Chapter 180:  What Should We Do Next Week?

“What’s this, Dan?”  Brian asked when he arrived back at his loft (that Sunday evening after visiting with his mom), and walked in on Dan and saw that he had prepared a candlelight dinner – silk white off-white tablecloth and matching napkins, long candles, champagne chilling in a bucket – the works.  “So?”

“Wow, Brian.  I’m shocked but pleased.”

“About what?”

“I see you’re in the same physical shape you were when you left here.  However, I was afraid you wouldn’t be.  Usually you’re awfully plastered and a thrown down mess when you return from visiting with either your mom or dad.   Glad you’re not like that this time.”

“That’s kind of thing is all in the past, Danny.  I’ve grown up a lot since my accident.  I’ve learned and I am constantly learning how to manage my emotions – the constructive way.”

“Glad to hear, Brian, that you’ve moved away from your usual method of pain management.  Hope this dinner I made for you really cheers you up?”

“Thanks.  It really looks great, but all this just because you were worried about my visit with my family?”

“No.  I must confess.”

“Ahhh, I thought you had another ulterior motive.”  Brian incessantly nodded accusingly.  “Spill, Dan?”

“Umm… Happy Anniversary, Brian?”

“For what?  Does today mark some occasion I’ve forgotten about or something?  Go ahead refresh my memory?”

“Wedding anniversary, Brian?’

“Huh?  You’re kidding me.  We’ve haven’t been gotten through the weekend yet, and you’re already talking anniversary?  And I wasn’t kidding when I said this thing comes to an abrupt end next Tuesday, Dan.  Fuck, you are even worse than….” Brian paused.

“Huh?”  Dan asked.  “You were saying I’m even worse than… umm… what?  Whom?”

“Nothing.  You’re just over the top celebrating an anniversary just after two days of marriage with me.”

“Yeah, but I recall your last two marriages with Justin last just about that long, so I thought if I was going to get at least one anniversary in before you and I end up in divorce court, I best hurry it up.”

“Really?  Your math skills are way off, Dan.  And, no divorce court for us.”

“WHAT,” Dan got so excited, as he so misinterpreted Brian’s meaning.  “You mean you like being married to me, and we can stay married?”  He was all smiles and supped up.

“No divorce, Danny, because we aren’t really married.  It’s an annulment we’re getting – recall?”

“Oh,” Dan grimaced.

Brian and Dan then sat down to dinner just then at the elaborately decorated table, and they ate a quite a bit of their meal before Brian’s cell rang and he answered it with a hearty smile. 

“Shemar!  Robert!  What’s up?  Been a heck of a long time, but the pleasure’s all mines though.  Nice to hear from you.”  Brian then got up from the table and took at seat at his workstation, and leaned back inside the chair and chitchatted with Robert for a while, as Dan started the clean up.

“I keep telling you that you don’t have to do that,” Brian said to Dan after he was done talking to Robert and disconnected.  “I have a maid.”

“Everything’s cleaned up already, Brian, but whom were you talking to on the phone just then?  You and he talked a long time.  So, who’s Shemar… Robert… what ever his name was?”

“Don’t look so jealous, Dan, he’s just my old physical therapist.  Robert is his name, actually, and Shemar’s just a nickname that I call him.  I call him that because he looks a lot like that actor Shemar Moore of Criminal Minds fame.”

“What?”  Dan asked, and he seemed really excited for some reason.

“Huh?”

“Did you say he looks a lot like the actor Shemar Moore?”

“Yeah, and so?  Oh, I forgot you really got this crazy thing for Black men these days… STRAIGHT ones unfortunately.”

“I do not.”

“Whatever your say, Dan.”  Brian thought that Dan’s was being terribly weird at the moment, but he immediately shrugged his behavior off, and continued.  “Robert lives in New York City, but he called to tell me he has a sister whose moving to New Jersey next month (but not far from here), and he’s helping her with the move, so he thought it’d be nice if he drops in on me during his short stay.”

“Oh, that’s fine.”

“Oh, is the little woman of the house giving me permission, which is really kind of weird because this time next Tuesday, you and I will no longer be married.”

“Whatever,” Dan replied, and then asked, “How was your meal, Brian?”

“Not bad… absolutely fabulous, actually, Dan.  I already told you I like your cooking.  In fact, there are a lot of talents I’ve seen in just these few hours that we been together, that I don’t recall you having back when we were a couple.  Also, you don’t seem to have all those bad habits you used to have.  It seems you improved in a lot of ways.”

“Well, I have improved, Brian, because just like you have, I’ve grown a lot since then too,” Dan said as he made his way to the couch and flopped down on his buttocks.

