“There you are!” Brian spotted Justin in one of the multi-linked chairs at the gate for their flight. “Christ, I’ve been looking all over for you.”

“Not all of us can have memberships to fancy airline clubs.” Justin retorted.

Brian ignored the sarcasm. “Next time just meet me in the club. I’ll make sure Harold knows your waiting on me. Now come on.” Brian grabbed Justin’s shoulder.

Justin shrugged off the hand. “Brian, you’re taking an awful lot for granted. I think I’ve had my fill of the Liberty Lounge Men’s room.” Justin was still a bit angry and put off by yesterday’s replay of last week’s encounter. He was angry at himself because a part of him wanted to throw caution to the wind and join Brian there.

“We’re not going to the lounge, I’ve got a hotel room.”

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

Brian raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips, he waited for Justin to complete his thought.

“Our flight - it’s supposed to leave in 20 minutes.”

“It’s not going anywhere.”

“Well, perhaps I didn’t get the memo, but I didn’t realize you had the power to effect air traffic.”

God, the boy had a pissy attitude. “I don’t,” Brian pointed Justin to the windows beyond the gate. “but the weather gods do.”

Justin followed direction of Brian’s hand. “Holy shit! when did that happen?”

“Its been getting steadily worse for the last hour. Some freak late season snowstorm. They’re expecting no less than two feet. Every northern airport between Chicago and here is closed. According to Harold, in about ten minutes the Port Authority will be closing LaGuardia for at least the next twelve hours. Cynthia managed to book me the last suite at the Crown Plaza. I figured that you might prefer it to camping out here with the cattle.”

Justin nodded; he was still stunned by the snow piling up outside the window.

