Beau could remember the first moment with his beloved August. The day they met as tweens on a visit, with August walking into the room with a camera in hand. Her movie maker phase which was perfect for the trip she and her father were taking. This leg was showing August where he had grown up and taking her to meet his best friend since 4th grade. Beau’s own father. He had found an instant friendship with her. A couple of twelve year olds hanging out for a week, wishing they lived in the same part of the country.
There were so many more firsts after that. A month later came the first time they chatted online, in what he jokingly called the ancient times of Dial Up and AOL. The two of them snuck on sometimes late at night to talk via chat about everything going on in their lives and how the adults never understood, because when do they ever understand? At 15 came the first time he was comforted by her over a breakup. She drew some pictures in MS paint and tried to remind him how he was better than Milly and deserved so much better. An early sign he should have seen of August’s crush on him. Then there was the first time he comforted her about a boy who made her feel worthless, like utter trash. That had led to the most important one to him; the first time they realized at the same time how much they loved each other.
Life had changed so much since their teen years. Now with Beau at 37 and his beloved wife at 38, two kids and a cat. The twins had been an unexpected but pleasant surprise as they had only wanted two, three children at the most. Given the string of bad luck over the years, Beau had been especially glad he could have some small hand in that given they never got another chance to really try for a second time. But it was fine. The twins were sometimes more than they could handle anyway. Especially now that they were in fifth grade and obviously so, so grown.
Even careers had changed somewhat over time. August was working as second in command at her branch, despite complications she had faced a few years back. Beau had started his writing career with Stimmy Co as a communications writer. He was damn good at it too, but the hours were sometimes long and unforgiving. Not the ideal position when your wife gets hurt. After needing to take time off to help care for August after the accident, Beau had gotten permission to work remotely. Just so he could keep himself available for whenever August overexerted herself and couldn’t drive herself home. It wasn’t long before his job had made quiet comments about how he couldn’t keep working remotely. Between that and the twins suddenly getting special education plans and such, he got tired of dealing with the excuses.
August had encouraged him to leave, pointing out their home had been paid off thanks to a bit of inheritance money they got from his family. She was fairly certain they could even just live off her paycheck. So, Beau turned in his notice and started working freelance. Plus he finally had the chance to start a science fiction novel, the one he had always wanted to write but was too scared to even try. Granted it made the budget a bit tight but he pulled in enough cash from contests and freelance work to make cash for some things here and there. He even had a bit of time each week to go to Comic Makers Dreams to work on models with other fellow nerds and geeks.
All of this were things he would talk about, if given a chance, forever grateful for the chances August had given him. Which had, today, led to a conversation about spouses in general. Unfortunately, this led to Derick ranting for the last 20 minutes about how his wife was forcing him to get rid of his collection. “I mean that collection could be our retirement one day but no, I barely stopped her from taking it all to goodwill!”
Betsy rolled her eyes. “Like you would try to sell it at 65 anyway. And the market is unstable.”
“And I’ve seen your house Derick, it looks ready to bust open. She’s got a point.” Don handed over a paper towel to mop up some of the mess Derick had made.
“Oh you’re married to another guy, what do you know? Men know what’s important to keep and the wives just nag away because they can’t let us be happy.” he half mopped up the mess, ignoring the glare from Besty and turning to Beau for support.
“You know what I mean don’t you?”
Beau had been rather successful at staying out of the rant he had accidentally caused. He hated confrontation. But here he was dragged into it by his ponytail. Again. “I mean… August isn’t like that with me. She’s fine with my collection. She has her collection too.”
Betsy was smirking. Not an uncommon thing as she often used what Beau said to make her point. “See? It’s just because you have too much crap.”
John, the only one at the table who was single, chose this exact moment to stoke the fires. “That’s because Beau here is whipped. He doesn’t do a thing without his wife’s say so. No, Derick, what you need to do is put your foot down and be a real man. Tell her she can sell her crap.”
Betsy slid the snacks away from John just as he went to reach for them. His hand grasping for the food while she spoke up. “Don’t listen to John. He never has good advice.”
“I do too.”
Beau started packing things up. “John… you told me you were going to get me a girl to fuck before I got married."
“Yeah so?” John tried reaching for the food again, only for Besty to hand them over to Beau, mouthing ‘for the kids’.
“It was 2 weeks before my wedding. You even said it where she could have heard!”
“Yeah well… then tell all us great master how to woo and romance your woman huh? What do you need to do to keep romance alive and your wife from nagging and throwing away your stuff?” John leaned forward, waiting for an answer that wasn’t going to come.
“I gotta go. Kids need to be picked up.” He put the last of the supplies in his bag and headed off, still able to hear the conversation, with Besty trying to defend him.
“That’s not fair John… guy’s been married like… 14 years. Romance just kinda dies off by then. And he still knows more than you if he stayed married.”
As Beau closed the door behind him, he could hear Don respond. “Well… as long as the momentum keeps going at least. No romance, no marriage eventually.”
Everything around Beau felt like it was dropping off into the background. That was a worry he had. Before he left his job, he felt he at least contributed evenly. He could surprise August with a trinket from her favorite novels or anime. Even a video game, those sweet ones she liked with the farming and town building. But now? He cleaned the house, heated up dinner… but he couldn’t think of the last time they were really romantic with each other. That he took her out on a date.
As he sat in the car thinking Beau looked at the box, the model inside lightly shifted as the wind outside picked up rocking the old rustbucket of a car. No… instead he went to a comic shop without August, painting robots and talking about comics he couldn’t afford to get. If that wasn’t bad enough, he sometimes had to ask her for help with the chores. And she looked so tired some nights, trying to hide her pain. Mentally keeping track of all the things the family needed to get done for him because his ADHD made it difficult for him to keep that sort of focus. He couldn’t even properly cook much because he never learned how. August had taught him a few things, but she enjoyed it so much and he… didn’t.
Surely she still loved him as much as he loved her. But love was a promise, to quote one of his favorite tv shows. You had to tend to it, keep it going. And there was the debate of if he could keep that love alive if Beau kept going the way he did. If Beau didn’t, well… he didn’t think they’d divorce at least. August wouldn’t be fond of the idea in the slightest. The idea of doing that to each other? To the kids? She just couldn’t do it.
Still if things didn’t change, how long before they were basically roommates with kids rather than lovers?
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