Title: Past Due
Pairing: Shane | Oliver
Summary: Oliver is adjusting to married life with Shane.
Author's Note: First SSD fic, I find Oliver's voice hard to write because he's so formal so I'm hoping this doesn't feel too out of character for him. I own nothing.
Words: 992
It's amazing how quickly Oliver gets used to coming home to Shane. They haven't been married very long and usually they leave the Post Office for home together but it's Thursday night and Thursday nights mean choir practice for him. Usually when he comes home from choir practice, Shane has music playing in the background or is binge watching something on the couch, but Shane has decided Thursday nights (or at least every other Thursday) will be Girls Night with Rita and Hazel.
She mentioned something this morning about pedicures, pinot noir and pizza and he wishes for a moment he had a cell phone to text her in case she needs to be picked up. This is the first time since they've gotten married that he's come home to a quiet house and he's doesn't like it, he no longer likes the silence. There's a note from Shane by the key dish at the front door, reminding him that there are leftovers in the refrigerator for him. He wonders for a second what she thinks he did about food before they were married but he realizes it's just one of the many ways she says "I love you" without actually saying "I love you."
He sees today's mail by Shane's note and brings it with him to the kitchen to heat up the leftovers. Junk mail, wedding present thank you note returned to sender (no forwarding address available), water bill, gas bill, phone bill. As his food heats, he tosses the junk mail and makes a mental note to mention the returned mail to Shane as it was originally addressed to her friend Becky in DC.
He goes to take the bills to his office to put on his desk when he notices the "Past Due" stamped on the outside of the water bill. Funny he thinks, he's never paid a bill late in his life, the water company must have made a clerical error but then he notices the "Past Due" stamped on both the gas and phone bills as well. "What the Sam Hill?," Oliver exclaims into the darkness of his home office. He quickly turns on the office light and realizes that he hasn't been in this room in weeks. There's a light covering of dust on his desk and as he walks around to the chair, he sees papers scattered on the floor. He almost says "What the Sam Hill?" out loud again but then he sees something tangled on one of the wheels of his desk chair. He has to lift the chair to release the imprisoned item and he sees now that it's a vaguely familiar, dark purple bra with embroidered flowers. "Shane," he thinks.
He realizes now why the bills are all past due. He's still adjusting to married life and while he has zero complaints about being married to Shane, he is still getting used to having her so close, all the time, without watching eyes. He's still getting used to how this all affects him.
And so, last month, when he was in his office on the first Saturday of the month, attempting to pay bills like he had done the first Saturday of every month for years, and Shane came into the office and proved to be a very welcomed distraction from said bills, he didn't object. He might even have been the one who cleared the desk of all that paperwork, he might even have been the one to remove her shirt, and then her dark purple bra. He remembers now that he eventually left the office with Shane in search of a comfortable bed and he remembers now that he might have spent the rest of the day with Shane in that comfortable bed and most importantly, he remembers now that he forgot to go back into the office to clean up the mess and to pay the bills.
Shane comes home then and finds Oliver holding her dark purple bra in one hand and Past Due bills in the other.
"Hey! Is that my bra? I've been looking for it," Shane greets him.
"Well, it's not my bra," Oliver quips.
"What's mine is yours Oliver," Shane replies with a wink.
He laughs a little because she's echoing the words he told her when she first moved in and he never considered that sentiment to include articles of clothing.
"Do you think it would be possible to arrange for the monthly bills to be paid automatically, maybe electronically?"
"Of course it's possible Oliver but I'm a little shocked you'd want to do that."
"Well, I think I finally understand the time it frees up for other endeavors," he smirks.
"I can set it up on Saturday, then show you it how it works. It might take a few hours for the initial setup but after that it'll be very easy to manage."
"A couple of hours?! Maybe you can set it up next Thursday then, while I'm at choir practice. We have more important things to do this Saturday."
"We do?"
"Oh, we do!" and there's a mischievous glint to Oliver's reply.
Oliver's still adjusting to married life but he's certainly enjoying it more than he expected. He puts off learning how to electronically manage the bills because he has more important things to do with the time he and Shane have together and alone. She double checks the bills are all being processed correctly on the first Thursday night of each month and spends the second and fourth Thursday nights of the month with Rita and Hazel at Girls Night. Oliver gets a cell phone so that he can text Shane and verify if she needs a ride home after choir practice. He never sees a bill stamped Past Due ever again but he's found that dark purple bra with embroidered flowers more times than he can count in the most random of places all around the house.