BRIAN

Justin didn’t want to come with Cynthia, Ted, and me, saying he’d rather be on a waterslide than deal with Craig. Instead he made me a partner. Not the one I was planning to be, but one who could deal with this for him. It wasn’t that he was hiding from Craig, he just didn’t give a shit about the man, or the company that was more important to Craig than to him. 

We found Craig in his office, feet on the desk, half asleep. Which explained why Marshall and Vivian wouldn’t want to do business with Craig. He managed to stand up, looking annoyed and yelling at his secretary for letting us in. 

“Why not, you let anyone you want in your pants, why not your office?” Wendy yelled, loud enough for the employees standing around trying to get some gossip to hear clearly.

“Not now Wendy. How about you do your job, the one I pay you for, and escort these people out of here,” He sniped at her.

“I have nothing to say to you, Brian. Justin needs to face his responsibilities like a man, not let you do it for him,” Craig told me, obviously thinking this was about Paula.

“Actually Wendy, can you just close the door. We can discuss your job and what is expected when we’re through with Craig,” Cynthia told her.

“Excuse me, but can you tell your... whatever she is, to leave with you. I only see people by appointment,” Craig said, sneering at Cynthia.

“I would think that would be up to her,” I told him.

“Yes, it would, since I was just promoted to head of Taylor Electronics. Which means I don’t need an appointment to meet with the manager of the worst selling store in the chain. What I need is to go over your severance package, and to put someone in that chair who actually does more than sleep the day away,” Cynthia told him.

“I own Taylor Electronics, young lady,” Craig told her, looking her up and down, before recognizing her. “Why are you here?” Craig asked me.

“He’s here to protect his interests, which would be Taylor Electronics. I’m here to decide what’s to be done to make sure JUSTIN Taylor’s company is in good hands. Which, from the reports Ted was able to get from the company’s accountant, says you really aren’t the one we want running it,” Cynthia tells him, pulling out a folder. “In fact, after going over your salary versus the salary of the other managers, who are in essence your equal, we found you were also paying this store a bonus that wasn’t earned, while not paying the manager the company outlined a bonus for doing what you didn’t and putting money on the bottom line. Which has been corrected and was taken out of your severance package because you were paid money you didn’t earn. Now, unfortunately for you, that means not only are you out of a job, but you also owe Taylor Electronics a hefty sum. Not to worry, we’ll get you the final numbers on what you owe, but at least you leave with a check,” Cynthia says, handing over the hundred dollar check Justin thought would just piss Craig off, and it did.

“It’s my company, and my board of directors won’t stand for this,” Craig said, turning red.

“As of this morning they were all relieved of… I would say duties, but last I checked, hanging out at the country club getting drunk instead of attending the mandatory meeting we informed them of yesterday, didn’t make the owner of the company have any faith in their abilities. Also, since you obviously had faith in Justin’s ability to run a company by giving him ownership, he decided to show you what he felt you lacked in running a business,” Cynthia told him.

“What are you talking about?” Craig asked, now nervous.

“Why Craig, in wanting to screw Jen you screwed yourself, as well as apparently a few others. You really should have taken Justin’s name off the company before filing for divorce. Jen managed to get all sorts of information. See, she hired a lawyer who would love to see you crawl out of here with nothing, for trying to keep what you owed Jen. Using Justin was a bad move. He might not be thrilled with Jen, but right now the bullshit you did to him has him more than willing to show you how good he is at business,” I explained to him.

“Please, he lives off Marshall’s generosity, fucking his way through Europe and partying in a way you couldn’t even compete with.” Craig said, brushing off the idea.

Marshall came in the door, hearing Craig. “You never knew Justin,” He informed Craig.

“No, I just didn’t manage to convince him to pimp himself out for his family the way you do,” Craig sneered.

“Justin didn’t need to use anything but the head on his shoulders to convince me what he was capable of. In fact, Justin just walking into a business makes them stand up and take notice. They’ve seen what he’s been able to do, and it’s called turning a company into a goldmine. Yes, I took advantage of him, but only in that he can tell me what we need to do, and then works to see that it’s done. What he does when he wants to relax I encourage, because unlike you, he works hard and understands business in a way you never will,” Marshall told him.

“I’ve been given the authority to fire you, and have to say I've enjoyed it,” Cynthia said, nodding to the security guys who were waiting to escort Craig out.

“My lawyer will make you sorry for this,” Craig warned me.

“I’m shaking in my new Prada boots. Please make sure you mention to your lawyer that we also have a few harrassment suits that your former employees will be filing. He’s going to be busy fielding those. Never fuck where you work, cause they’ll fuck you later,” I told him.

Craig looked at the women standing at Wendy’s desk and left without a word. 

