Chapter Text
Wille looked at the clock hanging on the wall and silently cursed. He was supposed to have left by 3PM today but like always he had lost track of time. It was 8PM; he just hoped that Simon would understand. Who was he kidding? He was definitely sleeping on the couch today. He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. He wished that for once he could go home and not have an argument. It seemed like that’s all he and Simon did lately. Yes, Wille knew that he had been neglecting his personal life a bit too much for the past few months or okay maybe the past year or so, but Simon also needed to understand that they were in the process of completing a huge merger at work. If he could successfully make this happen, he had a chance of becoming a partner. And who was he doing all this for anyway? He was working this hard so that he and Simon could have the perfect life together. Did Simon get that though? Nope! All he cared about was that Wille wasn’t home by a decent time every night. There was no point in ruminating over this now. He had to go home and face the music. Maybe he could get flowers on his way home to help placate him. Wille rubbed his face and then proceeded to grab his things so he could head home.
After deciding to call it a day, Wille had just made it to his car when his cellphone started to ring. He would be lying to himself if he said he had forgotten to look at his phone all evening. He was actively avoiding it, so he didn’t have to see the texts from Simon. He peeked at the screen and saw that it was Sara calling. He sighed in relief and answered. “Hey, Sara.” He unlocked his car and plugged his phone in so that he could activate CarPlay. “Wille, do you know what is today?” Wille furrowed his brows and tried to remember but nothing rang a bell. “Of course, you don’t. Wille I am running out of ways to defend you at this point. You are not just my brother’s boyfriend but also my friend but even I can’t overlook this.” Wille was already annoyed so this conversation with Sara didn’t help his mood. “Can you just cut to the point, Sara. I am sick of people telling me how much I am messing up all the time. So just tell me what I am forgetting because I clearly don’t remember.” By the end, his voice had gotten a bit loud. Wille felt like all anyone was ever doing lately was attacking him. It was like Simon was an angel in everyone’s eyes and Wille was some monster. Like he couldn’t catch a break. “Fine. It’s Simon’s birthday. Simon thought you were planning something since you left before he even woke up this morning and haven’t even wished him. But I knew better so I am telling you now. And just know I am not doing it because I want to do you a favor. I am doing it because I don’t want Simon to feel hurt. Again. Now you know.” With that Sara hung up on him. Wille knew if people still used corded phones, she would have slammed it down.
“F***!” Wille slammed his hand on the steering wheel. How the heck did he forget his birthday. He usually added people’s birthdays in his phone for this very reason. Why did he not get a notification for it? A little voice in his head reminded him that just a few years ago he would not have needed calendar reminders for Simon’s birthday. He chose to ignore it though. Of course, it was raining, and it was late. He didn’t know very many shops that would be open at this hour, but he had to try. He couldn’t just show up not only late but also empty handed. He took a random exit to get off of the highway in hopes that he would come across a cute shop that’s still open. One of the boards that usually only had pictures of gas stations and hotels, showed that there was an antique shop 0.5 miles to the left up ahead. Wille got excited about this because Simon loved antique things. In fact, for one of their dates back in college, he took Wille to his favorite antique shop. Wille did miss spending time with Simon, but he planned to rectify that as soon as he made partners at work. Then he planned to dedicate most of his time to Simon. He just needed him to be patient until then. Wille pulled into the parking lot; he admitted to himself that it was an odd-looking shop. First off, the only car in the whole lot was his. There were no lights either. The shop itself was lit up inside but that didn’t help Wille while walking from his car to the shop though. He finally made it inside and noticed an old person sitting at a desk that he assumed was also the cash register area. The person was busy working on a decrepit looking book. He was sewing back the spine of it together. Wille cleared his throat to get their attention but had no luck. He tried again and finally the person looked up, “Just find whatever you are looking for and then bring it here and I will ring it up for you. If you have any questions, keep them to yourself.” Well, this store owner wasn’t going to get any awards for their customer service that’s for sure. Wille decided to let them be and looked around.
After browsing for a few minutes, he spotted a wristwatch. It was perfect for Simon. It was bronze and the roman numerals and the hands inside were made of black colored metal. He noticed that on the inside of the watch’s band, a quote had been engraved:
“Time is a slippery thing: lose hold of it once, and its string might sail out of your hands forever.”