“Well then, grab your gear. In five minutes we won’t be able to find a cab. I’m not walking in this shit; I just bought these Prada boots.”

~~~~~~

Cynthia had managed to get them a nice two room suite. Taking his cues from Brian, Justin hung back as Brian registered and collected keys to their suite, the executive elevator and the the executive level lounge.

“What is it with you and all these private clubs?”

“It makes travel bearable.”

Brian opened the door to the suite and entered, leaving Justin to follow. He put his briefcase on the desk and rolled his Tumi case into the bedroom. Justin dropped his backpack and carry on next to the couch. He sat down trying to figure out what to do next.

Brian came back in from the bedroom. “Would you mind ordering us some food. It will probably take hours for room service to get here, but there’s no way I want to deal with the masses in the restaurant.”

Grateful for something to do, Justin took the menu Brian handed him and read down the options. “What would you like? The pasta looks good.”

“No carbs after seven.” Brian responded automatically, he was already at the desk unpacking his briefcase, setting up his workspace. “Order me a turkey on whole wheat, lettuce, tomato, no mayo.” And as an afterthought, “Please.”

“Okay” Justin looked down at the menu and decided that that wasn’t going to work. “How about turkey breast with pesto and grilled mediterranean vegetables on foccacia?”

Brian nodded absently as he stared at his laptop screen. “I don’t have to eat the bread, Just make sure they send a spare set of silverware.”

Justin picked up the phone and called room service. After placing the food order Justin looked around. Brian seemed to be preoccupied with plugging in his laptop at the only desk in the room. Justin reached into his backpack for his ever present sketch pad. But at the last minute pushed it back in the bag and pulled out his laptop instead. It looked like Brian was going to work for the evening, he should probably do the same.

At the sound of shuffling, Brian looked up from the desk. “You need the desk?” He didn’t really want to give up his workspace, but he supposed he could share.

“Nah,” Justin responded. “The hotel has wireless, and I can catch a signal here. I’m fine on the couch.”

Brian gave an absent nod. He took out his cell phone charger and plugged it in beside his laptop cord. He clipped in his cell phone. He had a list of calls to make.

He started with Lindsay and Gus. He got through on the first ring. He explained to Lindsay about the airport being shut down and that he wasn’t exactly sure when he’d be getting back to Pittsburgh. He then asked to speak with Gus. He wanted the boy to know that he hadn’t planned to miss their Wednesday night out, but he didn’t know when the airport would reopen. He could hear Gus’s disappointment in his voice. He promised Gus that he’d make it up to him on Saturday. With a sigh, he said goodbye.

Next on Brian’s list was Ted - Brian needed Ted to rework his Wednesday’s schedule of meetings. Since Ted had offered to help out, Brian was going to take him up on the offer. As it turned out, Ted informed Brian that all of Wednesday’s meetings had already been rescheduled due to the fact that the snow had shut down most of the city as well as the airport.

“Don’t worry about it Brian, if anything else comes up I’ll work with Cynthia to cover for you.” Ted responded.

“Thanks, Ted. Anything else?”

“Well, Hal has been complaining about the set design for the Remson Pharmaceutical commercial, something about the plan documents not being correct. Anyway, it’s going to push back production a week. We’re going to end up eating the cost of the materials and rent on the sound stage since they’re going to have to either break down what’s been built so far and rework it or start from scratch.”

Brian closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Do we know what the problem is?”

“Not entirely sure, but we’re working on it. The set design plan was being done by SureCorp Design. They insist that all their work is correct.”

“Well, do whatever you have to to help Hal resolve the issue. I want an update on this tomorrow afternoon. Ted, you know I can’t impress upon you how important this commercial and the Remson account is. I’ll see you tomorrow if the airports open up - if not, Thursday.” With that Brian hung up.

Brian spent the next hour returning email and voicemail messages and leaving instructions for Cynthia on various projects.

Over on the couch Justin had been working on the project for Brett. “Fucking, arrogant, pompous idiot!” he muttered loud enough to draw Brian’s attention.

“Really, Justin, if you have something to say to me, just say it to my face.” Brian smiled over at Justin, lips curved, his tongue stuck in his cheek.

Justin looked up from the couch and laughed. “Sorry.”

“What are you working on that has you so wound up?”

“The movie I’m working on. Boy Blunder strikes again. The art director who Brett hired me to help,” Justin sighed and shook his head. “He may have incredible artistic sensibilities but he doesn’t know shit about scale. I wouldn’t be so pissed if I hadn’t caught this error a week ago and pointed it out to him. Christ, I even have the email I sent to him and Brett about the problem. But no, the arrogant idiot not only didn’t listen to my instructions, he sent the documents to set design without proofing them. Since he was late in delivery in the first place, Set Design has been working non-stop. Now, none of the doors match the frame and the everything is off. Do you know what every day is costing the studio while they have to rebuild the set? $45,000. This is only supposed to be a thirty-five day shoot.” Justin shook his head and picked up his cell phone. “At least I found the problem before it got any worse. Brett will be have to be happy with that.” He dialed the director.

“Hey Brett... Yeah I found the problem... It was what I went over with him last week... No, I’ll take care of it, I’m almost done with the re-workings now anyway. I’ll ftp the files to set design tonight... You’re welcome... Yeah, I can look over the rest of the work... Probably two to three days... Really? Thanks!... Okay, call me if anything else comes up... Yeah, hell of a snowstorm... I’m fine, I’m bunked down in a hotel near the airport...And thanks again, I’ll take you up on it... see you in two weeks.”

Brian had been watching Justin as he talked with the director. As Justin hung up the phone, Brian crossed to the couch. “What exactly is it that you do? Like for this movie thing.”

Justin turned to Brian, his face inquisitive. “Well, in the case of he movie, I’m reviewing the art director’s design work and working with the set director and the set builders to help get the budget back on track.”

“Is that something an artist, a painter would do?”

“Well, probably not, but it’s something I do; something I can do.”

Brian raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips. Justin took this to mean he wanted more of an explanation.

“I guess I have a bit of an advantage over some of the folks I work with. I’m not just focused on design and the artistic attributes of the work.”

“How’s that?”

“Well,” Justin continued. “I have a weird melding of background and experience that helps me to function well as a troubleshooter in this type of arena. The summer after my freshman year at PIFA, I got a job as an intern on the large renovation of a 1930s theatre downtown. It was actually part of a larger regentrification project that Three River Development was working on for the art and entertainment district in downtown.”

Brian knew Three River Development - they were consulting on the Tremont and Liberty project for Kinnetik Corp.

