freefromsin | (Closed to Joel and Spencer, backdated to earlier in the week)

(Closed to Joel and Spencer, backdated to earlier in the week)

If Caleb is staying in Siren Cove, he needs to find a job as soon as possible. He's already dug into his emergency fund, which is pretty sad to begin with, and he doesn't want to be a burden on Rian and Sophie forever. He also doesn't want to rely on or borrow money from Gabe, who's crashing with someone else's family too. Between the both of them if they can save enough money, they could get a two room apartment and split the rent. He hasn't exactly brought it up yet, but it seems like the most logical thing to do.

But first, a job.

Back home he only found work through friends; here he's going to have to rely on himself. And the library. Thank god for libraries and free resources. He uses google to help write up a resume, and prints out a dozen copies. He looks up job wanted ads in the paper and starts applying to anywhere he has a chance getting hired to. And some that he probably doesn't.

On his way back to Rian's, he passes the bookstore. He didn't see that they were hiring or anything, but it can't hurt to ask, right?

He ducks inside and looks around, hoping Joel's working right now.

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Joel is near the back with Dane when he realizes someone has come in the store, but he has his baby strapped to his chest and a stack of books balanced in each hand and he realizes there's not a chance he's going to be able to get up there before they lose interest and leave without dropping at least some of the books. And given that he's only just got Dane off to sleep for his afternoon nap, he doesn't want to do anything to wake him, which means he's going to have to rely on Spencer to have heard the door open so he can get there first. Especially if Spencer wants the books shelved properly, which Joel tends to have difficulty with at the best of times.

He manages it, though, sliding several books into place at once and then taking the others with his now free hand and making sure they end up on the correct shelf. By now he's sure Spencer has to have greeted whoever has come into the store, but he heads to the front anyway, his hand resting gently against Dane's back as he goes.

It's been a fairly slow afternoon and while Joel is doing the organizing--which Spencer hadn't offered to do because he can always tell when his husband is trying and when it comes to actively going out of his way to do the shelving while Spencer is in the store, it certainly does count as trying--he's keeping watch at the front of the store and taking the free time to work on inventory.

When the door opens, Spencer immediately stands up straight with a friendly smile, glad to have something else to do rather than stare at the computer screen when the preferable option would be to wander toward the back just to be closer to his husband and their son.

But he steps out from behind the counter to greet the customer he's never seen before with a small wave. With a quick glance over his shoulder, he catches sight of Joel and Dane making their way to the front, as well, and Spencer turns back to the customer. "Hi, welcome, how can we help you today?"

Caleb's disappointed at first, seeing the stranger instead of Joel. But then, as luck would have it, there he is, with that baby sling on again. Which means maybe this guy is his husband? Caleb's look is curious as he replies, "Hi." He gives Joel a nod of recognition, and smiles at both of them. "I'm Caleb. I met Joel already, are you his husband?"

"I actually stopped by because I'm looking for a job in the area and I love to read, so I thought...what better place? I don't know if you guys are hiring, but I brought my resume, if I can leave it with you?" he asks, trying to hide his nervousness. He's never sought out a job like this before, or even had a resume. He's also never met a gay married couple, and he can't help but look at them and wonder what that's like.

"Hi," Joel says, offering Caleb a smile as he approaches the front of the store. When he reaches Spencer, he slides his hand against the small of his back, unable, as always, to stop touching him for long. Being close to him, being able to go to work with him, that's all part of what Joel loves so much about his life as it is at present and he has very firm plans to make sure nothing ever changes.

Well, another baby might be welcome.

"Yeah, this is Spencer," he says, nodding. "Spencer, this is Caleb, I told you about him. I met him the other night when I took Huxley and Dane for a walk." He'd mentioned that Caleb knows Gabe, but that he'd seemed quite nice. He isn't entirely sure what to make of the offer of a resume and he looks at Caleb, his expression faintly surprised.

"Right," Spencer says, lifting a brow as he places the name. "Caleb. Gabe's friend." Joel had reminded him not to judge too harshly and in fairness, Spencer had only had the one encounter with Gabe at the baby shower. For all he knows, Gabe's views on two men being married could have changed drastically since then, so he relaxes his shoulders and leans slightly into Joel's touch, letting his husband ground him.