JUSTIN

While Brian was off helping Cynthia, it was a good time to get papers drawn up and make sure my sister was no longer getting a dime after the stunt she pulled. Mel was in her office when I came in with Gus, and stopped everything she was doing to hear what Gus had been doing. Once again I liked her, because nothing was more important to her than hearing what Gus had to say. While I didn’t like the way they separated Gus and Brian, I could agree they loved Gus. 

“So, what are you doing here?” She asked me.

“I need to remake my will, and change my POA. Until now my sister inherited everything and my grandparents had my POA. Since Brian and I are planning to get married, it only makes sense to change it all,” I told her.

“I’ll need a list of all your assets and how you want to distribute them. A POA is just a matter of signing a new one declaring Brian in charge, so that we can do now,” Mel told me.

I pulled out the paperwork that contained a list of everything. Including my newest house, in Greece. I planned to gift it to Brian the day we got married. Mel started looking through the paperwork, only to look up at me wide eyed.

“Does Brian know about all of this?” She asked.

“All but the house I just bought. The rest he saw while we were going over what I planned to invest to turn my dad’s company around,” I told her.

“Are you two going to combine everything or do you want to set up a prenup?” She asked, letting go of whatever she was thinking.

“Brian already knows that will never happen. If I even thought I needed one I wouldn’t have asked him to marry me,” I told her.

“Okay, the will then. Although, I don’t think it would bother Brian if you wanted a prenup. I’m not saying that for any reason but as a lawyer. How do you want to distribute your assets?” She asked.

“Everything goes to Brian if he’s still here and I’m not. Otherwise it goes to our children, equally,” I told her.

“Are you having more than one or planning more?” She asked.

“After this one is born we have two, and right now we haven’t thought about more yet. Although maybe it would be better to put money in trust for Gus, since it’s something my family could fight if something happened to me. Have you gotten the paperwork drawn up to give Brian partial custody?” I asked.

“Yes, we planned to do it when Lindsay got here. Why?” She asked.

“I just like to know that he gets what he wants,” I let her know, making sure they weren’t stalling on it.

“Do you want to include your sister at all?” She asked.

“No. She took it too far the minute she tried to fuck with my life with Brian,” I told her.

“Brian, Lindsay, and I have an account set up for Gus, so you don’t have to set up a trust, he already has one,” Mel informed me.

“What’s a trust?” Gus asked, doodling at Mel’s desk.

“It’s money for you when your older for anything you want to do,” Mel told him.

“Why would I need it, when you guys always make sure I have what I want?” Gus asked.

“Someday we might not be here to do that, and we want to make sure you and Jenny don’t have to struggle the way we did,” Mel let him know.

“Is that why you wanted to come see Mama, cause you think you won’t be here one day? I promise I’ll take care of the baby, so you don’t need to worry.” Gus said, making me tear up a little.

“We know you will, but Justin is just here because it’s what a responsible parent does. It doesn’t mean he thinks something will happen anytime soon,” Mel told him.

“Okay,” Gus said, going back to his paper.

Brian called, asking me where I was, and told me to wait until he got to Mel’s office so we could have lunch. I groaned because I planned to take Gus for pizza, since Brian only seemed to eat it when Michael showed up with it.

“Brian’s coming here,” I tell Mel when I hung up.

“I’ll get the POA paperwork, and the custody agreement,” Mel said.

“I thought you wanted to wait for Lindsay?” I asked.

“No. Just once again stalling over nothing,” She admitted.

Brian showed up half an hour later with pizza and got a kiss that had Gus gagging and Mel looking anywhere but at us.

“Why are you here?” Brian asked, between kisses.

“I wanted to get stuff done since we are going to Greece soon. I decided you needed to make an honest man of me,” I told him.

“What stuff?” Brian asked.

“POA, changing my will, and well, Mel has something she wants you to sign too,” I told him.

“Actually, both of you,” Gus told us.

“Gus thought that since you two are going to get married just like Lindsay and me, it only made sense that Justin had custody too,” Mel told us.

“So like you’ll be sort of my Dad too, like Ben is for Jenny,” Gus said hesitantly.

“As long as you tell me if I ever become the uncool dad, it’s a deal,” I told him.

“Just listen to my Dad and your golden, Da.. Justin. What do I call you?” Gus asked.

“Justin?” Brian asked, when I couldn’t get a word out of my mouth.

“I’m good with whatever Gus is comfortable with,” I said, through the lump in my throat.

“Papa. Since we have to start with something so the baby doesn’t get confused the way Jenny’s dads do, since she just yells Daddy and they both come running,” Gus said, seriously thinking about it.

“Papa, what do you think?” Brian asked.

My answer was to bury my face in Brian’s chest as the tears started. I was going to be a Papa. Even though I knew I belonged with Brian, now I knew I belonged in my family. Something I only had with my grandparents.

“I don’t care what’s going on, Greece is waiting on us,” I told Brian, who nodded.