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A quarter to twelve the party was still well under way. Joe made his excuses, telling them he was tired, he was an old man now after all. He got smiles and wishes he'd stay and good-byes in return and by the time he slipped into his study it was 5 minutes to twelve.
He sat down at his desk and laid out the cell phone in front of him. It had rung throughout the day, the first call by his parents and many others after that. They had all called or come to the big party that Katherine had organized for his 40th birthday. All except one.
He wasn't sure if David would call at all. He wasn't sure about much of anything these days concerning David. Although that wasn't quite true. There was one thing he was sure of. He just didn't know if it was a comfort to him.
One minute to midnight, when Joe had just about given up hope, his cell came to life and he picked up before the theme music of Star Trek (TOS) started blaring out.
"Hey," he said, just a bit breathless.
"Are you alone?"
"For the moment," Joe said, eying the door to his study.
"If I'd been there this morning, I would have woken you with a kiss to that spot underneath your right ear. Then I would have worked my way to that other spot below your left shoulder. And then I would have let you decide where I go next."
"That would have been one of my better birthday presents," Joe said, the image running in his mind.
"Birthday?" David said and it held that tone that threatened to break Joe whenever he heard it. "I would wake you up like that any morning I wake up next to you."
And God, it would be so much easier if David were joking.
Joe didn't know what to say, never knew it, because there was nothing he could say that wouldn't make it worse.
"Happy birthday," David said and hung up.
His birthday was already over by then and Joe was left with the first ordinary day in a new decade of his life. He wished he could say that everything would be different. He wished he could rest with the knowledge that he'd finally make the decision he knew he'd have to make and do it for real this time and not back down again.
But as he lay down in the empty bed—Katherine was still with their guests—he thought of blue eyes, a crooked mouth and a male body beneath him.