It's at the presentation of the resume, though, that he frowns in confusion. He and Joel had never even once discussed the prospect of hiring someone for the store, especially since Charlotte has always been so generous with her time when they need her help; but he supposes that it would give her the freedom to pursue other things if she wants to and having someone else on the payroll would also mean that he and Joel can be more flexible about the hours they spend at work.

The decision isn't one that they can make without talking about it first, of course, but at the very least, Spencer decides it's worth the debate.

"It's a fair enough argument you've made for wanting to work here," Spencer says, stepping forward to take the resume so he can glance over it. He doesn't know that they'll actually need it, but Caleb had gone to the trouble of putting it together to hand in so he doesn't want to brush it off entirely. He glances over his shoulder at his husband, his expression briefly shifting to show how perplexed he is before it settles back into something friendlier as he turns back to Caleb. "Maybe you can stay for a bit so we can learn a bit more about each other? I'll make you a cup of coffee."

"Sure, thank you," Caleb says, pleased to even be given a chance. He's still nervous, though, because his job history isn't really that great. "Um, sorry if it's kind of...random." He motions to the resume. It's a mess of short-lived jobs, most of which he doesn't have the contact info for, because he wasn't sure how to get it since he's not in Pennsylvania anymore. Using the internet is still entirely new to him, they didn't own a computer at home. "I didn't have a steady place of residence at the time. But I'm a hard worker, I promise."

Caleb doesn't miss being called Gabe's friend, and he wonders at the way it's said. Joel said he knew of Gabe, but has Gabe met them as a couple? He can't help but wonder what he thought, if he did. Caleb doesn't have a problem with Joel and Spencer being together. He looks at them with open fascination, wondering what such a marriage would be like between two men, and with a baby no less. His entire romantic past has mostly been brief hook-ups, and his parents' marriage was such a gross example of what marriage and family should be, that just seeing Joel and Spencer interact for even the past few minutes is like seeing a real life unicorn. Homosexuality being a sin had been hammered into him since he was a kid, so he hadn't had much exposure. After he left home, he'd had plenty, but it also wasn't this. This loving domesticity.

Joel takes the resume from Caleb as Spencer moves to brew the coffee and he smiles slightly and shrugs. "This store is my entire resume, so it isn't as if I can fault someone for having a bit of an eclectic resume." Joel's never actually made a resume in his entire life. He hadn't worked in Shediac, his parents wanting him to concentrate on school instead of worrying about balancing his classes with a job, then they'd had to move here due to his mistakes, and his father had bought the store. When his parents left and Joel had insisted on staying, Brian had transferred ownership of the business to his son and he's been here ever since.

He's not exactly high on ambition, not when it comes to his career, but he doesn't think it's such a terrible thing to have loyalty to a place like this.

It might be nice to be able to free up Charlotte's time for whatever it is she wants to do. Expecting her to always be available whenever they might need her is awfully unfair and even though she doesn't complain, Joel has been wondering if there's a way to get her to do less without insulting her. She's young, she needs to be figuring out what she wants, not trying to anticipate her older brother's needs.

It doesn't take long before Spencer returns with two mugs expertly balanced in one hand and a third held in the other, and he holds out the single mug to Caleb. "I don't know how you take it," he says, "but feel free to grab sugar or cream from the counter over there." The second mug, he hands to his husband, pressing a gentle kiss to the top of their son's head before he smiles and pulls away to drink from his own, though his free arm finds its way around Joel's waist.

They aren't exactly the picture of profession, the two of them in a half-embrace with the baby strapped to Joel's chest, but this is a family-owned store and so, a family they'll appear to be. The idea that they could all be here together every day without one of them having to worry or wonder about the other, it's exactly what they'd wanted. Having Charlotte help them as much as she has been certainly adds to the familial element but at the same time, Spencer is certain she must have other passions, even if she won't admit to any of them. She and Joel are incredibly different people, it's true, but they're both also two of the most loyal people Spencer has ever known.

He's been very fortunate, marrying into the Baker family.

"I worked at the public library for about eleven years before this one stole me away," Spencer says with a light laugh, quirking a brow at Joel. "Books have been our passion for a very long time. At the very least, we'd ask that you be able to organize and alphabetize, handle the register, learn what goes into opening and closing the store, things like that." He's making this up as he goes along, of course, and he looks to his husband again for anything he might have left out. "Oh, and I suppose you actually have to be okay with being around babies because we'll have Dane with us regularly."

"Thank you," Caleb says, taking the mug and going over to the prep area for cream. When he finishes stirring some in, he returns to the front counter, catching the affectionate kiss.

