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BRIAN


“I tripped you intentionally, when you were walking by me. LY”


“I spent the whole night at the bar drinking up the courage to talk to you. Love you”


I’d spent the morning at Kinnetik, tossing around ideas to win the MacTaylor account, waiting for Justin to bring his mother and sister for lunch. When they showed up, Lee was with them. He really should learn to hide his feelings, but then, Justin’s sister didn’t seem to notice how Lee hung on every word she said. Justin’s mother smiled when Justin kissed me before introducing everyone.


“I hope you didn’t mind, but I thought it would be nice to meet without so many people around.” Jen tells me.


“I was trying to save Brian from all the questions you and Molly would ask.” Justin tells her.


“Well what do you expect when you finally let us meet the man you're seeing?” Molly asks him.


“Until Brian, there was never a reason I wanted you to meet any of the men I was seeing.” Justin teases her.


We were walking out of my office when Deb came charging in. Deb coming here to tell me Michael needed me wasn't something I needed Justin’s mother to witness.


“I need to talk to you about Michael.” She tells me.


“It’s not a good time, as you can see we were just leaving.” I tell her.


“I’m sure your client understands that family is more important.” She tells me.


“Which we would if we were clients, but right now Brian wants to get to know my family.” Justin tells her.


“It doesn’t mean he forgets the family that helped him when he needed us. I’m sure you and your boyfriend can entertain your family while Brian and I talk.” She tells Justin, looking at Lee.


“Since Brian is the boyfriend, it would make more sense for him to be with me. Let me introduce myself, I’m Justin Taylor, Brian’s partner for more than three years.” Justin tells her.


“This will only take a few minutes Brian, and then you and I can decided how to help Michael.” She tells me, ignoring everything Justin said to her.


“We can go ahead and meet you.” Jen tells me.


“No. I made a promise to Justin that OUR life is where my focus is.” I tell Jen. “Deb, Michael needs to start living his life, and I need to start living mine. He’s never going to find the things he wants by waiting for me. Justin is who I want and who I’m with.” I tell her, bringing Justin to me.


“You didn’t have to throw it in his face, the way you let him do last night to Michael.” Deb tells us, glaring at Justin.


“Jen, we’ll meet you. I think Justin and I need to handle this.” I tell Jen.


“I can go if you need to deal with this.” Justin tells me.


“We agreed no more secrets, it means you get to be involved in the parts that I didn’t want to tell you about.” I tell him, leading us back to the office.


Deb sat down in the seating area and just waited for us to follow her. It was when I thought about the conversation Ted and I had this morning. He wanted to know why I let Justin deal with Michael, not really intervening when Michael spouted the bullshit coming out of his mouth.


“Justin wouldn’t have appreciated me doing that. He never likes anyone treating him like he can’t take care of himself. It’s one of the things about him that kept me wanting him in my life.” I told Ted.


When Deb started laying into Justin about not at least trying to make friends with Michael, I waited to see how he wanted to handle this.


“I’m not sure where you get the idea that Michael starting off the conversation with me by telling me that it was nice that Brian wasn’t with a trick for once, was anything but wanting me to disappear.” Justin tells her.


“Michael gets protective of Brian. You have to understand, he worries that you could be trying to take advantage of Brian.” She tells him, making me want to call Lindsay and tell her talking to Deb just wasted her breath.


“Is that what you call trying to make it seem like he and Brian were a couple, while I was just someone in his way? Maybe you should ask why Brian had to leave Pittsburgh to have a relationship. It wasn’t because I was his ‘dirty little secret’, as Michael announced to the whole bar last night.” Justin tell her.


“I’m sorry, but Brian has always told us everything, and maybe it’s you who should question why he didn’t want us to know about YOU.” She tells him.


“I’m assuming because you and your son tend to jump in when and where you're not wanted or needed. It’s the only reason I could see for him not wanting me to know about anyone here. Well, it could also be that from everyone I’ve met in Brian’s life, not one of you did anything but blame him for Michael getting hurt. I might not have known anything about you or Pittsburgh, but now I can see why there were times Brian showed up acting as if he needed to get away from everything. For a while it did make me question why he only ever wanted our relationship to be as if there was nothing that existed but the two of us. I now can see that maybe Pittsburgh was his ‘dirty little secret’. So I’m sorry if your son’s feelings got bruised because I didn’t let him try to convince me he was more important to Brian then me, Brian’s partner.” He tells her.


“Brian, you can’t act like Michael doesn’t matter.” She tells me.


“I have to make sure my partner knows I support him and our relationship. Justin did nothing more than respond to what Michael was throwing at him.” I tell her.


“Brian, he came to my house depressed. He thinks all his friends are forgetting him in favor of Justin. I know what he did was wrong, but he needs you guys.” She tells me.


“So the video I sent you, and seeing that Michael made up an ‘emergency’ didn’t bother you, but all of us not willing to excuse his lies is a problem?” I ask, incredulous.


