He was an alien empowered super hero. The power to teleport and channel the powers of his entire team through his gun among other things. He’d fought off an alien robot army, a giant robot mech, and three evil knihgts. If he really sat down and thought about it, he was awesome. Even more than that he was amazing.
So why was he here working at a desk in a tie. Adjusting said tie he sighed hearing a phone going off. It wasn’t the one at his desk but the office itself wasn’t that large so everyone could hear everyone else’s phones and occasionally conversations.
Turning in his chair, he looked at the clock mounted on the far wall. It was almost noon which meant it would be his lunch break. Unless there was some mounting disaster that required him he always left around noon to get something to eat or eat outside depending on if one of his fiancés made lunch.
But today he was certain that they had both put their best efforts together to make him something and he was actually excited to see it. Despite waking up earlier than them both combined he was not allowed into the kitchen to see it. He was simply given a brown paper bag before leaving the house and the bag itself was taped to prevent him from seeing it by accident.
He was definitely more interested in getting that than he was even remotely writing up these reports. Insurance was a messy realm that he didn’t really care about. Even more than that a lot of the things that he saw were incredibly mixed bag. Some insurance claims were legit, people losing loved ones and needing money to pay for funerals and survive. Others not so much.
The amount of false arson claims he’d seen were starting to become a meme. Though his personal favorites were the faked death claims. He didn’t think those were real but the amount of times that he’d seen them only for them to be disproved a few days later by a simple email check was actually impressive.
But then again investigating things wasn’t his job. That was the job of the people on the other side of the aisle from him, namely his new friend in the office. Peaking over the top of his cubicle he could see the other man equally as tall. He had short cut black hair, pale skin, and tired eyes. He was a big man but big in that dad kind of way. Marco was pretty sure he didn’t have kids though.
Glancing at the time again it was close enough to noon that Marco felt like asking. “Hey Bale.”
He could see the older man’s eyebrows raise. He was only five or six years older but there was a very tired and sage like wisdom to his face. He had heard him on a call earlier and knew it wasn’t any kind of pleasant. “What’s up Marco?”
“Slow day. Let’s take an early lunch? Sound good.”
He checked his watch instead of looking at the clock which was definitely a habit he’d noticed about this man specifically. He made a face for a second and finally nodded, “Yeah maybe. It is slow. Not a whole lot going on.” Sighing he nodded. “Sure, why not.”
“Yes,” Marco pumped his fist slightly and smiled at him. Both stood up slowly and stretched. Wearing the same dress code Bale grabbed his suit jacket, slinging it over his shoulder and then reached below his desk and pulled out a Tupperware container and then his own brown paper bag.
Marco caught sight of that container and covered his mouth zeroing in on that. Bale saw that look and smiled at him. “Yes June baked yesterday and yes she told me to share with you.”
“She’s the best.”
“I know.” And there was that warmth when he talked about his wife. The time’s when Bale suddenly look ten years younger and very potently Marco could see the man his wife fell in love with. He was a very different man for her than he was for everyone else but that was fine. He enjoyed the grumpy man’s company as well as the husband.
“Can I have one now?”
“Aren’t we going to eat lunch?”
“Sure but I like sweets.”
“I thought Sarah was baking now.”
“She was trying with Jack’s help. But they’re having disagreements. It took them awhile to realize that cooking and baking are not the exact same thing and Jack’s ‘feel it’ mind set doesn’t apply 1 to 1. We had to clean the kitchen the other day and it was a mess.”
That made Bale chuckle and nodded, “I understand that. I tried to help June a few times. She called me an ogre in the kitchen but appreciated the attempt.”
They walked to the break room together and Marco paused just at the door frame. Bale scouted out their table but turned back to look at him, “What’s wrong?”
Marco glanced at his finger, seeing the simple golden band that he wore and then glanced at the one on Bale’s finger. “Can I ask you a real question?”
“Go ahead,” he motioned to the seat across from him.
Marco sat and nodded, “Being married. How do you make it work?”
“Getting cold feet?” Bale asked offering a smile.
Marco shook his head smiling, “No but sometimes I worry. We’re already getting on each other’s nerves. Ever since the planning really began. Kinda biting each other’s heads off. Jack and Sarah are really alike. But I don’t want this to be the end before it even begins.”
Bale looked at him and took a deep breath, “Do they make you happy?”
“All the time.”
“And you love them, right?”
“With everything I’ve got.”
Bale nodded, “Then remember two pieces of advice. One, never be afraid to compromise. Especially between the three of you. You’re a team, not two individuals. Well three in your case. Easier and harder at the time. It’s not a competition. Sometimes it really doesn’t matter who’s right or not. We’re just people after all.
“But the other thing that’s even more important, don’t focus on the bad. You’re going to want to kill them some days but if you’re doing it right, you’ll have more days where you’re laughing and smiling. You’ll have more good days then bad. And when you get to be old those are the days you’re going to remember. So just take it one day at a time.”
Marco blinked slowly staring at Bale and his words weighted on him for a moment before he lowered his head and smiled, “Thanks Bale. I’ll talk to them. See if I can help.”
“Don’t mention it. Years of practice,” he said and then popped the top of the Tupperware. “Now take a cookie so I can tell June how much you loved them.”
The Harlequin Library 