The Will of Love and Life (Peterick)

Chapter Thirteen

August 05, 2016

Patrick didn't like indecisive people. And Mister and Misses Hendricks fit that category of people. It took them three months to get to their will signing. Three months of consultations and phone calls with the unsociable attorney. Three months of Patrick wanting to rip his hair out. But it was the same three months that it took for Patrick to admit that he wanted to be with Pete in every way he could, so maybe that placed him in the category of indecisive people.

And now, three months and a week from their first meeting, the Hendricks were sitting on one side of the table in the conference room. Joe and Breezy were sat across from them, and Patrick was at the head of the table.

They had already double, triple, quadruple checked the hefty document sitting on the middle of the table. Nothing was misspelled. Nothing was misplaced. But of course it wasn't. There wasn't a chance of Patrick making a mistake and not catching it. Maybe he was a little overbearing, but he graduated top of his class at Harvard, so nobody argued with him.

The couple signed every place the lawyer told them to. They recited the words he told them to say without stuttering. No questions asked.

Joe and Breezy signed as witnesses, and then it was passed to Patrick. He signed it as their lawyer, the infamous looped P and S with illegible squiggles in between and after that any judge in the city would recognize as his.

Joe and Breezy went back to their respective offices, and Patrick gave the couple any last instructions he had before passing over the completed will.

"Put it somewhere that you can find it and it won't get destroyed. Do not lose it. If you need to make a change, I need the will back in its entirety, and then it gets destroyed and rewritten."

And then he cut them loose with probably the most important document you could have. And he was ready to bet money that they would lose it within the year. He tried in the beginning to talk them out of getting a joint will, but they were stubborn.

"This is a legal contract," Patrick had told them. "Once one of you dies, it can never be changed. I can only revoke or change it if both of you consent. I can guarantee it will do more harm than good."

But they weren't intelligent enough to listen. And he knew that they would be back once they realized what they signed.

Patrick went back to his office once they were gone. He jumped when he saw Joe standing in the middle of the room, waiting for him.

"Scare you?"

Patrick rolled his eyes and sat in the chair behind his desk. Joe sat down in the chair across from him with a smile on his lips.

"What do you want?" Patrick asked, glaring when Joe kicked his feet up on the desk.

Joe sighed and removed his feet from the attorney's desk. "You drove me here this morning. I'm ready to leave when you are."

"Oh, right," Patrick muttered, feeling his phone vibrate in his back pocket. "I just need a second."

Joe was too busy scrolling through his own phone to notice Patrick pull his out of his pocket. He held it under his desk for good measure, just so Joe wouldn't question what he was doing.

Pete: When do u get home?

Patrick: In an hour. You can come over, if you want to.

Pete: I do. Maybe we could go out later?

Patrick bit his lip, unable to make himself type out a reply. He knew what kind of relationship Pete was looking for before they even got together. Pete wanted a boyfriend who would take him on dates and kiss him and fall in love with him. Patrick wasn't that guy. He didn't know how to be.