"I'm sure I can handle all of that." He tries not to appear too eager. He hadn't expected a position when he came in, but he'd hoped. Since leaving home he'd finally been able to explore the world outside of the fucking Bible, and had discovered a love of books and music - and not just the hymns he sang in choir. Working at a place where he could be surrounded by any of that seemed like a dream. Better than the job he'd had lined up in construction, for sure. "And I'm good with babies," he adds. "I have two younger siblings who I helped raise. There's a big enough age gap between us that when they were born, I wasn't just a little kid."

"Can I ask, um...how you two met?" He knows it doesn't have to do with the job, and maybe he shouldn't deter the conversation away from the store, but he's so curious about their relationship.

Joel gives a soft little laugh at the question, wondering how to position it to someone who might not necessarily know all the intricacies of this strange little town he's found himself in. Meeting over a Hydra isn't exactly a normal story, but he rather likes it as theirs.

"There was a... a wild animal loose in the city," he says, figuring that's as close to the truth as he can get without revealing a good number of magical details. Caleb will find out eventually, Joel is sure of that, but he isn't sure he wants to be the one telling him all about it. "I found Spencer near the library just sort of staring at it, so I may have manhandled him into the library for safety, which might not be the most romantic first meeting in the world, but I think things turned out okay."

Spencer has to fight to look at his husband with skepticism because he knows the explanation is as good as it can really get without saying what that wild animal had actually been.

He remembers that day vividly, the sheer recklessness of being out on the steps of the library as he'd watched the Hydra wreck its way through the town, and it's so not like him to actively put himself in harm's way but that day, he'd stayed out long enough for Joel to find him. That day, Spencer had been saved from getting caught in the debris of the crumbling building across the street and even though he hadn't known it yet, he'd already fallen in love.

"A wild animal, yes," Spencer repeats, risking a glance at Joel as the corners of his mouth twitch. "And maybe 'romantic' isn't the proper word for it, but he saved my life and it led to this." He gestures at the baby, unable to resist the urge to reach out to rest a hand gently against Dane's back. "We could have done worse, as far as first meetings go. We actually knew of each other long before that, it's a small town and I'd certainly stopped in the store a few times." Nudging Joel playfully in his side, Spencer chuckles. "I suppose we just never found a reason to have an actual conversation until that one day."

"No, that's really sweet," Caleb says, voice warm, and maybe a little envious. He's young, and even though his parents had been on their way to arranging a marriage for him, it's not like he thinks about domestic bliss or anything too often. Still, who wouldn't want a relationship as loving as theirs clearly is? "I mean, it makes for a better story than, well, son, I met your dad at the grocery store. Instead you can even embellish a little, because I'm pretty sure that's a parent thing."

Joel laughs then and looks down at Dane against his chest, the little head of dark hair peeking out of the carrier. One day they will be able to tell Dane that story, though they'll be able to include the Hydra, because being the son of a witch means he's not going to be able to avoid the magic in this town.

"It is quite the story," he agrees. "Then a few days later I found myself outside Spencer's house for no good reason and instead of asking me what the hell I was doing creeping around like a stalker, he invited me in."

And for the first time in a very long time, Joel had been really happy that night. Very little of that had had to do with the whiskey they'd consumed and all of it had been Spencer's doing.

Spencer can feel a flush creeping over his cheeks and neck, not because he's embarrassed--when it comes to his relationship with Joel, he never feels anything less than proud--but because he's pleased by Caleb's apparent appreciation of the story.

Perhaps Caleb is right and one day, they will embellish the story for their children but the beauty of it is that they really wouldn't need to do such a thing. Their entire relationship has been unique from the start, and Spencer wouldn't have had it any other way. The day he'd fallen in love with this man who'd saved him from a Hydra had been one of the very best days of his life.

"A very handsome stalker," Spencer corrects, grinning at his husband, "who gave me an entirely new appreciation for being in our home library." Not to mention a new appreciation for whiskey, though Spencer thinks now that he might have even as affected by being in such close proximity to Joel than he was by the alcohol.

Turning back to Caleb, he lets out a sheepish laugh. "Sorry, we're over here reminiscing like a pair of lovesick fools and keeping you in a limbo over whether or not you have a job. We're not making the best professional impression, are we?"

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(Closed to Joel and Spencer, backdated to earlier in the week)

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