Page 4 of Hello Forever
“No.” I laughed. “If I ever get married, it will be toadude.”
Caleb’s face softened. “Oh. Anyprospects?”
I shook my head. “Not a one. And here I am moving to areallysmalltown.”
“True,” Caleb said. “So let’s show you theapartment.”
“I’m not sure we should use the word ‘apartment.’ It’s awfully small…” Joshwarned.
Caleb clapped him on the shoulder. “Way to sell the place, babe. I don’t think ‘tiny living space’ is going to impress anyone. Let’s show Axel, and he can make up hisownmind.”
* * *
They needn’t have worried.I liked it immediately. It was just a single long room plus a bathroom, but it had slanting ceilings, attractive wooden beams and a view of the woods. Staying here would be like living in a treehouse.
“This table doesn’t have to stay,” Caleb said, pointing at the only piece of furniture. “But I left it here because it fits so well in this corner of the kitchen. I suppose you’d put your bed by the window, and there’d still be room for a couch to divide the sleeping space fromtherest.”
“A small couch,” Joshcorrected.
I turned slowly in a circle. “It works, though. And the TV goes there,” I pointed at the wall nearthedoor.
“Yeah,” Josh agreed. “There’s a cable hookup already, too. We just putitin.”
“We bought the house a couple of months ago,” Caleb explained. “It’s a real fixer-upper. This apartment is in better shape than the rest of the house, if you canbelieveit.”
“The house isn’tsobad,” Josh said a taddefensively.
Caleb turned to smile at his husband. “I’m not harshing on your house, baby. I’m just saying we have a lot of worktodo.”
“We weren’t supposed to buy a house at all,” Josh admitted. “We were living with friends in the country, and they would have put us up another year or two. We thought we were buying a second car so that I could commute to my classes at the college. But then I saw this place for sale and got allexcited.”
“So now we have no second car, but we do have a mortgage,” Caleb finished. The words were somewhat ornery, but he put a loving hand to the back ofJosh’sneck.
I wondered if I was ever going to be half of a couple like that. They were so cute together that it almost hurt me to lookatthem.
Right. Stay on topic, Axel. “I, uh, don’t have a car at all,” I admitted. “The walk from here to campus wasn’t too bad, but I was wondering if there’s ashortcut…?”
Josh’s eyes lit up. “That’s why I wanted this place!” He moved to the window and pointed outside. “There’s a path through the woods. This is actually the back of College Park. I never take the long way homeanymore.”
“You might during mud season,” Calebpointedout.
“True,” Josh conceded. “But walking through the woods is a pretty awesome way to get to class. I’m loving it so far. Even when it snows, I’ll justbundleup.”
“Okay,” I said. “Where doIsign?”
“Really?” Josh asked, sounding shocked. “That’sawesome.”
Caleb laughed. “Wait. Let’s ask him all the important questions. We can’t deal with pets, unfortunately. And we have to do the whole background and credit-checkthing.”
“Go for it,” I said. “One benefit of leading a boring life is that I’ll pass your background check with flying colors.” I pulled an envelope out of my back pocket. “And here’s my offer of employment from the college.” I passed it toCaleb.
He opened it up and scanned the letter. “The athletic department, huh? Well, your salary seems prettystraightforward.”
“Yeah, except I’ll be the leaststraightforward person in the athleticdepartment.”
He lifted his eyes from the letter. “Are you worriedaboutthat?”
“Does it show?” I asked, and helaughed.
