Chapter 7

The next morning, I woke up to having spent the night on the living room floor with the TV still going and every light in the house on. Still in a bit of sleepy daze, I was wondering how I ended up sleeping on the floor then it occurred to me as to how that happened. My half naked body and semi hard on were the tell tale signs as to what happened last night. Still wondering if I was dreaming or if I actually did masturbate, I felt something dried on my stomach and it was at that point that I knew that I wasn't dreaming.

I finally was awake enough to pull up my pants and make my way upstairs to get a shower and change clothes. It really is a good thing that our house sits further back from the road and has lots of trees around because, I'm quite sure that I really wouldn't want to give the neighbors a peep show. Although, Reid and I have been known to be adventurous when it comes to having sex in more places than in the house, like for example we've had sex in some secluded parts of our yard before.

Having decided to work from home today, I started checking hospital emails and answering anything that was important, and faxed reports to the board members for the upcoming board meeting. All the while I found myself thinking about Kevin and just how good looking he still is after all these years. My thoughts kept going back to the time when I gave him that back rub and all the while I was really wishing that it could have turned into something more but, it never did.

While I was still in my thoughts about Kevin, I heard my phone ring and to my surprise it was Kevin. He wanted to know if I had any lunch plans for today and, I had none so, he invited me to meet with him at The Lakeview. We met at The Lakeview and started talking about when we were in high school and such. Kevin wanted to know what I've been doing since high school and I told him that I'm the Hospital Administrator, have no children, had a partner and his name was Dr. Reid Oliver. Kevin asked what happened with Reid and, I told him that Reid passed away a short time ago. Kevin was surprised by what I told him. He had always thought that Noah and I would still be together but, I told him that we parted in 2010.

I asked Kevin what he has been doing since high school and, he told me that he has been in Arizona for the last 10yrs, is a television station manager, 2 children and is divorced. I asked Kevin what lead to their divorce and he told me that he came out to his wife. I asked if he had a significant other and, he said no, he doesn't but, he did have a relationship with a newscaster at the same station that they worked at in Springfield. So, rather than Kevin and the newscaster getting fired, they both resigned. The newscaster took a position in New York and, Kevin took a position in Arizona. This all happened about 12yrs ago and, Kevin hasn't seen him since they left Springfield. I was quite taken by what Kevin told me about himself but, something was telling me to go cautiously with this.

Kevin told me that he had to go but, before he left, he asked if we could get together again soon. I told Kevin that I would like that very much. Thinking about what Kevin told me, I decided to do a little research on Kevin to see if exactly what he told me is the truth because he has been known to stretch the truth in the past so, I thought that it would be best to err on the side of caution. Once I did my research on Kevin, it turns out that what he told me is the true yes, he is divorced, yes, he has 2 children, yes he lives in Arizona and, yes he is single. The more I kept thinking about Kevin the more I want to get to know him again. So, will see where that leads.

After my meeting with Kevin, it was time for my long-awaited appointment with Dr. Evans. I am hoping to get rid of all of this unwanted baggage that I've been carrying around with me all these years. We met each other in her office where she then asked me what brought me to her. I proceeded to tell her about my relationship with Noah and, how our relationship had evolved from when we first met in 2007 until he left for California in 2010. Dr. Evans seemed quite impressed with the length of time that we were together but, she wanted to know more about our relationship and, why I felt I was the one who was always giving my all. I also told her about how Noah used to keep me at arms length until one day; I ended our relationship and, found somebody else, namely, my late Partner, Dr. Reid Oliver.

Dr. Evans wanted to know more about Reid and how we came to be. I told her about how I basically blackmailed Reid to coming from Dallas to Oakdale to help Noah. Well, when we first met, Reid was cold, arrogant, and rude and, let's not forget brilliant. And, he let everybody know that he was a brilliant neurosurgeon not to mention savior of man-kind. With that ending our first session, Dr. Evans said that she would like to keep meeting at least once a week. She did make mention to me that she will be joining the staff here at Oakdale Regional Medical Center after the Psychologist' Seminar in a month. I thanked Dr. Evans for the opportunity to meet with her and to talk and, look forward to talking to her again soon.

On my way home from talking with Dr. Evans, I stopped by Oakdale Home Furnishings just to look around for a bit for nothing in particular really, until I got over to the bedroom sets it was then, that I noticed the most beautiful oak bedroom set that I have ever seen. Just as I was looking the set over, the salesperson walked over to ask if they could be of any assistance, I told the salesperson, yes, you can be, how soon can this bedroom set be delivered to my home? The salesperson replied back, that it can be delivered in 2 weeks. I then told the salesperson, that I'll take it and, gave her my address as to where to deliver it to. The salesperson then asked if I would need a mattress and box springs set too, I replied yes, I will need that too; I picked out a Queen Size, pillow top mattress. I paid for my purchase and made my way home.

As I was on my way home, a smile grew across my face because today, I made another step towards getting my life back together once again. Once I reached home, I made an important phone call to the medical supply place and, to have them come and pick up the hospital bed and medical devices. Up the stairs I went to our bedroom and with my eyes closed, I slowly opened the bedroom door. Not wanting to look at what was there but, I knew that I had to so, in my mind, I counted to 3 and then opened my eyes looked around and, took a good, long look at what needed to be done. I knew that I couldn't hang on to these things any more not if I wanted my life back so, I stepped further into the room, walked over towards the windows, drew open the drapes and, opened the windows to let some fresh air and sunshine in.

Back downstairs I went and waited for the medical supply people and, while waiting for them to come, I kept thinking as to what needs to be done to get that bedroom back into shape within 2 weeks and, by God, it will get done. Once the medical supply people came and took the hospital equipment, I went back upstairs to take a look around once again and, my eyes began to fill up with tears, it was then that I realized that I miss Reid now more than ever before. It was going to be hard to pack up all of Reid's things and, it was going to be even harder as I start going through his things but, it was at that moment where I could hear Reid say, "Oh for God Sakes, Snyder, quit crying and suck it up, take it like a man and move on with your life".