Brian sat in his office at Kinnetik looking over the last touches of his latest campaign. He’d never been prouder of any of his projects as he was of this one.

The campaign was pro gay marriages in the state of Pennsylvania. He had the main idea how political campaigns worked since his disaster with Stockwell. He’d taken the aggressive route with the boards to make it ‘in your face’ and send a clear message to everyone.

The slogans varied from ‘We are just like YOU’ plastered on pictures of men or women hugging and kissing, ‘We have less divorces’ well placed on a picture of two manly hands held tightly with their wedding bands showing, ‘Love is equal’ displayed on various boards with diverse couples of all ages and colors, and the last one which Brian wasn’t particularly proud of, but Ted had a point that even queers believed in God, ‘Jesus doesn’t discriminate’ written in white block letters on the rainbow flag.

As if summoning him by looking at the last board, Theodore stepped into Brian's office. He stopped short, taking in the story boards resting against the back of the sofa.

“What do you think?” Brian linked his hands behind his back, turning to stare at his friend.

Ted opened his mouth, but then closed it. He decided to choose his words carefully.

“I have to say it’s some of the best work the Art Department has ever created.”

Brian nodded in agreement. “I’ve never worked so well with them as during the past month. But what do you think about the final result? Is this going to help?”

“Some of them are a little too aggressive in my opinion.”

“Good.”

“You have to prepare for a lot of hatred thrown at us, Brian,” Ted advised quietly.

“I’m ready. And if we lose accounts, good riddance. I don’t want to work with homophobes.”

The boards would appear on billboards and buses starting on Monday. Brian couldn’t wait to see how they were going to be perceived.

“Wanna join us for a drink at Woody’s tonight?” Ted asked, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

“I might take you up on that.” Brian grinned, in high spirits.

Brian hadn’t visited Woody’s quite that often in the past decade, but he still spent many a night at Babylon. After rebuilding it, he’d invested more in security and was stricter about who was allowed inside.

#

That night when he arrived at Woody’s, his friends were at a table drinking and laughing. He stopped at the bar to grab a drink and to take a moment to look at them. He marveled at how they’d grown up and found their way in life, found a partner, become happy.

Brian accepted his Amstel, allowing his eyes to travel from Theodore and Blake to Michael and Ben, and lastly to Emmett and Drew. He closed his eyes for a second, pushing away the sadness. He’d reinforced his walls since he and Justin had gone their separate ways.

After three long and torturous years, Justin had appeared at the loft’s door in the middle of the night. Brian had known the outcome, but held his tongue. Justin had paced in front of the tall windows until Brian stopped him with his hands on his shoulders, asking what was bothering him. When Justin had looked up, there were tears in his eyes.

“Did you find someone else?” Brian had asked casually.

Hurt had flashed in Justin's blue eyes. “I’m going to Japan.”

To this day, Brian still wished Justin had lied and told him he was leaving him for someone else. New York had been close, even though they had rarely made the time to see each other, but Japan was on the other side of the fucking world.

“For how long?”

“I don’t know.” Justin had burst into tears by that time, and they had spent the night in bed without another word exchanged.

Unlike the time Justin had left for New York without waking Brian up, he did wake him around noon time. He had pressed his slender finger over Brian's lips, shaking his head. Justin had leaned in for one last kiss, his wet cheek rubbing against Brian's. Then he was gone.

Brian had refused to move until it was dark outside and Justin's tears had long dried on his face. After a pack of cigarettes and half of a bottle of Beam, he had allowed himself to cry. It had been the last time he had cried over Justin, locking his memories of the blond man away in his brain.

No one was the wiser to Brian's hurt in the months that followed, and no one knew how hollow he felt inside. He had tried everything to forget Justin: nameless tricks, booze, all letters of alphabet drugs, but his relief had come in the form of renovating their dream mansion. He never planned to move in there, but working on the house gave him time to think, to grieve.

Brian took a shuddery breath, almost bailing on his friends, but he missed them and they deserved better from him.

