The Struggles Of Waiting ✔

FOUR

2007

He was forty-nine, but he still looked twenty-two. He was getting so close to fifty, only another few months. He worked for the same technology company he had been at for nearly twenty years, slowly climbing the ranks. He'd been the front man of many of the company's products, including its most recent and soon to be most famous.

A device that took a sample, skin, blood, whatever worked and figured out how old a person was physically. Alexander had never actually used it, never found a need to, but knew from tests and sales that it worked. It was meant to tell people whether or not they had found their soulmate by how old their body was. If Alexander used it, he would find out that his body was twenty-two years old, like it had been since 1984.

He had a boyfriend, a forty-three-year-old man named Philip. He was a half Chinese, half American who worked as a freelance artist. They'd met about eighteen months before hand at his exhibition. Sarah had dragged him along for a relaxing night out away from Scott and their two kids and the two had bonded almost immediately.

There were a few dates after that before Alexander eventually asked him out properly, they'd been together ever since. He wasn't sure if they were soulmates, he did love Philip, but not as much as he expected he would if they were soulmates. He'd talked to Sarah about it, but she hadn't been much help.

He wanted to use the device he'd helped make, but he was so scared of the results, of finding out that they weren't soulmates and he was just as alone as he always had been. He didn't look any different, not that he could tell, and Philip has said that he couldn't tell either. Alexander wasn't sure if that was because they had gotten used to how they looked or if they just weren't what Alex hoped they were.

He was so sick of waiting and even when he finally found someone he loved, he wasn't sure if it was right. He'd done research over the long years, hours spent reading thick books and scouring the internet and it hadn't amounted to much. It was normal to find someone and fall in love with them without them being soulmates. It just happened; love was a normal thing. It didn't help that he couldn't tell who his soulmate was without waiting a couple of years. His device would fix that, if only he actually used it.

Sarah, now forty-eight, didn't come around to see him as often as she used to, as often as he would like. She had two children to look after and many more friends to see than just him. He missed her but wasn't completely sure she shared the sentiment. They hadn't had a night out together in months or spoken in a few weeks. He didn't know why, perhaps the friendship had just began to fade after so long.

He was on his way home from work, tired from a long day of meetings and planning. After the production of his age device most of his job had become meetings with executives to try and sell the thing and decide what he was going to produce next. He missed exploring technology and wanted to go back to it. There were new phones and computers being produced during every single meeting he was in, and he wanted to be a part of their development. Instead he was stuck at a table with boring men and women in suits staring at him like he was something sent by God.

Philip would already be there, cooking up pasta for dinner for the two of them. They had given each other keys to their houses a few months ago and were getting close to actually moving in together. So much of his stuff was at Philip's house and a lot of Philip's belongings were at his tiny one-bedroom house. They may as well have been living together already.

He made it home quickly, so lost in his thoughts that time and distance seemed to fly by. He pushed the door open, smiling at the delicious smell of the pasta sauce his boyfriend was making, his stomach rumbling in response. He hadn't realised just how hungry he was.

"Alex? That you?" a deep voice called from the kitchen.

"Who else would it be?" he replied with a laugh.