It'll be awhile before I get around to this (if I ever do), so I'm gonna introduce you to a different kind of Thomas.
A Thomas who does not join the seminary and make his faith his whole life, is quite a different man. His personality is the same, of course, but it's a fun exercise to make a character's life so very different and see how to retain who they are.
I feel like Thomas does what's expected of him, and if it's not the expectations of the Church, then he would be victim to the expectations of Society. His dreams are not his own (the desire to have a nuclear family), and the dreams he did have he pushes aside as impractical.
He still has a fondness for languages and literature and art, and as a younger man would have wanted to be a university lecturer. But there's no money in education, and a friend of his father runs a successful paper company. There's a good job for him if he studies business instead. It's the practical option.
He convinces himself this is something he wants - he'll help with expanding internationally, be able to utilise the languages he knows, maybe have a reason to start learning ones that he doesn't, he'll get to travel.
But the travel is just switching one set of bland offices for another and rarely getting to see the sights. But he's Head of International Relations, and then Assistant Manager, then Manager, and that's good, right? That's the goal. Climb the ladder, get the titles, the bigger paychecks to buy the nice house and the car...
But the house is missing the wife, two kids and a dog he ought to have.
Thomas is attracted to people who are more free and spirited than himself, and this means they are not women who want to be tied down to a bland man, and they certainly want more from life than to be the mother of two kids in a nice house. They have career aspirations, and/or life aspirations to live free and travel, all of them are fiercely independent.
Thomas is kind, and handsome, and sweet. But he always messes up the relationships he's had by bringing up moving in together, or marriage. He's made the mistake of proposing once. The answer is always, fundamentally the same: 'I'm not ready for that yet'. They are kind in their rejection, but it doesn't make it sting any less. The parting is always amicable but they never speak again.
If he was better in bed, maybe he wouldn't have had such a problem. (He doesn't know he's demi). Sex always makes him feel awkward and anxious. He desperately wants to make the other person feel good, but he feels like most of the time his partner is a little disappointed. He's not entirely sure he's ever made a woman come, or if they were just being polite in those instances. So his mediocre previous experiences feed into his anxiety about it and means he always suffers the same thing.
At some point he decides he's too old for dating, that if he hasn't been able to settle down with someone by now, it's too late. In his more depressed moments, he wishes he had followed his parents' advice and dated the daughter of a family friend. They had nothing in common, but they'd be married by now, and she would have wanted a family. Perhaps they'd have learnt to love each other.
Despite working in the company for his whole life, it's a family business, and Thomas isn't part of that family. He's the trusted advisor, the best manager, but never on the board of directors. Then as they have to move with the times and get more technologically advanced, Thomas gets more and more left behind. He feels like he's just there because he's part of the furniture, then out of pity when he goes through his cancer treatment (although most people don't even seem to realise his absence).
The CEO dies and that's the last straw for Thomas. Hardly anyone seems to know him, he's just always been there, a 'friend of the old man'. It feels like a life wasted - 40+ years for what? He doesn't even get the satisfaction of people being sorry that he's leaving when he retires. He's sure they all think it's well overdue.
But without a job, his life is truly empty. He has nothing and no one (Aldo is always travelling - he's a food and travel writer, Thomas has always been envious of him in his lower moments). He sees two men holding hands in the street one afternoon and desperately wishes he'd been brave enough to try dating a man instead. Maybe that would have worked out better?
He decides he needs to stop moping, and if he doesn't want to waste the rest of his life, he needs to DO something. Something meaningful. So he starts looking for charities he might be able to do work for.
And there's something. A new food distribution charity, seeking to connect to shops and corporate caterers to reduce food waste. They have grander visions of being able to provide all necessities, and becoming a global network, but they are only just starting. Thomas appreciates someone with a big dream and wants to help it come true. They're seeking someone with management and communications experience.
And maybe it's not too late for Thomas after all. He just needs to realise what his own dreams are
