Josiah
Zoe Garcia was efficient as hell. She claimed that it was easy to be efficient when she’d been funded right, which implied that the money his parents had left for her to do her job was plentiful.
She hired the best builders for the renovations and upgraded the house where needed and made it a blank slate where she could. It was perfect for a small family, she said, and Josiah remembered the house as it had once been.
When she’d asked him if he had any wishes for the renovations, probably out of courtesy, Josiah told her that if they’d repaint the outside of the house, make it yellow. Any shade of yellow, just… yellow. She hadn’t asked why, but a few days later she’d sent him a picture of a half-painted, gorgeous yellow building that he could barely recognize as his childhood home.
He wondered, out loud and at Dr. Jarvis, if that feeling came from the house not having been happy. He knew that Sammie still missed the house she’d grown up in, but they’d moved out of when she was in high school soon after her mom passed away. She’d had a happy childhood until that, so maybe in her case she was clinging to the house as part of that feeling instead of the next house where the family had lived until her dad had remarried while she was in college.
In any case, Josiah felt glad the past was about to be the past.
“I still haven’t decided what I’m going to do with the money,” he told Dr. Jarvis when he heard the price tag Garcia was going to put on the house. He’d asked her to make it low enough that the sale wouldn’t drag, because he didn’t care, and the church didn’t have a say.
“You could have that birthday party we talked about last time.”
“I guess… hell, I could take the family somewhere nice. It’s summertime though, so maybe not. We do our best business at the Hare during the touristy months. I could give the staff a bigger bonus for my birthday.” He’d explained before, that he’d bought the pub for himself as a birthday present. Well, not really, but the finalization of the sale fell on his birthday so it was his anniversary of owning the Hare.
“That’s not a bad idea. You could wait until Christmas too, of course.” Jarvis tilted his head as he looked at Josiah with a knowing expression that only got smug soon after when Josiah shook his head.
“No, I want to use some of the money for upkeep stuff for the Hare, the things I’ve been putting off like the staff room because nobody complains, and the stage has served us fine even though it’s too small and can’t even fit a piano. But to wait until Christmas to reward everyone that works for me and have been keeping the place going while my life has been a mess, no, absolutely not.”
In the last month, things with Denny had turned… flirty. Not all the time, but occasionally. It made his heart do a funny new thing, not quite a lurch or a bounce, but something between. He felt like a teenager, and he had never had a crush like this during his teen years.
“You’re thinking about Denny,” Jarvis said, smiling.
“Yeah. I mean… it’s… it’s good. You know. Waiting. I didn’t think it would be. It’s like you want that bike for Christmas, that one special bike you’ve seen in person a lot for some reason. Then your parents tell you they’ll buy it for you, but at the last moment there’s a production issue and you get a card that says your bike will be here in three months and like… yeah. It’s… weird. Good weird.” He chuckled. “And that was a horrible analogy.”
Jarvis laughed. “It was good to a point. I understand what you’re saying, though.”
Josiah got out of the hanging chair and went to sit on the couch. “I’ve realized why I feel hesitant about sex with him.”
“And why is that?” Jarvis asked, moving to his armchair without missing a beat.
“We haven’t actually talked about the mechanics and honestly I don’t think they matter until we’re in that moment. It’s just that… what if we’re not compatible?” He huffed, feeling frustration course through his head. “I don’t know what I mean… I think it’s going to feel like we’re both inexperienced. And that scares me.”
“Yet you’re not. Neither of you is,” Jarvis stated the obvious. Josiah made a face. The corner of Jarvis’s mouth twitched when he continued. “What I mean with that is this—even if you feel hesitant or nervous in that moment, you’ll still have the experience to fall back on. You’re notactuallyinexperienced, even if you’re feeling those things again.”
“I guess so.”
“Besides, intimacy isn’t something you can truly prepare for. Sexual things, especially with a partner we feel a lot of desire for, can go wildly differently than we think. It’s another human nature thing.” Jarvis grinned, making Josiah laugh. They’d talked a lot about how most things came down to how humans were built as a species. “It might be awkward, it could also be perfect from the first second, but since I tend to be realistic and try to use common sense, I’d say it’ll probably be something in between those things.”
Josiah agreed and decided that he’d try not to worry. Denny and he would still love each other if they weren’t compatible sexually in one way or another. They’d still be in love. It would just have to be different on the sexual intimacy side than they thought it would be. He said as much to Jarvis who looked proud of him, and Josiah groaned, ducking his head.
“So, tell me more about the shade of yellow?” Jarvis asked after a moment to lighten the mood, and Josiah got his cell phone out and showed him the photo. “Very cheery. Here’s hoping a same-sex couple moves in with their kids, eh?”
Josiah threw his head back and laughed. Dr. Jarvis was an amazing human being.
The house was sold and half of the money transferred to Josiah in mid-July. Zoe also sent the box of things and the pocket watch she’d managed to find in his mother’s things, and Melody had stored it somewhere safe for him. He didn’t feel like looking at the items yet, but there was no rush.
Suddenly, he had money. He talked with his accountant immediately and they came up with a plan to give all his employees—including two people from a small family-owned company that did the cleaning for the Hare—hefty bonuses.
He called the kids and the second shift people to the Hare one afternoon before opening, and they all were nervous as fuck.
“What’s going on, boss?” Nelson spoke up first, as they gathered around the bar with Josiah behind it.
“The Hare’s doing okay, right?” Yolanda asked in a nervous tone.
“Yeah, I mean we haven’t fucked anything up, have we?” Elena seemed spooked.
