Cas's microwave beeped, but he ignored it as he stared in mild dismay at the lease in his hands. They'd printed it with both their names, evidently just using what they'd already had on file.
He clearly remembered calling the landlord a year ago, and speaking the words: "I need a new lease. Andrew Davis isn't going to be living here anymore." He had hardly believed the words himself; Andy was still in the process of moving out, shifting his boxes little by little while Cas was at work.
He'd still left plates of dinner for Cas, small apologetic gestures that Cas hadn't been able to bring himself to eat. Not out of spite – not exactly, anyway – but out of some mechanism of self-protection to distance himself from the life they'd shared as rapidly as possible.
Cas had done well in the intervening year. He'd refused to let the breakup muddle things in his professional life; he'd finished his fellowship and become a full-fledged surgeon at the very same hospital. And now there was nobody waiting at home to tell him he was being unreasonable, irritable, or any of the other unpleasant adjectives Andy had thrown at him during the two and a half years that their relationship had begun to fray at the edges.
But seeing Andy's name printed next to his on the lease for the next year unleashed a wave of unspeakable sorrow that made the back of Cas's throat ache. It wasn't Andy specifically that he missed; he was far past that now. No, it was…companionship. He surprised himself by wishing that he did have someone at home who would tell him he was being ridiculous. Another name on the lease. A sense of permanence outside the always-changing but never-different march of events at the hospital.
He put the lease down on the table. Enough time to take care of it tomorrow.
Dinner in the microwave ignored – he wasn't hungry anyway – he flipped open his laptop with the vague intention of responding to an email from his mother when one of the newer emails at the top of the list caught his eye.
He opened it to make sure it wasn't spam; it certainly didn't look like it. The headhunter who had sent it knew his name, surgical specialty, employment history… Brow furrowing slightly, he scanned the rest of the email before leaning back, eyes drifting to focus in the middle distance in thought.
"Kansas, huh?"