“He was there for all of you, couldn’t you just overlook it this once?” She asks, making me wonder why I ever respected Deb.


“I’m going to leave and meet my mother, because this conversation is bordering on the ridiculous. I don’t want to say something that you probably wouldn’t listen to anyway.” Justin tells her.


“I know Michael depends on Brian, but Justin, Brian gave Michael reasons to believe it.” Deb tells him.


“Did Brian EVER tell Michael he wanted more than friendship?” Justin asked.


“No, but…”


“Then why would you say he gave Michael reasons to believe it?” He asks.


“Every time Michael met someone, Brian made it so Michael ended the relationship.” Deb tells him.


“I’m sorry, but did you say Brian MADE him end a relationship? That’s a lot of power for someone to have, keeping to people who love each other apart.” Justin tells her.


“I didn’t say Michael loved them, but Brian would show up and Michael would run off, leaving the person in the cold to go clubbing with Brian.” She tells him.


“Did you have a gun, handcuffs, or maybe drug him into doing something he didn’t want to do?” Justin asks me, sarcastically.


“He might as well have, Michael would do anything if Brian wanted him to.” Deb snaps at Justin.


“I didn’t ask Michael to follow me, he did that on his own.” I tell Deb.


“He wanted you to love him the way he loved you…” She tells me, stopping when she realized what she said.


“I can’t and I won’t Deb. There’s only one person who is going to get the future Michael wants, and that’s Justin. All the guilt, and making me feel like I owe it to Michael to give him a farce of a relationship, isn’t going to work. Now, unless there is some part of this conversations that includes you understanding that calling because Michael cries wolf, doesn’t mean me running to him anymore, then I don’t see the point in continuing. Now, I would like to get to know Justin’s family and staying here is interfering with the time Justin’s mother wanted to spend getting to know me.” I tell her, helping her up and walking her out the door.


BLAKE


I don’t get why Ted and I can’t have one day that doesn’t include Michael trying make everyone stop Brian from doing anything Michael doesn’t like. Somehow I thought that since we were having lunch somewhere other than the diner, we’d get to spend lunch alone.


“Don’t get pissed, I told Cynthia to tell him where we were so Brian could get to know Justin’s family.” Ted tells me.


“I'll deal with it, for Brian and Justin, but if he starts trying to play the victim, then he and I are going to have a problem.” I tell him.


I shook my head at Ted when Michael limped over to us then sat down like he was in pain. I almost commented when he asked me to get him a sandwich at the counter while he talked to Ted.


I've never been able to make friends with Michael. I’ve tried since Ted and I got together, but there was just something about the way he constantly wanted to be the center of attention. It just didn't have me seeing Michael as anything but a user, only of people, not drugs. I didn’t let my feelings get in the way of Ted’s friendship with Michael because it didn't really affect our relationship. There were so many times when I wanted to pull Brian aside and ask why he let Michael treat him as if he owned him, but there was this unspoken line no one ever crossed in the ‘Brian and Mikey show’. I chose to sit back and observe rather than cause conflicts that would have the gang defending Michael. He just wasn't that important to me.


Ted admitted that at one time he had feelings for Michael, but eventually saw Michael couldn’t return them and let it go. It’s just that no one is willing to call it what it is, a teenage crush that went on into adulthood. It’s like they couldn't see what Brian was doing in the last six months; self medicating to avoid feeling what he’d lost. They just saw Brian returning to the way things were before the accident, well except for Mel. Brian didn’t hide it from her, which really, with the way the two of them are with each other, means Brian saw Mel as someone who wouldn’t use it to hurt him when he was already hurting.


I returned to the table with Michael’s meatball sub, and hearing him try to turn what was him insulting Justin’s place in Brian’s life, into him being insulted by Justin, just didn’t make me happy. It wasn’t like me to dump food on anyone’s lap, but you know, it felt good. It also made laugh when the limp disappeared as he lept to his feet and hopped up and down to get the food off his lap.


“I’m so sorry, it just slipped when I went to put it down.” I tell him.


I watched Michael fight the scathing remark that was trying to leap out of his mouth. “We’re all clumsy sometimes.” He managed to grit through his teeth.


“Well at least you didn’t have any problems getting to your feet. Ted, I need to get back to work.” I tell him.


“You haven’t even eaten lunch. At least let me get something and bring it to you.” Ted tells me.


“It will have to be after you take me home. I think I hurt myself and need to rest my leg.” Michael gets back into character for us.


“The bus picks up right outside the door. I’m sorry, but I want to drive Blake back to work.” Ted tells him.


“It’s fine. I’m sure Brian can come get me.” Michael limps out.


“Take him home. You wanted to help Brian, and I just gave him a reason to play ‘poor injured Michael’.” I tell Ted.


“Then he plays it alone, because Brian isn’t going to run off from meeting Justin’s family, and Michael needs to see it.” Ted tells me, going to get our orders wrapped up.

 

We were pulling out when we watched Michael looking frustrated at his phone and stomping off towards Liberty Avenue.

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