“Well,” Justin continued. “I figured that I’d be running errands, getting coffee and that shit, but then they paired me with the lead architect on the job. He has rheumatoid arthritis - he was in pretty much rough shape at the time and had limited mobility in his fingers. At the end of my senior year of High School I had had an, uh... accident, and my right hand had had similar problems. Sometimes I still do.”

Justin rubbed his right hand absently and got quiet. Then, in a stronger voice went on. “When I was having... problems... with my hand... I had learned how to use a computer aided drawing program.” He mentioned the name of the software.

Brian nodded, “Our art department uses the same program. It has amazing capabilities.”

Justin smiled and nodded, “It made a world of difference to me. Drawing and fine detail work was incredibly difficult in the months following the... accident. I had just about given up hope that I would be able to draw, to be an artist, to create. Anyway, the software not only gave me a method to continue to work as an artist, it opened a whole new way to be an artist and create art.

“Anyway, I was using the program on my laptop - like the second week I was working there - and Bob, that's the architect’s name - Bob Salem.” Brian knew Bob. Bob was hot, even if he did have a disability. That, and Bob happened to be his architect on the Tremont and Liberty project.

Justin continued. “Bob, he was really interested in the program and what I was able to do. We kind of bonded over our disabilities. I showed Bob how to use the software - he took to it right away. He kind of took me in under his wing. He taught me how to use the CAD* and drafting programs that he used. He set up a workspace for me in his office. Since his arthritis was really bad that summer - it’s better now thanks to new drugs that have been developed - I spent most of the summer being his hands. We became really close.”

Brian wondered about that. Bob was a few years older than Brian. That would have made him nearly twenty years older than Justin. Surely not. Brian had to squelch the twinge he felt over Justin possibly having a relationship with the handsome older man.

Before Brian could asked, Justin answered the question. “Bob was like an older brother and uncle rolled into one. He was great. I had had a... falling out... with my dad when I came out. Bob was like a surrogate for that relationship. For a while, I considered being an architect. But in the end, the art was just too strong a pull.”

Justin stared across the room, talking more to himself than Brian. “If I had become an architect, I would have never been able to devote the time necessary to being an artist. The art would have become a hobby. Something that I’d do on the weekends if I wasn’t busy. I knew I couldn’t do that.”

Justin shook his head and raised his eyes to meet Brian’s. “I didn’t mean to get maudlin. You were asking me how it is that I do what I do.”

Brian nodded indicating that Justin should go on.

“Well, I worked for Bob in my sophomore year after and between classes. I was set to work for him the summer between sophomore and junior year, when I found out about an internship with a studio in Hollywood. I had always wanted to do computer animation - even though the internship wasn’t in computer animation - but I figured, it would be a step closer. I got the internship, when I got there I was put on the fetch latte rotation. But early in the first month, I kind of got noticed.”

Brian bet he got noticed - cute bubble butt, sunshine smile, beautiful blond hair.

“The studio was having some trouble between the artwork and set design. I had gotten into work early. It was west coast, but I was still on east coast hours. So I was fiddling around with the design problem. One of the managers came in early - to beat the traffic I’m pretty sure - and noticed what I was doing. Even though my resume spelled out the programs that I was familiar with, they never really believed that I knew how to use the software in a production sense.”

Justin looked up at Brian. “People tend to underestimate my abilities because I look young and...,” Justin added, clearly uncomfortable, “pretty.”

Brian let a small grin pull at the edge of his lips. Clearly Justin didn’t like to be labeled a twink. “And you’re so old?”

“I’m twenty-six. Why? how old are you?”

Brian ignored the question, and Justin continued.

“Anyway, once I had proven my abilities, I was quickly moved from latte duty to real work. By the end of the summer they had offered me a real job. I transferred out to USC for my Junior and Senior year and worked for the studio part time, breaks and summers.

“When I graduated I had a real job - that paid well - and started living the Hollywood dream. I was working for Brett on a film last year when the project got cancelled, then the studio art department got downsized. I got a nice send off package, and offers to do some freelance work. I packed up my apartment and headed back to Pittsburgh. The freelance work pays well enough that I can devote time to my artwork and not have to worry about where my next meal is coming from.”

A knock on the door interrupted the rather one sided conversation.

Brian stood up and crossed to the door. Opening it, a room service cart and waiter was revealed. “Speaking of your next meal...” Brian grinned as he ushered the waiter in to set up the meal at the small dining table.

Once the waiter had been tipped and dismissed, they sat down to their meal.

Brian took the opportunity to ask some questions. “So you say the pay is good - how much do you charge for a project?”

Justin was a bit taken aback by the question. His country club upbringing didn’t exactly find discussing his income acceptable dinner conversation. But Justin tamped the feelings down and realized, that if this were an interview for a job, the question would be reasonable. “I get $3,500 a day plus reasonable expenses. For a shorter job, $500/hour, two hour minimum.”

Brian was impressed, that was no chump change. And he like the way that Justin said it, he didn’t apologize for the fees he asked. He clearly was confident in his worth. The wheels were turning in Brian’s brain.

“Ever consider doing consulting for commercials?”

Justin took a bite of his pasta and thought about that one a minute. Then he shook his head. “I’ve been doing mostly film and stage work - recently a couple of music videos - but I don’t think that commercials would really be something I’d want to do. I mean, they’d probably be one, two, maybe three day assignments at the most. That would mean that I’d probably have to be on a plane almost every day. Plus with them being short term I’d have to book 20 or 30 to equal what I’d get with a film contract.”

Justin shook his head again. “It would be the same reason I didn’t want to be an architect. I would be working or chasing work and wouldn’t have time for my artwork. It just wouldn’t be worth it.” He finished shaking his head again. Then he paused and lifted his head up. “Of course if I could do it remotely - like, via the Internet. Perhaps that might be a possibility...

Brian had watched the thought process, the evaluation, talking through the problem. The kid was good. “Hold that thought.” He said to Justin as he rose from the table and crossed to the desk. After retrieving his cell phone, he flipped it open and dialed. “Ted... yeah. Christ Ted, it’s only like fucking nine o’clock what are you doing in bed? ...Yeah, well apologies to the wife. Listen, the problem with the Remson shoot... Yeah, I might have an idea. Make sure that the files are on a network drive where I can get to them from remote - email me the drive and location... I’ll call you in the morning... Oh yeah, and give Blake my apologies...” Brian flipped the phone close on Ted’s rant on the other end of the line.

“Mr. Taylor?” Brian looked across the table at Justin, “How would you like to make a thousand dollars?”

