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He pulled Sam down into his lap. “Good day at the office, darling?”
“Great day,” Sam said as they kissed.
“Why so?”
“Ralph’s gone.”
Josh looked at Sam with interest. “Gone where? Does he sleep with the fishes, Sam?”
“I don’t care who he sleeps with, he’s been transferred. He’s now responsible for fundraising for the whole organisation and his office is in - Washington DC.”
“Praise be,” Josh said.
“I love my job.”
“I love your job. We should celebrate.”
“Yep. And anything else to celebrate?” Sam asked.
“Yes, indeed. We should celebrate you not tidying up the minute you walked in the door.”
“You were watching.”
“Yes, and I’m proud of you.”
“You left things lying about as a test?”
Josh paused. “I’m going to say yes.”
Sam kissed him again and then climbed off his lap to go upstairs and change out of his suit. He stopped at the kitchen to get beers before coming outside again and sitting in the other sun chair. It was admittedly more comfortable than the chairs of his wrought iron dining set. Despite the big brown and orange flowers.
Toby trotted up to him and mewed significantly.
“Did you feed the beast?” He asked.
“Yes, mate,” said Josh, engrossed in a newspaper.
“He’s such a liar,” Sam stretched out looking up at the dark blue sky. Toby jumped on his lap and showed him his tummy which he duly rubbed.
After a day at work in the city he always let the sound of the sea and the cool breeze smooth away all the accumulated rough edges. Josh always left him this space until he was ready to talk again.
“So what have you been doing?” Sam asked eventually, extracting dead vegetation from Toby’s fur as he stroked him. He had probably been burrowing again. “Did you just sit here all day scratching yourself?”
“I resemble that remark. Actually, I went to the dentist and had two fillings thanks to your damn ghost.”
Sam leaned over to admire the fillings which Josh showed him.
“But Kowalski didn’t cause them, he just diagnoses. You should be grateful.”
Josh did not look convinced. “I just don’t think it’s a coincidence that Mr Dental Hygiene, USA lives with a dead dentist.”
“I’ve been thinking about Kowalski a lot today, as a matter of fact.”
Josh checked to see if he was serious and seeing that he was, folded his newspaper and put it aside. “Lets hear it.”
“I think we should exorcise him.”
“Okay. You’re not talking about taking him to the gym are you?”
“I’m serious. He shouldn’t really be here. He’s probably stuck.”
“Stuck?”
“Because he died at work. He probably thinks he’s still got to do nice bridgework for people. Maybe we could convince him he doesn’t have to any more.”
“Sam, are you worrying about your ghost’s welfare?”
“He could be any of us. I can think of another workaholic not a million miles from here who almost died at work. You nearly ended up haunting the West Wing. Maybe we should help him go into the light.”
“Go into the light? What the hell –“ Josh shook his head. “Have you thought he might like it here and that’s why he’s staying? He’s got the sea, the sunshine, his cat.”
“His chairs.”
“His chairs, exactly. The most perfect set of teeth in the Western world to admire. Why would he leave?”
“I hadn’t looked at it that way,” Sam pondered. “But it can’t be better than somewhere like heaven, can it?”
Josh smiled. “I wouldn’t be so sure.”
“Oh,” said Sam, constantly amazed at how much he was loved. “So we should leave him be?”
“I think so. Unless I have to have any more fillings in which case its time for the bleeding holy water and crucifix.”
“Josh, why are you talking like that?”
“Like what?” Josh asked and drank his beer.
Sam stared at him for a moment and then moved on. “So haven’t you got anything to tell me at all? Haven’t you found a job yet?”
“I tried to find a job. I’m surprisingly unemployable for someone who spent the last seven years running the country.”
“Didn’t you speak to Senator Mitchell?”
“I spoke to Senator Mitchell’s chief of staff. The Senator was suddenly unavailable.”
“You had that job sewn up.”
“Well, apparently not. Alan Owen’s been offered it.”
“No way.”
Josh shrugged in reply.
“Its discrimination,” Sam said.
“Maybe not, I didn’t exactly have the most dependable reputation in politics, did I? Anyway I don’t care. What do I need a job for, I’m living off you.”
“Josh, he virtually offered you the job. You told him you were with me and now he won’t even speak to you. You’re going to let this go?”
