ODDS OF LOVE

Episode Seven

June 26  , 2024  Prince George County Hyattsville Maryland 

HAPPY 8TH ANNIVERSARY , GENIUS !!!!!!!!!!!!!

That was the simple black bolded text message that popped up onto the IPhone 14 Dr. Spencer Norland - Lane held in his long slim hand that wore a simple silver wedding band on his ring finger. A very rare smile twitched at the corners of his usually stiff and uncertain lips. He texted back deftly a response and hit send quickly.

Spencer : Happy anniversary to you too , Dr. Lane. But anniversaries are so useless in a way. It is only a day. Why do people put such importance on days like anniversaries and birthdays. They really will happen even if we do not celebrate them. 

His phone beeped with another incoming message almost immediately after he had sent his own.

DuBuis : It is pure magic being married to you lol. It's also very fun. The things you say lol. We are celebrating this day we got hitched in 2016. Tacos and a movie in ? Oh and do not forget to eat lunch. Again. 

His smile widened as he thought of DuBuis Lane. The man really probably should not even be in his life but was. The man who had stolen his heart away the moment they saw each other in that dorm room twenty two years ago. The man who had for some reason chosen to befriend him even while the entire campus of George Washington University regarded him as the cold inhuman unfeeling freak of nature he really was. The man who had protected him from anyone who wanted to hurt him physically or emotionally.  The man who had been generous enough to even share his own loving family with him. He still recalled the first Thanksgiving DuBuis had taken him to his family's house in Largo with its beautiful rose garden and apple and pear trees in the big backyard.  Spencer had had nowhere to go because his mother had been in Switzerland recovering from a face life and tummy tuck. 

( " You love him , don't you , young man , " DuBuis's mother Jenessa " Nessa " Johnson had murmured to him as he helped her wash and dry the dishes after the delicious dinner. Her warm concerned brown eyes had been crinkled up in a mixture of wonder and worry. He swallowed nervously and wondered why he was so nervous. Lowering his head and scrubbing at an already spotlessly clean spoon , he said quietly , "  Love is one equation I have yet to solve , Mrs. Lane. " The older woman looked over at him so long and so hard that he felt she could actually see into the soul he didn't think he had. In that sense she reminded him of her son.  That was how DuBuis looked at him too. DuBuis was going to make the perfect doctor. She smiled and nodded. " Well. You might as well start calling me Mama. " )

DuBuis should not even be his husband right now. Spencer had never thought there would ever be a moment in time for people like them to be married legally. Not everywhere. But June 26 , 2015 and the US Supreme Court had changed all that. He still remembered how floored he had been that day as he heard the groundbreaking news from a fellow professor in the Math Department as he graded homework in his small cramped organized office at University of Maryland College Park. He had been happy of course but sad as well. He had never been in a real relationship. He had been a virgin still. Sex intrigued him but it also terrified him. And what man would ever have wanted him ?  He had been thirty one and destined to die alone. Except for the friendship of the one man he adored with all his being. 

( " You need someone to protect you , Genius , " DuBuis said almost practically as that night they sat in the man's kitchen eating spaghetti and meatballs and breadsticks. " To watch out for you. Make sure you eat. God knows I am getting tired of meaningless one nighters in the bathroom at The Rainbow Palace. I'm getting old. I want more. So marry me. " )

His mind had nearly short circuited in that one moment in time. His hardware that was his head seemed to crash completely. He recalled sitting there at the table , holding a spaghetti wrapped fork in his hand , watching DuBuis take a sip of red wine. All while his mind fought to make sense of what his best friend had just said. DuBuis , the ever alert doctor , had admitted later that he had been about to call 911 right when Spencer had popped back to the land of the living. 

" Yes. " )

Even as he had said that one fateful word he wondered exactly why the man wanted to marry a freak like him. Back in college it would have been just a joke or prank on him. Like when the football player had asked him on a date during junior year and then invited him to his single dorm room where he had flirted with him and given him a handjob which had him literally coming in his pants. Then he just stopped and kicked him out the room. Later he found out there had been a cell phone secretly hidden in the room recording it all. The video had been all over campus. Spencer had had to stop DuBuis from killing the guy when he found out. Or at least beating him senseless. Spencer had wanted to drop out but DuBuis talked him out of it. He couldn't talk him into making an official complaint to the college though. Spencer had been humiliated enough. But DuBuis wasn't like that. He actually wanted to marry him. But why ? 

He still wondered that.