The quote was a bit on the dark side, but he knew that Simon would like it, so he decided to buy it. “You sure that’s what you want, child?” Wille looked at him with a confused expression. He felt a bit weirded out at being addressed as a child. “Yes, please pack it and quickly. I am in a hurry.” The person got out of his chair and slowly moved around to pack it up. “That’s your problem, you know. Always hurrying around and never having the time for things that matter the most. Hmm? Why are you so anxious to run through life, my child? Stop and look around; the future you are working so hard for might never come, if you don’t dedicate enough time and show love to your present.” Wille couldn’t believe his luck. He would be the person to pick the one shop whose owner would lecture him about life too. “Um that’s great and all. Can I just have the watch without the side of life lesson?” The person chuckled and responded, “I won’t be the one to teach you a lesson, my child, life has its own way of teaching lessons. It doesn’t require my assistance.” With that he hands him the gift. When Wille went to pay for it, he shook his head. “I don’t need your money. It’s on the house.” Wille really didn’t want to owe this person anything, so he insisted, “No I must pay for this.” Again, the owner smiled at him cryptically and replied, “Oh, pay, you will. Just not the way you want to.” Wille decided to leave before things got any weirder. He considered leaving the watch but then he realized that it’s almost 9:30PM and if he were to get home this late on Simon’s birthday without a gift, the night would get worse than it already was going to be. So, he decided to just take it even though the person creeped him out quite a bit.
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Wille entered the apartment to find that all the lights were off except for the stove light in the kitchen. He saw that there was a plate of food on the dining table that was covered. He assumed that Simon had left it there for him. Seeing the plate made him feel guilty, but he rationalized that he wasn’t the one who asked Simon to cook for him. If he wanted to cook for him then that was his decision but he couldn’t hold that against him. Wille loosened his tie and stepped farther into the apartment. He saw that the door to their bedroom was closed so obviously Simon was in there. He walked quietly to the room and prayed to the universe that by some miracle, Simon wouldn’t be mad at him. He entered the room to see that he was on the bed. He had already changed and was reading. He didn’t acknowledge Wille’s presence and that alerted Wille that he was in big trouble.
“Hey!” Wille said quietly before he went to sit on the bed besides Simon who instantly moved away from him. “Oh, come on Simme. Let’s not engage in childish behavior and just talk it out like adults.” This was obviously the worst thing to say but by the time Wille released it, it was too late. “Childish? Are you serious, Wille?” Simon got out of the blanket and tried to get out of bed, but Wille blocked him. “I f**ked up I know but I am sorry. You know things have been crazy at work. It’s not my fault but I swear just couple of more months, and all this will be over.” Wille looked at him with hope that this will make Simon soften up, but it didn’t have the desired effect. “Wille, I am sick and tired of hearing the same sh*t over and over again. You have been saying this for more than a year now. I have been patient, but I don’t know how long I can keep going like this. You are obsessed with that place and with the idea of taking over and becoming partners. Wille, I don’t even know why you want all of that so bad. We were doing fine before you started that job. We were not making millions but at least we were happy. I miss that Wille, I miss us being happy. I miss us, Wille.” Simme looks at him with tear filled eyes. Wille knew that everything Simon just said was justified and correct but after the kind of day he had, he couldn’t find himself to be empathetic. “You don’t know why I am doing all of this? WHY? You don’t know why I am working myself to death every single f**king day, Simon? FOR US. I want us to be able to live comfortably so that we never have to worry about anything like our parents had to. I am doing this so our kids in the future can live a happy life. Are you so selfish that you would rather I quit working hard for a better future just so we can spend every evening and night together? You can’t sacrifice time together for a year? You all make it sound like I am some kind of villain who has done nothing but make your life hard. And excuse me, is it not because I work hard and make the kind of money that I do that you were able to quit your job at the café and pursue your dream of making art? Whose job and money are sustaining all of that, Simon?” As soon as those last few words were out of his mouth, Wille felt his heartbeat fasten. The look on Simon’s face was devastating. He witnessed a tear slip out and slide down his cheek. Simon looked at Wille as if he could not believe he had just said all that. “Simme, I am sorry, I…” Before he could finish though, Simon interrupted him, “I think I would like to be alone right now. And we will talk more in the morning about where to go from here.” Simon broke eye contact as if dismissing Wille. He tried begging him to just hear him out, but Simon had gone silent and didn’t respond at all. “F**K SIMON, can you please hear me out?” At this, Simon got out of the bed and went to the bathroom. He locked the door which made it clear to Wille that Simon wanted to be left alone.
Wille cursed loudly before he aggressively took his tie and coat off and threw them in a random direction in the living room. He sat on the couch and put his head in his hands and silently screamed. F**k Simon, f**k relationships, f**k life. Sometimes he just wished that he had never met Simon. His life would have been so much better and easier. He could have worked and become successful without arguments every night. This was the last thought on Wille’s mind before he fell into an uneasy sleep.