Brian stayed seated in front of his powered down computer, while Dan remained on the couch and they sat staring quietly at each other with slight smirks on their countenance, and Brian was the first to speak, when he surprised his accidental husband when he said to him, “Happy Anniversary, Dan.” 

“Thanks Brian, and Happy Anniversary to you too, a second time.  But, Brian…”

“What?”

“Can you reconsider, and we NOT get the annulment Tuesday after all?”

“Dan, I like you a lot and once we annul this thing, we can still hook up together every now and then, if you like, and have fun together, but I’m certainly not in love with you.  So, I don’t want to stay married to you.  Never meant to marry you in the first place.”

“That’s just fine, Brian, because I’m not in love with you either, but heck we do okay though.”

“Really, Dan?  It’s been a long time since you and I had been a couple, and we haven’t been back inside each other’s lives for a full weekend yet.  So what is it that we do which is so okay – what we do in bed, maybe?”

“Already, Brian, you and I have done more than just taken a roll inside the hay together.”

“Yeah, you’re right – We went apartment hunting, hung out in a restaurant together, attended the White party, and went shopping together,” Brian mocked Dan.  “What a heck of a bonding experience.”

“You forgot to mention we got married, as well as just celebrated our first anniversary together; and just this short reunion has been so amazing, and really bring back some really great memories.  Do you remember all those good times we had, Brian?”

“Yeah, we did have some really awesome times together, Dan, but most of those were before you and I moved in together.   I kind of recall that things fell apart between us once we started living together; so no reason for me to think things might be differently this time around.”

“But they would be different, Brian.  Neither of us is quite the same person we were back then.  I see a lot that is different about you – and for the better.  Do you see a lot that is different about me?  Please, no wisecracks, please.  Be totally honest, Brian.”

“Yeah, I see a lot about you that’s an improvement, Dan, but still I’m not in love with you, if that’s what you was hoping I would say.”

“I know you aren’t in love with me, Brian; and hardly did I expect you to lie and say you were.  But…”

“But what?”

“As I see it, neither you nor I are getting any younger, and regardless what we both said when we were with Cary, I think you are as much fed up with bachelorhood and being alone as I am.”

“And so?”

“So, Brian, you and I are sensible men, and you’ve done the marriage thing with someone you were in love with, and both times it failed; and Justin’s married to someone else now, so you and he aren’t likely to ever reunite.”

“But what about you, Dan?  You’ve never been married before.  So don’t you want to hold out for love?”

“Hey, Brian, I’m a couple of years older than you.  So, I figure if it hasn’t happened for me yet, it’s just isn’t going to.”

“Dan, I believe everyone falls in love eventually.”

“You believe that!  When did that happen?  I remember how much of a skeptic you used to be; and I was totally stunned both times when I read in the society pages that you had taken the plunge with Justin.  You really loved him, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“What!  I can’t believe you admitted that so easily, Brian?  You certainly have changed.”

“Had to.”

“Huh?  Why?”

“Because it’s probably the only way I can keep my promise to my ex-husband.”

“Which promise is that?”

“I vowed never to ever hurt him again, and I’m determined to keep that promise.”

“Oh.  Is that the reason you’re not fighting to get him back now?  I’ve been wondering about that all this time.  It’s like you said earlier about wanting what you want when you want it and never letting anything stand in your way of pursuing it.”

“I’m still like that, Dan.  I’ll always pursue what I want, but Justin’s the exception now.”

“Why’s that?”

“It’s like I said earlier.  I don’t want to do anything to hurt my ex-husband again, and interfering with his marriage would be doing just that.  So I mustn’t pursue Justin, but I really do want to.  The yearning nags at me day and night.”

“Well, maybe I can be a help to you by being a distraction.”

“Still fishing for reasons for me to stay married to you, huh, Dan?”

“Hey, think about it, Brian.  I mean once we safeguard your money with the prenup, what other harm is there in it?  Since we aren’t madly in love with each other anyway, we aren’t likely to make each other too crazy.  So, what do you say, Brian, should we give this marriage thing a fair shot, and stay married?  If we don’t like it we can always divorce?”

“You mean:  you and I should just settle for each other?  Is that what you want, Dan?”

“Why not, Brian?  Isn’t that what most married couples do anyway – settle?  In my opinion people marrying for love is a rare thing.  And often, those who are lucky enough to marry for love don’t usually stay that way.  Don’t most people who marry more than once, marry for love the first time, and every time after that they just simply settle, and the latter marriage becomes the successful one?”

Brian simply nodded (thinking hard on what Dan said just then).

“So, what do you say, Brian?  What should we do next week?  Should we meet with the lawyers and draw up an annulment or a prenup?”  Dan asked.  “You don’t have to answer me right this moment.  Tonight’s only Sunday, you have all the way up to next Tuesday to think about it.”