Chapter 29 - 5 months later (part 1)

Simon.

Simon took Nick’s advice and went to see his GP the following day, where he added the waiting room and consulting room to the list of places he’d burst into tears in. the doctor listened as he explained everything that had happened to him - getting beaten up (he omitted to tell him the circumstances, which was probably a mistake as it might have helped him understand what was going on a little better); the situation at work; the shoplifting. The doctor was certain Simon was depressed, and possibly on the verge of a nervous breakdown, so he signed him off work for two weeks, and gave him a course of anti-depressants. Then he told Simon to go home and get as much rest as he could, and to talk about what had happened to somebody. At first Simon thought he meant friends and family, which was literally his idea of hell, but Nick suggested a counsellor of some kind, and thanks to his occupational health scheme Simon started seeing one a week later.
Of course he had to explain to his Mum why he was off work, and as predicted she took it badly - what would the neighbours think? She suggested she might have to move if his case got into the papers, which annoyed him so much he found himself telling her he thought he might be gay. Of course she blamed Nick for putting the idea in his head, and then proceeded to phone him and tell him exactly that. Everyone else agreed his honesty had been a good thing, although it took his mother three weeks to speak to him after he’d told her. By that time he’d gotten a much more positive reaction from other people that he was better able to stand up to her.
Shortly after that he took voluntary redundancy from work. It would have been difficult for them to make him redundant whilst he was off sick, and expensive to provide cover for his job while he was being paid, so they had a meeting and agreed a generous settlement, including a further year’s health cover, which everyone hoped would see him back to full health. As soon as the papers were signed he felt much better and smiled as he left the building for the last time.
He quickly developed a new routine, and found himself able to sleep late for the first time since he was a teenager. Encouraged by Nick he started swimming, and even joined Dave at the gym a few times. He ate better and felt better in general. His counsellor was pleased with his progress, but even she couldn’t do anything to put off the inevitable - the court case.
He found himself in the local magistrate’s court on a Monday afternoon, represented by a lawyer appointed by the court. He admitted the offence and was in and out of court quite quickly, getting a fine and having to pay compensation, as well as some community service hours. Everyone agreed that the sentencing was fair, and it only warranted three lines in the local paper. His mother didn’t attend court - she took herself off to the seaside for the week, unable to face the shame of it. Nick, Dave and Jim all turned up, each of them prepared to be character witnesses if necessary, but it never came to that. A letter from Simon’s counsellor was enough to ensure leniency.
Simon took it surprisingly well - it was a relief to bring that chapter of his life to an end. The money wasn’t a problem thanks to his redundancy payout, and the community service could easily be fitted into his day as he had plenty of free time. He even began to look forward to it.
After two months he moved out of the flat and in with Dave, who suddenly found himself without a flatmate. They’d shared at college, and quickly fell into their old routines. Dave was good for Simon - he encouraged him to be more outgoing and have more fun, whilst Simon reminded Dave to pay the bills and eat occasionally. They quickly became like a married couple, and people in the supermarket often assumed they were an item, which frustrated Dave as it stopped him pulling, but amused Simon no end.
Once he was settled Simon even got in contact with his father. Of course his Mum was furious, but thanks to Nick the meeting went surprisingly smoothly, and although father and son were wary of each other at least the ice was broken.
He saw a lot more of Jim and Nick, and started to look more his age. There was no immediate need to return to work, so he looked into some courses, but before it began he surprised everyone - including himself - by taking a holiday to Amsterdam. And whilst he wasn’t brave enough to venture into a café for a spliff he came back looking more relaxed than anyone could remember.

Nick.

Nick and Big Ben became an item very quickly, in the way that gay men often do. They became inseparable, spending loads of time together when they weren’t working or Ben wasn’t at college. They were very careful not to spend too much time chatting at work, which amused their colleagues no end, although Ben was so hurt by the whole thing he wouldn’t speak to either of them and left for a rival store when he couldn’t stand it any longer. Nick’s friends teased him about his toy boy, and Ben’s teased him about his Daddy. But it couldn’t last - Nick really was old enough to be his father and wanted very different things from life . As much as he enjoyed late nights clubbing it was the quiet mornings together that he enjoyed the most, whereas Ben found them claustrophobic and preferred to be out in a crowd. In the end it finished as casually as it began - one night Ben simply never turned up, and a couple of days later he texted Nick to say he’d met someone new and was moving to Brighton.
But Nick didn’t mind, as he’d started to enjoy spending more time with Simon, Dave and Jim. Amazingly Simon’s troubles had brought them back together as a group, and they could often be found out drinking together in the week. And he started going clubbing with Dave occasionally, an was happy to end up chatting to him in a late night bar if neither of them had pulled. There was a drunken snog one evening, but both of them realised that they made good friends and anything else would just spoil the group dynamic, which they’d both come to enjoy.
He finally gave up his NVQ course, preferring to quit before they threw him off it. He freely admitted that he had no ambition, and that for the time being working in a supermarket was exactly what he wanted to do. His tutors weren’t surprised, and nobody at work cared - there was always some other eager trainee waiting to fill his place.
Thing with his mother improved as well. Once she stopped blaming him for Simon being gay things got back to how they had been. And then after Simon’s court appearance, once his downfall was complete, she became friendlier still. She stopped holding Simon up as the shining example he’d never been, and realised that there wasn’t actually much difference between her sons, and that it wasn’t their fault that they weren’t the daughter she so desperately wanted. She was annoyed when Nick encouraged Simon to see his father again, but she realised there was nothing she could do about it and stopped complaining. She started inviting both Nick and Simon to Sunday tea, and Nick was surprisingly pleased to go.
After Ben there were a few one night stand, but no one serious. He tried speed-dating and realised that he liked dating but wasn’t very good at what came afterwards. He was briefly tempted to blame it on his parents divorce, until Simon pointed out that they’d been fully formed adults at that point and it was just a cop pout. His counselling was rubbing off on him and he was getting annoyingly perceptive about things!
So he decided to get a cat. It had been inevitable really, but then one night they’d ended up back at Jim’s and the cat had taken a real shine to him. Whilst he hissed and hid from Dave and Simon he couldn’t get enough of Nick, rubbing against his leg as he sat on the sofa, jumping on his lap, even trying to sit on his shoulder. Nick fell in love with him and the following day started asking round work to see if anyone knew of ant kittens for sale. The following week he found himself with a ginger kitten, which he christened Charlie. His friends made fun of the whole gay bachelor with a cat thing, but he didn’t care - he just liked having someone to come home to who wasn’t mad or overly needy. A tin of food and the odd stroke and the cat was happy, not like some high maintenance boyfriend!
And that would have been that except he took the cat to the vets to have some jabs, and before he knew it he fell in love with the vet. Not just a pathetic crush, or a stalking type of situation, it was reciprocated. He was so stupidly handsome he might as well have come out of a Barbara Cartland novel, and once Nick got over the fact that he was clearly too good for him he started enjoying been seen around with him. He had high hopes, but didn’t like to jinx anything by saying them out loud.