Be My Travel Husband

Every week they would be in a different place with new people. It would be the first time that Sage would be traveling so frequently in such little time, so even as a busybody, the changes in environments made his head spin a bit. He was unsure on what to do. If he got up, would they suddenly already be moving onto the next place? Was there time for any adjusting at all?

He sat on the edge of the bed, feet crossed, and held the remote for the TV. In the room, Rowan got ready, buttoning up a white shirt. He began shoving the ends into his buckled pants.

"You know you're supposed to pull the pants over the ends of the shirt and then buckle them, so you don't have to shove it in like that," Sage muttered.

"You don't have to pretend to be my husband when we're alone," Rowan mumbled quietly, slightly embarrassed, but he managed to dress himself. "Are you going to stay here all day?" he asked, desperate to make some type of conversation even if it was small talk.

"Probably not," Sage answered, looking down at the remote. He flipped it around in his hand. Since he was not in his own jurisdiction, he could not do what he wanted. At his home office he tended to work overtime. Head in early and leave late—all on his own. The decision was his. However, being a travel doctor, the rules were stricter; Sage could not create his own hours.

"You plan on going out?"

"I don't normally spend my days off locked up in my room anyhow. It's weird enough that two hours ago I wasn't getting ready for work."

"I see," Rowan said. He slipped on a jacket onto his shoulders and stepped up to the edge of the bed where Sage sat. "Then, if you need anything, call me, alright?"

Sage froze and stared. "Didn't you just say we don't need to pretend to be married when we're alone? I don't need to call you. I'm capable of helping myself."

"I mean," Rowan stammered, "I mean if it's something quick and easy to grab and you don't want to have to get dressed or something."

Sage shook his head. It did not answer any question for Rowan. The other grabbed his keys, his laptop bag, and left.

There was a slightly awkward atmosphere left in the room even after Rowan had gone. Together, they offered good, friendly banter, but Sage was unsure how to make it seem more casual. He still considered Rowan a stranger. How was he supposed to behave? Pretend to be lifelong friends? That didn't seem right either. The air still felt tense. Sage didn't know how to diffuse it, but he knew that he wanted it gone if there was going to be three months of it.

The doctor couldn't stay still for long. He ended up calling Liwayway to check on things. It was nearing lunch time. He figured it was a good time to call.

"Sage! How is it?" Liwayway happily asked when she picked up the phone.

"Fine. Whatever."

"I told you to send me pictures of your first make-up look. Don't tell me you forgot."

"I told you I wasn't doing that."

"...You're no fun. As a teacher, I should see my student's work." She loved how the tables had turned. Sage scoffed.

"Whatever," he said. "How is it there?"

"Every patient has asked where you were. I feel like my head is going to explode. Three months of this?"

"Sorry."

"It's not your fault, Sage. Just rest up. You deserve a break! I can handle this."

"Mm." Sage looked down at the TV remote again. He had never changed the channel from what it was when he first turned it on, and he never even looked at what was playing. All he thought about was that he should get up and try to look around for something productive to do. Being a travel doctor was four ten-hour days a week. So, he had three days of nothing. Sage was a bit lost. He had never had so much time off before. 

After the call with Liwayway, Sage decided to take a self-tour around the city. Most of his life was confined to the hospital, his apartment complex, and the road to and from. Even as a teenager, he had never done any exploration, so while he had lived in a city his whole life, walking around one was still quite new to him.

As someone who hardly went anywhere, Sage had trouble with direction. He never had practice in memorizing street names and outlets. If someone asked him where the nearest frozen yogurt place was in his own home city, he would have no idea. So, he managed to get lost a lot of times and got confused about how he had managed to get where he did, but he found some nice people who told him how to get back to the inn where he stayed. His phone's GPS was burnt out from how much he continuously referred to it for help.

It took much of his day. Sage headed back to the hotel around twenty. His hoodie was pulled far over his head as he swiped the keycard in the door and quickly slipped inside. As he turned around, he pulled down the hood and paused.

"Oh. Sorry." 