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The sun shined on his face, and he tried to cover himself with the blanket, but it wasn’t enough to block out the light. Wille decided that it was time to wake up and face the music. His neck was going to remind him all day that he slept not only on the couch but in an awkward position. He tried to stretch but it didn’t help him much. He guessed that it served him right. He was a complete a** to Simon last night. He got this way when he got too stressed but that was no excuse and he really hoped that he will forgive him. He got up and saw that it was only 6AM. It didn’t matter though because he was going to call off today anyway. He walked to the bedroom and instantly felt that something was different. He opened the door only to realize that there was no one in there. Where could Simon have gone this early? He knew the fight they had last night was huge, but he also knew Simon wouldn’t just get up and leave. He wasn’t like that. He always talked things out no matter what the issue might be. No, he couldn’t have just left. Wille opened the closet, and this caused him concern. The closet looked like Simme never even lived there. All the clothes were Wille’s but in addition to his clothes, there also were a lot of designer suits and shoes in there. Okay, either Wille was still asleep, or someone had slipped him something and he was having a weird trip because this could not be real. Wille ran out of the bedroom, and he noticed how in the kitchen and the living room all traces of Simon were gone as well. There were no pictures of him. None of his books were on the shelves. Wille could feel his breathing get faster and he knew he was on verge of having a panic attack. He tried to calm his racing thoughts by counting down from 50 while also taking deep breaths. Once he had gotten his anxiety under some control, he reached for his phone only to realize that his wallpaper was a generic one and Simon’s face was no longer staring back at him. “What the f**k?” He whispered to himself and went into his contacts. Again, there was no Simon in his contacts. He decided to go to the café that Simon used to work at because he hoped that maybe he just went there to cool down or something. And maybe in anger he just wiped all his traces from the apartment. Yes, it made little to no sense, but Wille needed to tell himself something because otherwise he was on verge of another panic attack.
The bell on top of the door alerted the staff that Wille had entered the café. He desperately looked around to see if Simon was sitting somewhere with a coffee and a book. But he didn’t find him anywhere. Before he could turn around and leave though, he heard a familiar voice ask him for his order. Wille whipped his head around towards the register so fast, he got dizzy. There he was. Simon was standing at the register, wearing a black apron and had his hair in a bun. Wait he had his hair in a bun? Simon’s hair was short just last night, how was it long enough to be put in a bun now? Simon hadn’t grown his hair out for a year. “Simon! What are you doing here? I have been looking for you!!” Wille rushed towards the register and tried to hold Simon’s shoulder, but he stepped out of his reach. Simon looked at him with a confused look and responded, “I am sorry, do I know you?” Simon looked at his coworker and it seemed to Wille that he was alerting them as if Wille was about to attack them or something. “What? Simon, I know we had a fight but…” He stopped himself because he realized that Simon looked genuinely scared of Wille. He was staring at him with fear, not anger and worst of all there was no recognition behind those eyes. It was like Simon was looking at a stranger. Wille felt his heart break at the thought of not being known by Simon, but he knew this couldn’t be real. Something had to be wrong. Either he was still asleep or or or okay he doesn’t know what else but one thing he knew, there wasn’t even a small possibility that Simon didn’t know him. That couldn’t be his reality. “I am sorry. I think I got you confused with some else.” He decided he needed to come up with a plan instead of just scaring Simon and getting kicked out of the café. “No worries, man. Take care!” Wille needed to get out of there before he just broke down and begged Simon to stop this act and just come home.
While exiting the café, Wille bumped into a person. He was about to say sorry only to realize it was the same person from the shop last night. “Surprised?” Wille looked at him bewildered. “Judging from the look on your face, I am going to guess that you are in the process of paying for the watch, hmm child?” Wille wasn’t sure what he was going on about, but he didn’t have the mental capacity to deal with this right now. “Let me help you, Wille. You wished last night that you wanted to have a life that was vastly different than the life you were living so you have been granted that wish.” The first thing Wille realized was that they knew his name when he had never told this person that information. “What mind games are you playing with me? Please just stop and leave me alone okay?” Wille was about to walk away when the person stopped him. “I am not playing games with you. I am letting you know that this is your new life. You wished for a life where you had never met Simon and viola, you are now strangers to each other. Not only that, but you also have everything you ever dreamed of. You are a partner at work and co-own 25% of the shares. You have your dream car, designer everything. You want for nothing. You wished for it, and it has all been granted. Now’s the time for you to enjoy it.” With that said, Wille witnessed the person disappear into smoke right in front of his eyes.
With trembling legs, Wille walked back to his apartment and headed straight to the garage. That person, entity, whatever they were, were right. He did have his dream car parked right there in his spot. He drove to work and as he was walking towards his office on the first floor, he was stopped by one of the staff members. “Mr. Karlsson, what are you doing on this floor? If you need anything, please let me know and I will bring it up to you.” Wille tried to hide his confusion by smiling at her. “Of course, my office which is on the…” Sharon (as it says on her name plate) answered, “12th floor of course with the rest of the partners’ offices.” And that one statement confirmed to Wille that everything that the shopkeeper had told him this morning was true. This wasn’t a dream, or some weird drug induced trip, it was his new life. A life where he had everything he ever wanted except Simon.