Only Theodore had known about his possible appearance at the bar, because shock was clearly written on everyone else’s faces.

Brian placed his beer next to Michael’s, and before he could take a seat, his best friend was hugging him tightly.

“I haven’t seen you in forever!”

“Sorry I missed dinner at Deb’s this weekend, but I’ve been working crazy hours on my new campaign.”

“Teddy says it’s going to be something else,” Emmett quipped from his spot perched on Drew’s lap.

“You’ll see.” Brian shrugged, extricating himself from Michael’s embrace and taking a seat. “How are you?”

They stayed at Woody’s until late at night, catching up and having fun like in the good old days. Brian tried not to notice how left out he felt when his friends spoke of couply things they did. He would have never thought he was going to feel left out because he wasn’t in a relationship.

Brian's days blended into each other and sometimes he had no idea what day of the week it was if he didn’t check his phone. He always woke up alone in his bed, showered alone, and drank his coffee alone if he didn’t have a morning meeting to share the warm beverage with a client; after work hours he returned to his empty and cold loft, sometimes watching a movie while eating his take-out food, and other times just sitting alone at the table, staring at the empty chair across from him, before going to bed as alone as he’d wake up.

Brian hadn’t brought tricks home since Justin had left him. He had fucked them in the baths or in the backroom at Babylon, but never took them home.

The weekends were sometimes the worst, and he preferred to keep himself busy with shopping or visiting Debbie, though he usually spent them at Britin.

#

On the following Monday, Brian arrived late at work. It didn’t happen often, but he had taken a detour to admire his work on the billboards all over the city.

He stepped inside Kinnetik with a bounce in his step and a warm coffee in his hand.

Cynthia stopped him outside his office doors. “Morning, Brian! You’re in high spirits!”

“Morning, Cynthia!” He beamed. “Did you see them?”

“A few.” She nodded. “Listen, there’s someone in your office wanting to meet you. He says you used to be friends.”

“You know all my friends,” Brian told her, amused.

“Well, not him. If he bothers you, I can call security.”

Brian snorted, opening the glass door to his office. He could see the profile of a middle aged man with black hair streaked with silver at the temples. He was dressed sharply in a dark gray Armani suit.

Brian approached his desk, startling his guest. The man lifted his head, and Brian froze.

“Hello, Brian!” The man rose, extending his hand.

Brian's jaw dropped, and he was aware he must look like an idiot, but he couldn’t form any coherent thoughts, let alone speak.

“It’s been years,” the man said, pulling Brian into a one-armed embrace.

That had been trigger enough for Brian to snap out of it and clap the man’s back once. “Evan,” he said.

“I was afraid you wouldn’t recognize me.”

Brian rolled his eyes, rounding the desk to sit in his leather chair. He stared at his guest, wondering what the man was doing there after so many years.

Evan Steele had been Brian's first boss when he had first gotten a job in his early twenties. They had history, which varied from working successfully on many ad campaigns to sharing glorious nights between the sheets. Brian hadn’t thought about his former boss since he had left to pursue a better career in New York many years ago. At that time, Brian had thought Evan’s departure was the end of the world as he knew it. The man had been his mentor, friend, and the best sex partner he had up until then. Brian had fooled himself into thinking that he and Evan had a thing, even though the man played him on his fingers the way he wanted.

Brian had been deeply hurt by Evan’s leaving, which had created the ruthless facade he showed everyone. After Evan, Brian had convinced himself there was no honest man out there and everyone was following their own interests. He had established his one-fuck rule to keep from ever getting close to anyone else again. Feelings over-complicated everything.

But then Justin had appeared into his life, and Brian had rewritten his rules until he more or less forgot about them, all to please the young man. In the end, he had ended up hurt once again.

Brian cleared his throat, pushing away unwanted memories and keeping his eyes on Evan’s gray ones.

“What brings you here?”