"There's nothing to be sorry about," Rowan answered. He stood with a towel around his hips and his caramel hair dripping water onto his clean shoulders. It was more like a burnt caramel color when it was wet, and it matched closer to the deep color of his eyes. He had been staring down at his phone, but when Sage walked in, Rowan glanced over. Sage had always seen people naked in a professional setting, but in the setting that it was someone he was pretending to be married to, he couldn't help but feel a strange stuffiness in his chest. He froze like a statue for a moment. "Sage?"

"Are you done in the bathroom?" Sage pushed aside the topic.

"Y, yeah."

"Okay. Good."

Sage avoided him for the rest of the night.

The medical facility in the area was very elated to hear that Doctor Sage Gannon was going to help them out in their building. He was met with respect and smiles. While Doctor Gannon had been in one hospital his whole life, his expertise was popular among other hospitals in different ranges. He had no idea until he had nurse fans. While Rowan was a well-known businessman in his field, Sage was a well-known doctor in his.

There was no Liwayway at the hospital, however. Sage had a nurse whom he wasn't familiar with helping him. He figured he should get used to new nurses since he would be meeting with a new one every week. It wasn't that the nurse working with him was dumb, she was probably on the same level as Liwayway, but she didn't know Sage's habits, so it was a bit difficult. He realized then how much he appreciated having Liwayway by his side.

A couple days went by where it was exactly like that: Sage didn't have to dress up or pretend, but he went out and worked as usual except he was experiencing a different environment and different people. It was quite the change. He didn't hate it, but part of him longed for his office and the workers he was familiar with.

When he left after his workday and returned to where he was staying, it was only a hotel room, not his apartment. Instead of lonely silence, Sage was typically met with Rowan passed out on the couch with his back to him and a thin blanket pulled over his body.

It was hard to adjust to the new things of an unfamiliar room with a stranger occupying the space with him, but it was only the first week. Sage was rushing things. He took a deep breath and prepared himself to already leave his temporary home.

On the sixth day in, Sage came back at sixteen. Earlier than usual. Rowan was sitting on the floor at the edge of the bed in front of the television with a takeout container placed beside him. His phone balanced against his ear and his shoulder. The only thing he decided to wear after work was a pair of boxers that were tight against his skin. He looked up in surprise that the other was back earlier than he had been coming back before. 

Rowan, despite being on a phone call, raised a takeout dish in his hands and held it up. A way to offer it to Sage.

The doctor scoffed in response, slightly shaking his head as he went to take a shower.

Sage closed the bathroom door behind him, but he kept his back to it and listened carefully, being able to hear Rowan's conversation through the wall.

"Ah, no, no! Sorry. No, sweetiepie, I was listening… You did? That sounds amazing… …Yup, I can't wait to come back and see it… Yes, I miss you too, of course… Ah, it's only the first week. Don't tell me I'll have to catch a plane back for a day and come see you? … Okay, I might… I know, I'm sorry, sweetie. I'll make it up to you when I get back… Okay, I love you too. Goodnight."

If Sage was being completely honest, he felt that Rowan's ex-wife was a little clingy. They were getting divorced, and she skipped out on a romantic work vacation, yet they were still chatting quite a bit. Not to mention all the endearing terms he was using.

There was no way he would deny that their inn room was a bit flirty with chocolates on the pillows and sexual things stashed in the drawers like a pack of condoms and a small tube of lube. They would surely have been active if they were together here instead of him and Rowan. If they were still in love with each other, why did she bail and why would they be getting divorced? Sage felt a bit of pity toward the man, feeling like Rowan was being dragged like a poor, dumb dog on a leash.

Once he was cleaned up, he left the bathroom and the steam poured out with him. His entrance back into the main room was almost like an angel stepping into the light with Heaven's clouds spilling from behind him, streams of light illuminating his glossy figure that was still damp with water. 

He glanced over. Rowan was where he had been before, but he was no longer on the phone. Instead, he looked at Sage and stared silently, like the angel's first admirer in shock he had finally seen his belief in front of him for the first time.

Sage joined him on the floor and asked, "How's your back?" Rowan had always honored Sage's choice in taking over the bed for himself and never asked him if they could switch. So, for the past five nights, Rowan had suffered to sleep on the couch, which brought up Sage's question.

