Remember, Everything Will Be Alright

I

 Hello. I wrote this a year ago when I was thinking about a lot of things... you know how it goes. I posted the first draft (X-mas Day)to my account, and it didn't get very many reads (probably because it was garbage). I DIGRESS. 

This story is for everyone who needs a good holiday season cry. Please read the tags. I will put warnings for each chapter. I hope you enjoy :)

Warnings for: Alcohol related vomiting.

10 July 2019

With Phil three-and-a-half hours away, Dan had the apartment to himself for the first time since their wedding. After the humble gathering on that last Saturday in June, the two were inseparable—as if they weren't already.

The last few months went by in a flash. To Dan, it had only been a few days since Phil had gotten down on one knee; but since that day nearly four weeks before, he and Phil had entertained many a celebration—namely their joint bachelor party and wedding reception—and even ventured off to New York City for a brief and steamy honeymoon. The day after their wedding, Phil managed to wake up before noon despite having gone to sleep at 3:00 am that morning. He was nearly certain that his mild hangover would have cost him his shot at the job he was interviewing for that day. Dan had always admired Phil's ambition. His drive to make their relationship work despite how shy Dan had been in their first months together. His enthusiasm that propelled him so quickly through the IT department at the EEN.

"Philip," the secretary called as he waited outside the meeting room, "they're ready for you."

Phil offered the secretary his gratitude as he passed by his desk and entered the room where two women had been waiting.

"Hello, Phil!" his superior greeted from inside her grey pantsuit.

"Hello to you, Ms. Joseph," he shook her hand. "Philip Lester," he introduced to the other, unfamiliar woman, "data analyst."

"Shauna Oswald; executive director of the English Entertainment Network: UK," she said.

The undigested bits of the left-over wedding cake Phil had scarfed down for breakfast churned in his stomach as he recognized the executive's name.

"I've heard great things about you," Shauna said.

The blood in Phil's cheeks fought his capillaries to be seen through his translucent skin.

"Why don't you have a seat?" Ms. Joseph said as she, Shauna, and Phil all found a chair around the oblong table. "So"—she opened the folder in front of her—"you're interviewing for the IT director position, correct?"

"Correct!" Phil said, a little more excitedly than he would have liked. It was the Italian Meringue buttercream overcompensating for the energy all the lingering alcohol in his blood had stolen from him.

"That's quite a big jump, isn't it?"

"I like the challenge."

Shauna grinned at the man she had first interviewed all those years before. She remembered Phil coming into her office with his flannel and his fringe. He was an adventurous lad then. Time and experience had made him the calculated risk-taker that he had become. "That's good to hear."

For twenty minutes solid, Ms. Joseph grilled Phil on the minutiae of data analytics, web development, and coding languages; all kindling to stoke the flames of Shauna's affinity for Phil over the other applicants. As Ms. Joseph ran out of technical questions to ask, the hard part came. The part that Phil had spent weeks preparing for by reading books, asking his colleagues for advice, and watching countless videos on charisma and body language about. He felt like a Sim trying to level up in a skill.