“I was in town for the weekend. Last night, I noticed some amazing advertisements appearing all over the city.” Evan kept their eyes locked. “A little research pointed me to the company who created them. Imagine my shock when I discovered you have your own company.”

Brian took a sip from his coffee, unimpressed by Evan’s smooth talking. Despite the long absence from his life, Brian could still see through Evan’s bullshit.

“I don’t believe you,” Brian said, slowly.

“Why would I lie to you?”

“Because you intended to be here. Something brought you to Kinnetik. You knew exactly who was running the company. You’ve researched me, and it wouldn’t surprise me if you had kept tabs on me over the years, knowing how you never cared,” Brian spat the last words. “So why are you here, Evan?”

The man blanched, taken aback by how fast Brian had read through his bullshit. “You caught me.”

Brian refused to give in, expecting an honest answer about the reason behind Evan’s visit.

Evan sighed heavily, resting back against the chair. “I found myself forced to return to Pittsburgh.”

Brian was aware that coming back to his hometown for Evan was something similar to a walk of shame for a regular person. And personally, Brian didn’t blame him. He would probably feel the same if he had the opportunity to go to New York, only to have to return home after a few decades.

“What happened?”

Evan laughed uneasily. “I screwed up. Or, let’s say I screwed with the wrong person.”

Brian could relate. He could still remember the fiasco around Kip.

“Surprisingly, I didn’t literally screw him. I made a rushed decision to change the storyboards and the clip for an important account. Needless to say, they wanted the person responsible gone. None of the other companies I tried to get an interview with wanted to be associated with me.”

“Who was the account?”

For a moment, Brian was sure Evan wouldn’t answer him. But then he spoke so quietly that Brian wasn’t sure he heard right.

“Colgate.”

“I’ve seen the commercial recently. It doesn’t look terrible.”

“Because they changed it back to the original idea. But they had mine playing for at least one day before all hell broke loose,” Evan explained.

“And just what offended their sensibilities? It’s fucking toothpaste!”

“It was kind of aggressive – showing people with teeth falling out and cavities compared to the ones who used Colgate.”

“Christ. And my friends think I’ve been aggressive with my new campaign.”

“Those boards are genius,” Evan acknowledged.

“Thank you,” Brian grinned. “Let me get this straight. Your dream life in New York fell through and you decided to come to me?” Brian asked, incredulously. “Why me? Ready to work under me, Steele?”

Evan mock-laughed. “I came to you because I know you. Everyone else I knew in the business has retired, or I’d rather chop my dick off than see them.”

“But what’s your plan? Kinnetik is still a small company. I don’t have many top positions open.”

“For the time being, I’d take just about anything. They barely gave me my last paycheck which was seventy percent of what it should have been, but they said the other thirty was kept for their company going through hell because of me.”

“Give me a minute.” Brian walked out of his office.

On his way to Ted’s office, he seriously pondered what he was about to do, but he knew that if the roles were reversed, Evan would take him under his protective wing, too.

Brian knocked once on Ted’s door, before going inside. Ted was on the phone, talking agitatedly with the other person. He held a finger up for Brian to wait. Brian nodded, taking a seat on the only other chair available in the room.

After wrapping up the conversation, Theodore turned to face Brian with a solemn look on his face.

“It’s started. I was on the phone with our lawyer, Brian. There are hundreds of complaints about the ads.”

“Good. Let them talk. I’m here to ask you something else.”

“What?” Ted asked, warily.

“Do we have any top positions open that can be filled immediately?”

Ted frowned, turning to his computer and typing for several seconds. “We still need a Marketing Director. I know you’ve been managing Account Director and Marketing Director yourself, but this is one position we have available. Why?”

“I have a friend in need.” Brian stood up. “I’ll send him to you to talk details.” He was out the door, before Ted could ask anything else.

Back inside his office, Brian found Evan admiring the art work on his walls. All pieces were signed Justin Taylor, and he wasn’t going to take them down even though his relationship with the artist had fallen apart. He had even bought new pieces over the years.