"Huh?" The question was sudden, not what he was expecting, and most certainly not where his mind had been at all. Rowan had no idea what Sage was referring to. With the back of his hand, he wiped away the food on his face and asked, "What are you talking about?" 

Sage looked past Rowan by sitting up a little, his green eyes going toward the couch in the room as he said, "You've been sleeping on that thing for almost a week. I laid on it this morning because I was curious. Your back must be killing you sleeping there for so many nights in a row."

On the first night, Sage claimed the bed, not particularly caring if Rowan found a spot to sleep. He was a little out of it from the long drive and grumpy. Without a second thought, he took the bed. The next night it followed much of the same. He was in a cranky mood after having to play dress-up. After he took off the makeup and fancy clothing, he crashed in the bed. The next few after that, Sage instinctively took the bed since he had been there two nights before, but the more he became aware of it, the more he realized that it was quite unfair.

"Well," Rowan began to say, "better me than you."

"That's not particularly true," Sage said. "I wouldn't call you dumb, but when it comes to knowing the human body, I know more," he said. Rowan looked at him. He blinked a few times and nodded in agreement. Sage continued, "And I know that if you take one night to sleep in the bed, you'll feel a lot better." Sage picked up the tray of takeout food and looked at it, contemplating taking a bite. He ended up scrunching his face at it and set it back down. "Take the bed tonight."

"And you?"

"The couch. Duh."

Rowan paused for a moment before quietly saying, "It's a large bed. And despite what you said, you don't roll around."

"I'll be fine on the couch, Rowan. Take the offer. I won't accept your refusal."

"Okay," Rowan said. He didn't want to stick Sage with sleeping on the couch considering he had been silently suffering there himself. His back was killing him, but with the massive favor Sage was doing for him, he kept his mouth shut. However, now, with Sage staring at him so seriously, he couldn't see a way out of it. "Pardon the offense, then."

The first week with the client Mr. Lume concluded swiftly. Sage returned late on the night they planned to leave and found that Rowan was not there yet. Still, he gathered his belongings quietly. He ignored all of Rowan's things. They were not his to mess with.

Rowan had still not returned even though it was so late. So, all Sage could do was wait. He had his own bag packed at his feet. Though the television was right in front of him, Sage read a book on his phone on a library app he had downloaded when he got bored and had no work near him.

A noise from the front door beeped and then clicked. The handle moved before the door swung open. Sage glanced over as Rowan returned with shaggy hair and tousled clothing.

"Where have you been?" Sage questioned right away.

"Ugh. Mr. Lume wanted to drink," Rowan said with a groan. He entered the room, brushing back his light bangs from his face, and offered a tired smile, though it was fake and unable to form his dimples. The scent of alcohol and tobacco smoke wafted off from him. Sage was repulsed by it and cringed, tilting himself back from Rowan. It seemed that he did more than drink and smoke; it appeared like he had fun with others.

What did Sage care though? They weren't married. His 'ex-wife' would be more upset. Maybe they were getting divorced upon Rowan's unfaithfulness, however, spending a week with Rowan and it did not seem like something he would do. Sage found that Rowan's behavior was contradicting. In the end, it was none of Sage's business, so he dropped the thoughts entirely.

"Go shower before we leave. I'm not getting stuck in a car ride with you while you smell like that."

Rowan frowned. He raised his arm and tried to smell himself. "It's not that bad."

"You're used to it. Go shower," Sage ordered. He ended up packing Rowan's things for him anyway.

Since Rowan had been drunk and slipping into a nasty hangover, he slept in the backseat while Sage drove. It was more draining than Sage would have thought. Pressing the gas, staring at the roads, waiting for traffic. Doing it for hours grew exhausting. His body was sore by the time they arrived at the scheduled inn, and they were meant to be up in the following few hours again. Sage would give the other an earful for putting him through the straight driving. He could have at least switched with him.

Rowan had still been out of it. So out of it that Sage had to push him inside the inn. It was embarrassing. He shoved the other down on the sofa to sleep. They would have to bring their things inside the next morning. Sage was too exhausted after hours of driving to do anything else. He took the bed and quickly fell asleep.