“Life’s too short. Maybe next time, huh, Sam.”
Sam gazed at Josh, wondered about arguing with him. But in the end he couldn’t face disrupting Josh’s very obvious sense of contentment.
“Well I know where there’s a job going,” he said.
“Professional pet feeder?”
“Nope. Campaigns Director.”
“For?”
“A respected and influential pressure group in the field of education called ERA, LA. They’ve got a really cute Communications Director. If you sleep with him you’re in with a chance.”
Josh looked at him, a smile playing at his lips. “Seriously?”
“Seriously. Rita’s looking for someone to cover Ralph’s job for a few months and she thought of you.”
“Rita’s always loved me.”
“She wants someone to knock things into shape while she recruits. I get the impression the jobs yours permanently if you wanted it but I know its not exactly your thing.”
“Nah, it sounds perfect. But are you sure, Sam? Are you sure you want to be working that closely with me again?”
“Are you kidding? It’d be great,” said Sam. “We wouldn’t have the pressure of this huge secret hanging over us. I know it’d work out. And anyway, that’s not the point. This is your job. Maybe not forever, but for a while it would be perfect for you and you’d be able to do a lot of good.”
Later they went for a walk on the beach to watch the sunset before going to dinner. It was, as usual, warm enough for jeans and Tshirts.
“I was talking to Vic today,” Josh said.
“Well that explains the extraordinary use of English.”
“Yes guvnor, it does. Do you know what Vic is short for?”
“Victor, I suppose?”
“It’s Vicar. It’s a nickname. He was ordained in the Church of England.”
“Ordained? You’re kidding me. He can’t be more than twenty.”
“He’s twenty five, old man.”
“And he’s so – so heathen.”
“Pagan actually. It turned out he had a bit of a problem with organised religion. So he dropped out, went travelling, washed up here and discovered the surf goddess or somebody like that.”
“Earth Goddess?“
“That’s her. But the point is –“
“Hey! I think I’ll ask him about Kowalski. Or do you have to be Catholic to cast out spirits of the dead?”
“Sam –“
“He probably took a class in it at the seminary, even if its frowned upon.”
“Well, he’ll have an opinion on it either way. But the thing is-“
“Sorry, go on -.”
“The thing is - Vic said - if you wanted, Sam - he’d do a commitment ceremony for us. Right here on the beach.”
Sam stopped walking and turned to him. “Josh?”
“Yeah. So. Will you uh – marry me?”
“Wow, you really don’t want to work in politics anymore do you?”
“Sam!”
Sam realised then that the question, unthinkable though it was, was a serious one. Josh dropped his head and didn’t speak for moment. When he looked up he said.
“You’re my whole life, Sam. Be with me forever.”
Sam gazed deep into brown eyes, which he sometimes thought were flecked with gold, sometimes green. They were searching his own in anxious expectation. He understood he was being offered an end to the semi-random collisions that had characterised his relationship with Josh so far. He was being offered forever.
He brought Josh’s hand up and kissed it softly. “I just want to be where you are.”
And Josh pulled him into his arms.
They held hands as they strolled along the beach and the clear dusk sky began to flood with colour.
“We could ask Donna and CJ and the non-cat-Toby to the ceremony,” Sam suggested.
“Good idea, we could bring down the Bartlet Administration yet.” Josh agreed. “And you could ask your mom to come. I think she’s been secretly hoping for a pagan gay beach wedding for her only son. And she’s definitely warming to me.”
“Really? If she warms up any more she’ll spontaneously combust.”
“My mom can come, now she’s absolutely clear on the situation.”
“She’ll think I’m best man, won’t she?”
“Yep. And she’ll ask CJ when she’s planning to give her grandchildren.”
“My dad. He knows how to please a lady.”
“Senator Mitchell can be bridesmaid.”
“Buffalo Bill Scullard, chief bridesmaid.”
Giggling curtailed the guest list.
The beach was deserted as Sam lay with Josh’s arms around him. They watched the sun, a perfect red disc, sink into the horizon and he dropped his head a little to listen to the beat of Josh’s heart, drawing comfort from it as he always did.
“You don’t have to check,” Josh whispered. “I’m battery operated now. I’ll just keep going.” It was his favourite pacemaker joke. Sam’s too.
END
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