“You’re in luck. You’re going to take some of the work off my back and become Marketing Director. Cynthia will show you to Theodore’s office. He’s the main man around here. I have to take that.” Brian pointed to his ringing phone.

As he picked up the phone, he watched a stunned Evan leaving his office. He hoped he didn’t make a mistake by bringing Evan back into his life.

On the other end of the line was someone from city hall demanding to know if Brian was ever given permission to install his insane ad on the billboard in front of their building. Brian had the clearance to display his new ads all over town as far as he could remember. No matter how loudly he argued with the woman on the phone, she ended up setting a meeting between the city’s attorney and Brian's lawyer for Thursday.

Brian spent the rest of the day on the phone with his lawyer, and going through every paper he had signed for his latest campaign.

Theodore had drawn the papers to have Evan Steele as their new employee, before joining Brian in rifling through papers. Evan was there as well, stating he had nothing better to do.

It was nearly nine at night when Theodore placed a piece of paper in front of Brian. On it was Brian's request to display his ad on a particular billboard – the one in front of city hall. On the paper was a stamp reading REJECTED with big block red letters.

“FUCK!” Brian shouted. “Who missed this when the ads were being put up?”

“The team placing them?” Ted suggested.

“Those weren’t our guys, Ted. Someone from the inside went through these files and missed this important one. Now Kinnetik is at risk of being sued!”

“Or worse,” Evan added quietly.

Brian shot him daggers with his eyes. He didn’t need anyone to make his life more complicated than it was at the moment. He was aware that being sued was the better option. Someone could shut down his company.

.

.

.

To worsen the situation, over the days leading up to the meeting with the city’s attorney, Brian's ads had infuriated a large group of Christians for having one particular board displayed in front of their church. It was about the one saying Jesus didn’t discriminate.

Needless to say, Brian was a bundle of nerves. He spent his days with his lawyer, discussing the upcoming meeting, and his nights at Babylon.

On the big day, Brian had Joe, his lawyer, along with Theodore and Evan by his side. Brian wasn’t sure why he had agreed to Evan coming along, but he needed all the moral support he could get. He had a bad feeling about the aftermath of the meeting.

The judge seemed to be in Brian's favor at the beginning, but as new accusations appeared, not even Joe was able to dig him out of the mess. The city’s attorney had done his job thoroughly. Too thoroughly in Brian’s opinion. He had collected all the negative responses to Brian's new campaign, throwing them in his face, then topped it with pictures of Brian taking different men to the backroom of Babylon over the past few nights. He questioned Brian's integrity and actual motive to want gay marriages legalized when he appeared to be a whore.

Joe bristled, but before he could defend Brian, the other man brought up Brian's dirty campaign against Stockwell and explained valid points that Brian shouldn’t be allowed to do his job any longer. Moreover, he accused Brian of using dirty ways to show good people that gay people should have equal rights, violating some law. Brian had stopped listening halfway through the speech.

He only snapped out of his rage when the judge stated the verdict.

“What?” Brian yelled, standing up so violently, his chair toppled over.

Joe stood as well, keeping a hand on Brian's shoulder to keep him from lunging across the room.

“The accused is sentenced to six months of prison.” The judge pulled his eyeglasses off, placing them in front of him. “Unless…” He looked over at the city’s attorney, then back at Brian. “Unless he’s closely supervised by someone trustworthy.”

Feeling sweat rolling down on his back, Brian said the first thing that came to his mind. “You’re in luck. I was planning to make my old friend here, a partner for my company. How is that for your offer?”

The judge looked at Evan’s shocked face, then at Brian's stoic face. He was about to accept the terms, when the city’s attorney spoke.

“We know for a fact that soon his propaganda will come true. Through discreet and reliable sources, I can confirm that in less than a month gay marriages will be legalized in Pennsylvania.”

“Your point being?” Brian snapped.

“I’d like a moment alone with Judge Bennedict.”

