the door behind him so that nobody could interrupt. "News? What sort of news?"

He couldn't think of anything that might warrant a phone call. Maybe if Ryan and Shiya had finally decided to marry? Or if somehow Sean had found them another foster child, despite their ages?

"What sort of news?"

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Josh had guessed it, although Sean remained unaware. He shielded when he left the house, since he didn’t need the minds of everyone in Pilot Ridge beating against his when he had to focus on work, or driving, or running errands. But for the shields, he wound confirm to his partner that the other had managed to guess the news.

Or, rather, that one of the possibilities that Josh had considered turned out to be correct. Could one fairly say that he had guessed when he idly considered more than one possibility?

Not that it mattered.

“My two favorite Millennials are going to tie the knot.”

Despite Sean’s belief that marriage was neither necessary nor sufficient for a happy, healthy, committed relationship, he felt no animosity towards the institution. He didn’t find it inherently misogynistic or bourgeois (and he could hardly talk about bourgeois, insofar as he was both a psychiatrist and firmly situated in the upper middle class with his own home, two cars, and a boat).

“They’d held off in solidarity until the Supreme Court ruling came down, and they’ve finally decided to get the ball rolling.”

Of course, with their respective families, planning would be an event, but they had taken the first step. Ryan had called to share the news himself.

[Joshua Bernstein]

"Congratulations!" Josh exclaimed, pleased for the younger couple. "Should we send them a gift? Or a card? Or should we hold off until the wedding shower?"

Ryan and Shiya were not necessarily traditional in their preferences, even if their families were. He could already envision the drama that would entail this decision. Oh, boy, thoughts of how complicated their interfaith marriage would be made him glad that he and Sean weren't heterosexual and thus had less expectation to have a traditional wedding from either side of the family.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean smiled wider at Josh’s exclamation, because he could hear the satisfaction in his partner’s voice, and, likewise, could picture a similar expression on the other man’s face. “I want to send them something,” he admitted, although he had yet to make up his mind. He had an idea of what he wanted to do for their wedding present; as a close relative, and one with far too much disposable income, he had a special idea in mind, something that their friends couldn’t do for them, and which would be inappropriate to ask of those in their mid-twenties.

“I also want to try to meet up with them in the next couple of weeks. Either they could come out here for a night, or we could try to meet up with them in Boston.” He had no preferences either way, but, in his tradition, one took a newly engaged couple out to eat, or one made them a meal.

“Ryan mentioned eloping with that wistful sigh of his,” he told his partner, before taking another sip of coffee. That should come as no surprise. Both Ryan and Shiya came from strong religious backgrounds, which weren’t immediately compatible. The telepath could only imagine what the first wedding planning meeting would look like, with the argument over whether to use a church or a mosque.

For that reason, as much as Sea would want to attend his nephew’s wedding, he supported elopement.

[Joshua Bernstein]

"We can make a strong case for eloping," Josh laughed, taking his sandwich out of its ziploc container. "Do you think it would be easier for us to go up there? They might not have as much flexibility in getting time off."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

“Honestly, I think eloping is the only way to do it right,” Sean remarked. He had come to that realization two decades ago, when planning his wedding with Sam. The telepath had found all of the plans to be a headache, between the guest lists, the cultural baggage, and the unnecessary expense. Eloping shifted focus back to the purpose of getting marriage: the couple and their union. It brought in the least amount of drama, the fewest number of excess people, and, depending on the specifics, might combine the wedding with the honeymoon, and so the happy couple got a nice trip out of the process.

Yet, Sean had met Shiya’s family during a visit to Ryan’s college, and, while he found them pleasant enough, and he could tell instantly that they cared deeply for their daughter, he knew they would expect a big wedding. More than that, they would be hurt if she ran off to get married. The same with Kathleen and Colin, and the telepath knew that Ryan wouldn’t want to hurt his parents.

Turning to the topic of visits and taking the recently engaged couple out for a meal, Sean nodded to himself even though his partner couldn’t see them. “It probably would be. I’d reimburse them the travel costs, but we’ll probably need to take a trip out there instead.”

[Joshua Bernstein]

"Oh of course! I don't mean that they can't come up and stay with us, but I think it would be easier for everyone if we were the ones who traveled. Besides, it's been awhile since we've been to Boston. Is that seafood restaurant still open?"

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean knew what his partner meant, and he agreed with the other man’s assessment. The psychiatrist had an absurd amount of vacation days saved up, because he used so few of them. Even with the vacations that he and Josh took every so often, he had an absurd amount saved; Hammel’s progressive vacation policy ensured that the days rolled over.

“I think you’re right,” he told his partner, and he reached for one of the orange slices he’d packed. After sucking it into his mouth, he set the rind aside and dabbed the napkin around his lips, and around his fingertips; that juice spread everywhere, and he didn’t want that dripping over his files or his phone.

The question about the seafood restaurant brought another smile to his lips, this one nostalgic rather than exuberant. Forever, that seafood restaurant would hold a special place in his heart – and in Josh’s as well, he knew – because they had shared their first meal as a reconciled couple there. On a night that might have cost them their friendship, after an incident that nearly cost them their friendship – had he been a more impulsive or vindictive person.

Fortunately, Sean Neville was neither of those.

Swallowing, he admitted, “I haven’t checked, but I can look online later and see. It would be a nice choice.”

Even if it lacked the same significance to Ryan and Shiya.

[Joshua Bernstein]

"It's delicious, it has good service..." Josh opined before taking a bite of his sandwich. Of course, service could vary so much depending on who was currently working there, but he'd never had any complaints. Then again, he might have been too nostalgic to complain even had the service been mediocre.

He simply couldn't equate Boston with anything but a pivotal moment in his life, a time when his regrets came to the fore and were washed away. Sometimes he still felt that pang, whispers in the back of his mind chastising him for waiting so long. But he was finally happy with where he was, and that was more important than might have beens.

"But we can go there just the two of us on the way home. What sort of foods do Ryan and Shiya like the best?"

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean popped another orange segment into his mouth, nodding along to himself as his partner listed all of the positive attributes of their special seafood restaurant in Boston. He agreed with the other man that they had yet to have a poor or mediocre outing there, and it held all of the same positive memories for him that it did for Josh.

More, perhaps, since his powers gave him access to Josh’s memories as well as his own.

When he had arrived at Josh’s house that night to go for a drive, he hadn’t expected that they could reconcile. He felt so happy, four and a half years later, that he and his partner had managed to rekindle their relationship; he would have settled for salvaging their friendship. His only goal that night had been to salvage their friendship.

Sipping his coffee, he remarked, “You know Ryan; he’s a garbage disposal.” Josh had gone out to eat with both Sean and his nephew before, and he had spent time with Ryan in Sean’s home, with the telepath cooking for all three of them. Ryan was open to new culinary experiences, but he had a far less discerning palette than his uncle did.

“We could try Fire and Ice.” Ryan had taken Sean there, and, in turn, the telepath had taken Josh there for Valentine’s Day a few years ago.