Page 68 of Any Given Lifetime
“Well, yeah. She deserves the best.”
Joshua locked the door, sat on the edge of the bed, and said seriously, “Brian’s a pretty great guy. His wife left him because she likes women, not because he mistreated her. They raised the kids together, and then she went on to do her thing.”
“And you gleaned all this when?”
“On the airplane, while you were drugged out and sleeping.”
“I get airsick!” Neil said, defending his vulnerability.
“Believe me, I remember.” Their first trip together out to California had involved a lot of vomit. “Plus, I’ve known Brian for years.”
“Well, fine. Okay. She can date him. And so have you.”
Joshua laughed harder. “I’m sure she’ll be so happy to have your permission.”
Neil threw a pillow at Joshua, laughing at himself.
Joshua pounced on him. They wrestled on the bed, elbows and knees connecting in uncomfortable ways, but once it all came down to skin on skin, Neilwashappy. Happier than he’d ever been. Happier than he’d known was possible.
Only one thing could make him even happier.
Joshua stood withNeil at the top of Sacré-Cœur, looking out over the lights of Paris. They’d climbed the slick granite steps up to the top earlier and watched the sun set with a rosy glow. Now, the wind whipped around them, slightly chilly, but not too miserable between their coats and scarves. They weren’t the only ones at the top of the basilica. There were several other couples and a family or two, still watching as the night fell.
Joshua fingered the velvet box in his coat pocket. His stomach twisted with nerves, but it was time. He’d been living with Neil for over a year, and he wanted to put a ring on his finger, to call him his husband. He wanted to make sure that everyone knew that Neil was with him.
It had been an amazing year full of ups and downs, sure, but mostly ups. At first, Joshua had been obsessed with satisfying his curiosity about all the details of Neil: his favorite color, his original parents, his life since he’d been born this time, how he liked his eggs, and so much more.
In return, Joshua had told Neil everything, too. He’d talked about the people who had benefited from Neil’s organ donations, including Lee. He’d told Neil, in detail, many stories from the life that he and Lee had shared together, and was honored that Neil didn’t mind. Sometimes Neil even referred to Lee with affection and warmth of his own, saying, “He took good care of you. I’ll always owe him for that.”
It had taken almost a month of them being unable to get their hands off each other long enough to accomplish anything of any worth, but Neil had eventually returned to work full time at the project. They weren’t able to keep their feelings for each other on the down low, though, and within an hour of Neil being back in the lab full time, with Joshua there ‘observing,’ Brian Peters had confronted them about their relationship.
Joshua leaned against the thick stone wall, looked up at the night sky, and laughed under his breath as he remembered Brian’s expression of extreme confusion when Neil had said, “Listen, if you tell me it’s the project or Joshua, let me just say that I’ve been there and done that. Joshua wins every time.”
As it had turned out, Brian didn’t have a problem with Joshua and Neil’s relationship, especially when Joshua said that he’d be moving to Atlanta and bringing more of the Neil Russell Foundation resources with him. “We want to have the best, most advanced, and thorough nanite research facility in the world,” Joshua had told Dr. Peters. “And Neil’s the only one I trust to run it.”
Away from work, they’d bought a house that became their refuge, and they spent almost every evening there. Including a cozy Christmas, with just Alice and a brightly lit tree that Joshua had hauled in from a corner lot near the university.
It had been Joshua’s first Christmas away from Scottsville, and he’d only gotten a little choked up when he opened the gift his mother had sent him. It was a little angel ornament that had been his favorite on the family tree for his entire life. The note included read:I thought you might need this on your tree in your new home with your new love. Mom
Joshua’s heart still clenched when he remembered how, seeing Joshua’s sadness, Neil had suggested that they spend every other Christmas in Scottsville. Alice had agreed that it was only fair. And Joshua, of course, insisted that Alice would come with them if they did indeed make the trip to Kentucky for the holidays.
“Oh, no,” Neil had said. “She should just stay right here. She might not be able to escape the Scottsville vortex. I mean, look, it took you over forty years! And it trapped Chris there too!”
In the end, though, it had been decided that of course Alice would go with them.
Joshua touched the velvet box in his pocket again and put his arm around Neil, gazing at the cut of his profile against the backdrop of Paris at night.
“Are you sure about this, baby?” Chris had asked him over the phone. Joshua had called to tell Chris about his plans after he’d chosen the ring a week before their trip. “I know you say you’re happy…but we miss you at home.”
Joshua had known this was code for many things, one of which was his skepticism and confusion over Neil Green.
Cautiously, Chris had added, “Dr. Green’s nothing like Lee, and you two were such a good pair.”
“Yeah, we were,” Joshua had agreed. “And I loved Lee a lot. But I love Neil a lot, too.”
“He’s quite a bit like our Neil,” Chris had said gently. “So I get that. But—Joshua, he’s awfully young. What do you even have in common?”
“You’d be surprised,” he’d answered, certain that Chris would probably join the rest of the world in thinking it was all about sex. Let them think what they wanted. The truth was impossible to explain.