~~~~~~

They took their time finishing their meal. Brian figured Ted would need some time to gather all the information together and get it to a space he could access from his laptop. As they were finishing the last of the wine, Ted called to tell Brian everything was in place and he’d sent an email with detailed information. He’d have to remind himself to have Cynthia get Justin a log in and network access. And send Blake and Ted something nice, maybe opera tickets, they seemed to like that sort of thing.

Brian and Justin got down to work. Brian had to upload the files to his laptop, but he let Justin do the rest of the work to transfer them to Justin’s laptop. Brian watched as Justin worked. He had moved to the dining table, having moved the dinner dishes out of the way. Brian could almost hear the wheels grinding.

Brian smiled when he heard Justin muttering “Un-fucking-believable!” It seemed that he’d made a wise business choice.

“Got something there?”

Justin looked up from the laptop. “Tell me, where did these people go to school? Did they actually get a diploma?”

“I guess you got something.”

Justin ignored the comment and typed furiously, moused and clicked. About five minutes later the muttering and clicking keys stopped. Justin smiled up at Brian “Done! All fixed. All you have to do is transfer these files back. That and never use those idiot designers again.”

“Really?” Brian was surprised. He knew that Justin was working - he figured he’d find the problem was, he didn’t think he’d fix it. At least not so quickly.

“Yeah, it wasn’t difficult to find, since I had essentially been working on the same problem for Brett all evening.” Justin stopped what he was doing at the keyboard and looked at Brian. “But you knew that, didn’t you?”

“I had an idea. Your conversation with Brett was a bit close to my conversation with Ted. Thanks, this really helps. If we had left it with the designers, it would have been another week before we’d be ready to shoot.”

