“Don’t dwell on that now, Neil,” Kyle told him. “Let things evolve naturally and see what happens. And remember, we’re in your corner. We’ll help in any way that we can.”
“Thanks. I really appreciate that.”
Kyle had just pouredhimself another cup of coffee when he heard his phone ring. “Is that my dad?” he asked Jon, who was sitting on the sofa in the living room.
Jon glanced at the phone’s screen and saw Ben’s face. “Yup.”
“Okay, let me grab my iPad.” Pressing the Answer button for the FaceTime call as he sat beside Jon, he said, “Hi, Dad! How’s married life?”
“Great,” Ben said, smiling. Jon could see Rob behind Ben’s shoulder.
“Hi, Ben, Rob,” Jon greeted them both.
“How was the Halloween party Friday night?” Rob asked.
“We had a good time,” Jon answered. “And they raised a bunch of money for the Trevor Project. But we were both up later than usual and felt it yesterday morning.”
“I’ve got a few photos of us in costume,” Kyle added. “I’ll send them to you later.”
“Thanks, guys. We’re looking forward to seeing them,” Ben told them. “So what else is going on?”
“Not much,” Jon said. “Typical workdays this week.”
“Although we did have dinner with Neil last night,” Kyle said.
“We sure didn’t foresee him and Matthew getting together,” Rob said. “Is Neil doing okay?”
“He seems to be,” Jon replied. “But he did want to talk about Matthew.”
“There’s no trouble, is there?” There was concern in Ben’s voice.
“Not trouble, exactly,” Kyle said. “He’s just a bit worried about how to make a long-distance relationship work. He was looking for some advice.”
“Ah,” Rob said, his eyes widening in understanding. “What did you tell him?”
“Oh, the usual stuff,” Jon told them. “Text more, send flowers and cards, stuff like that.”
“And Jon recommended that Neil reach out to Sam to see if she could keep an eye out for some cheap flights,” Kyle added.
“Kyle suggested they try sexy video chats too,” Jon said, laughing.
“Hey, that’s a great idea,” Ben replied.
“Helped us when we first started seeing each other, and Ben lived on the other side of the country,” Rob said. Ben was living in LA when the two men met.
“La la la,” Kyle said, covering his ears. Jon could see the blush rising in his cheeks. “TMI, Rob.”
Rob chuckled.
“Well, we also had the means to visit each other fairly regularly,” Ben said, deftly changing the subject. “That certainly helped.” Both Ben and Rob were quite well-off.
“And you bought Jon and me a few flights when Jon was still in Phoenix,” Kyle added. “Unfortunately, Neil and Matthew don’t really have that luxury.”
“Hmmm, maybe we can help out with that a bit.” Ben looked knowingly at his husband. “I’ll talk to Sam about offering them some deals that are too good to pass up.” He winked.
“Thanks, Ben,” Jon said sincerely. “That would be awesome.”
“Hey.” Rob’s tone turned serious. “We take care of family, right?”
