Mr. Postman

Two

Layoffs were coming, they knew that one for sure. Thanks to delivery services like Amazon had basically destroyed the need for the postal delivery. Things were still sent through good old fashion snail mail, but not as much. They didn't even have deliveries on the weekends now. Just Monday through Friday and there was no reason a large number of workers were needed to cover such a small town.

So Joe was fired. It was a devastating blow that neither saw coming. Ben was in the middle of rehearsing when Joe called him, his voice shaking that he needed to see him. They met by the water, by their bench. Joe was already there, wrapped up in his knees and pouting deeper than Ben had ever seen.

Ben came to his side, his expression marked with worry. Joe looked utterly heartbroken and completely destroyed when he confessed he had been fired. They didn't understand why. There were other people there that didn't take the job as seriously as Joe had. People who were older and couldn't get the job done as well as Joe did.

Joe would never think badly about his coworkers, but even he had to admit he was in the top three all around. Nobody cared about this job as he did.

"For God sake, I am a glorified note passer. Even in High school — I sat between this couple and just passed notes back and forth."

"And nobody ever passed a note to you?" Ben asked, hoping the subject change would lighten the mood.

Joe cocked his head, sending a dirty look to the blond. "You know for a fact they didn't." He snarked. "What am I supposed to do now?"

Ben didn't have an answer. Not a concrete one anyway. So he came up with the cheesiest thing he could think of. "Anything you want."

Joe groaned, running his hands through his hair. "Ben, come on!"

"No, I'm serious! You can do whatever you put your mind to. This may be a small town but surely there is something else out there that would bring you joy."

"The only things that bring me joy is delivering mail and being with you. I already lost one of those and I'm sure I'll lose the other soon enough."

Ben leaned back against the bench, caught off guard by his harsh wording. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Dating a mailman was embarrassing enough, but to date a former mailman? Don't kid yourself, Ben. Might as well just end it now; no point in beating around the bush."

"I'm not going to dump you just because you lost your job, you twat." Ben was laughing. Light and humorless because really, it was baffling that he'd even come to that conclusion.

"You should. It would be less pathetic." Joe muttered, kicking at the grass.

Ben sighed, standing from the bench and going to stand in front of Joe. He forced the other man to look his way until their hazel and green eyes finally linked.

"I understand how stressful this is and I'm sorry it happened. But I'm not breaking up with you. Besides, if you don't have a job, I guess you'll just have to be my little house husband until you find something else."

Joe softened, shifting his shoulders and pouting once again. "We don't even have a house." He whined.

Ben smiled, shrugging it off. "Rami's will do." He noted, tipping Joe's head forward so he could kiss him.

Even with all the stress of it, Joe was still able to relax into the kiss, something Ben took pride in.

They had been together for just shy of three months and while months those had been intense, Ben had never felt something so right. When he first told his mum that he had met someone, she was a little on edge.