Justin smiled. He like Brian. Brian was smart, aware, observant. He did things with the minimum of fuss and bullshit. He didn’t feel that he needed to stroke Justin’s ego to get good work from him. A simple thanks conveyed his appreciation.

“Let me just clean up these filenames and I’ll transfer them to your laptop in a separate folder - you can upload them back to your network... I’m adding README file detailing what I did. You can send Ted an email - I don’t think he’d appreciate another phone call.” Justin laughed.

“Email me an invoice for your time as well.” Brian replied.

Justin shook his head. “Nah, it wasn’t that much work. I’d spend more time creating the invoice and dealing with the billing than I did on the project.”

“You’re not going to get rich if you give it away for free.” Brian responded.

“Maybe you can do some work for me someday - for now, let’s say you owe me one.”

Brian wasn’t sure that he like owing Justin ‘one’. But what the hell, Ted would be thrilled he’d save Kinnetic a thousand bucks.

~~~~~~

Justin had finished his work for Brian and decided to call it a night. Brian was still at the desk working on his laptop. Justin got up, used the bathroom, brushed his teeth. Stripped down to a tee shirt and boxer briefs. He rummaged around in the bedroom closet and found a blanket and pillows. Dragging them out of the bedroom, he started to make up the couch.

Brain looked up from the desk. “What are you doing?” he asked in a slightly sing song manner that made it more a question than an accusation.

“uh, making up the couch, I was going to go to bed.”

“Going to bed, implies a bed.” Brian’s gaze shifted to the the bedroom doorway and the king sized bed beyond.

“uh, well, I wasn’t entirely sure, uh comfortable. I mean we didn’t really discuss it.”

“Justin, I think we’re a bit past modesty here. That bed in there is quite large enough for both of us. Will it help if I promise not to jump your bones?”

Justin smiled at Brian and thought, ‘yeah, but what about me jumping you?’. With a shrug of his shoulders, Justin mumbled “okay.” Dragged the pillows and blankets back into the bedroom. He left them in a heap at the foot of the bed and climbed in under the covers.

Brian watched the proceedings, shook his head, muffled a snorting laugh and went back to work.

~~~~~~

Brian closed his laptop, shut off the lights and padded to the bathroom. He took a piss, brushed his teeth, shed his clothes. He started to slip between the covers, when he crossed back to his shaving kit and retrieved lube and condoms. Best to be prepared, and while not a boy scout, Brian was always prepared. Setting them on the night stand, he slipped between the covers.

Like a heat seeking missile, a sleeping Justin rolled to Brian’s warmth. A light smile played upon Brian’s lips as he put an arm around the younger man.

~~~~~~

An hour later Brian was grimacing. Why did he ever make that stupid promise? Here he was, laying awake with a raging hard on and he couldn’t do a thing about it. Justin was oblivious to it all, sleeping like a baby. Periodically rubbing up against Brian in a manner that was heaven and torture all at once. Brian closed his eyes and willed sleep to come and carry him away.

Justin was in that wonderful state between sleep and consciousness. Brian was right. The bed was sooooo much better than the couch. Justin burrowed into the bed. There was a featherbed beneath him and a down duvet on top of him and there was this wonderful extra firm body pillow that was really warm. Justin rubbed up against the body pillow an angelic smile gracing his beautiful face.

“Justin.” The voice barely registered, Justin rubbed up against the body pillow hoping the down would muffle the noise.

“Justin!” The voice wouldn’t go away. Bury your head, rub into the warmth, go back asleep.

“Justin!!!” Strong fingers gripped his wrists and removed Justin from the body pillow. With a pout on his lips and his eyes barely open, Justin frowned at being disturbed from his otherwise wonderfully pleasant sleep.

“What?!” Justin rubbed his eyes and looked at Brian

“I can’t keep my promise if you keep rubbing up against me like that.”

Justin blushed, mortified. That was no body pillow, that was a body. That was *SOME* body. Justin scampered to the opposite side of the bed, thankful for the darkness that hid his embarrassment.

So they lay there... on their backs... eyes trained on the ceiling... raging hard ons tenting the sheets.

They lay there for what seemed like an eternity. In fact it had only been like ten minutes. Brian lay there knowing that he couldn’t go back on his word. Justin lay there unsure about making the first move - not wanting to be rebuffed.

They both pretended to sleep - they didn’t.

Another ten minutes came and went.

“Shit!” Brian cursed and turned his head to look at Justin. Justin was already staring at him. In the dark, Brian couldn’t make out the blue of his eyes, but he knew Justin was watching him. “Wanna fuck?” Not the smoothest of lines, Kinney, but it does get to the point.

“Christ, yes!” Justin sighed in relief.

“Thank God!” Brian grabbed the lube and a condom from the night stand before pouncing on Justin.

~~~~~~

Brian leaned up against a pillow and the headboard as he lit a cigarette. “That,” he announced, taking a long drag, “was fucking hot.”

He passed the cigarette to Justin whose head lay on Brian’s chest, shoulders resting along Brian’s side and ribs. Justin took a drag and blew a smoke ring before handing the cigarette back to Brian. “It certainly took the edge off things.” With a happy sigh he could feel every part of his body was relaxed. “You were right.”

Brian stubbed out the cigarette and ran fingers through Justin’s hair. “My three favorite words... after nine and a half cut. But what was I right about?”

“The bed is sooo much better than the couch.” Justin smiled and closed his eyes.

~~~~~~

Justin was awakened to Brian leaving a trail of wet open mouthed kisses and love bites from his shoulder to his stomach. Brian’s tongue ringed Justin’s belly button before inserting it into the indentation.

“Stop it! that tickles!” Justin laughed but didn’t protest further even though Brian continued. Brian continued his trail further as he found the prize he sought. Justin was already hard. Brian’s remarkably talented tongue explored the length of Justin, swirling his tongue around the leaking head, down the length where he nuzzled Justin’s balls, then back up the length again before engulfing all of Justin in the warmth of his mouth.

Justin sighed. And moaned. God! Brian’s talent had no end.

Brian kept up a steady pressure. His tongue making Justin arch off the bed. Justin’s fingers wound themselves in the chestnut hair as he twisted in torture, pain and ecstatic pleasure. Brian pulled off of Justin, the wet saliva cooling in the air, sending a shiver through Justin. Then Brian would cover the head of Justin’s cock and slide down the length warming the shivering skin.

“Brian,” Justin panted trying to warn Brian that he was close. He pulled at Brian’s hair, but Brian’s lips clamped down harder and increased suction. Justin couldn’t hold back. He erupted in Brian’s mouth. Brian let a bit of length out to allow himself to capture and swallow all that Justin had to offer. After the last aftershock of orgasm, Justin lay limp as Brian kissed his way back up to Justin’s lips. They shared a light and tender kiss, Justin tasting himself on Brian. They closed their eyes and slept.

~~~~~~

The next time they awoke, it was obvious that the sun had been out for a while - even through the blackout shades. They shared a shower, packed what little they had unpacked and headed to the airport.

The flight back was uneventful. Brian worked on his laptop. Justin pulled his sketchbook out to draw, but quickly fell asleep. The sketchbook and pencil fell from lax hands to the compartment floor with a dull thud. Brian retrieved them from the carpet, tuck them next to the armrest between them. He brushed the hair out of Justin’s face and returned to the spreadsheet on the laptop.

Once back in Pittsburgh, Brian offered Justin a ride home. With the weather a mess, Justin didn’t feel like waiting two hours for a cab. Besides, he wasn’t kidding himself any more. He wanted to spend time with Brian. So he let the older man give him a ride to Daphne’s.

Brian pulled up in front of the nondescript apartment building to let Justin off. The ride to the apartment had been made in comfortable silence. Justin worried his lip with his teeth, trying to decide what to say, what to do. Finally, he looked over at Brian, and pecked him on the cheek.

“Well, thanks for the lift... and the be... hotel room.”

Justin started to reached for the door release, when Brian wrapped his hand around the back of Justin’s neck and pulled him closer for a real kiss. Brian pursued Justin’s mouth, skimming his teeth, licking his tongue, biting his lips. When he felt Justin relax and join in, Brian loosened his grip and slowly extracted himself from the kiss.

“Later,” he said softly against Justin’s lips.

------

* CAD = computer aided design