After they had disappeared through a side door, Brian exclaimed, “Unbelievable!”

“That was some quick thinking,” Evan said, still shocked.

“I know I’m going to regret this decision, but I can live with making you my partner in order to avoid fucking prison. Is that something they could have actually done, Joe?”

“I’m afraid yes. This hearing escalated so quickly. We weren’t prepared enough.”

The judge and the attorney returned. The attorney stopped in front of their table, after picking something from his table.

“This ends today.” He threw the pictures of Brian in the club in front of Brian.

“No way in hell I’m going to stop being who I am! I’d rather rot in your fucking prison. The inmates will lov—”

Joe slapped his hand over Brian's mouth, turning to face the attorney. “As far as laws go, you cannot dictate who my client sleeps with.”

The attorney threw them a cunning smile. “We want your client to be a role model for the gay community in Pennsylvania who has been waiting to be able to get married legally. We’ll be waiting for you on the big day to show everyone the reason behind your campaign.”

Brian actually snorted. “Sorry, no can do. You see, marriage isn’t my thing. I promoted this campaign for my friends. I know how much they wanted to tie themselves down to their partner.”

“Too bad, then. I hear the state prison has just refilled their stock of soap.”

Evan leaned forward catching Brian's hand. Brian threw him a look, his head reeling.

“Come on, we both know you making me partner is part of our anniversary gift. Let’s take the next step, baby.”

Brian had the urge to barf. He couldn’t believe how his life had changed in the course of four days. Though, he was impressed with Evan’s ingenious idea. His own mind had drawn a blank after the attorney’s last words.

“You’re in a relationship with this man?” The attorney asked. “Is he aware of your nights at the club?”

Brian shuffled through the photos, glad he noticed Evan in at least one of them. “He joins me in these nights at the club. We have an open relationship.”

“Whatever floats your boat, but my terms still stand if you want to avoid prison, Mr. Kinney.”

“Sign us up,” Evan said loudly.

“We’ll be waiting to see you soon.”

.

.

.

Brian stormed out of the courthouse, down the steps, and stomped to his car.

Evan told Ted and Joe he would deal with him, before running after his old friend. He found Brian behind the wheel of his Corvette. His fingers clenching around the wheel as his eyes stared far away, a blank expression his face.

“You can always run away and change your name?” Evan joked.

Brian snapped out of it, his eyes turning to Evan, but he caught the attorney and a couple of his people looking at them. Brian inhaled sharply, before leaning to kiss Evan. He hadn’t kissed another man in years, and Evan's lips felt foreign.

“Okay? So you want to be thorough about our plan.”

“Shut up, idiot! They’re watching us,” Brian whispered.

Evan didn’t have to look. He believed Brian, so he kissed him back with hunger. After a while, they forgot it was a pretense kiss and succumbed to the memories of their past.

“I don’t know where you’ve been living, but my loft is close,” Brian rasped out, pulling away.

“I was staying at a hotel. My last night is tomorrow.”

“When did you plan on telling me you’re out of money? For all intents and purposes, you’re still my employee, Evan.”

“I brought it up to Ted yesterday.”

At a red light, Brian pulled out his headset, calling Theodore. He answered promptly.

“Ted, you have until Monday to have everything ready to make Evan my partner. I’m thinking, fifty-fifty.”

“Bri, I hate to remind you, but do you remember who owns part of Kinnetik?”

“FUCK! Is there a way around it?” Brian couldn’t believe he had transferred thirty percent of Kinnetik to Justin’s name. It had been so long ago, he had forgotten all about it.

“I’m going to work miracles, but he never signed a paper to confirm he owned part of Kinnetik.”

“Because I never wanted him to know! It was in case I….” died, Brian finished in his head. Brian had drawn the papers before going to John Hopkins to undergo surgery for his cancer.

“I’ll keep you updated. And Bri?”

“What, Ted?”

“Is it worth it? I mean, aside from being free, is it worth it to ruin your life like this?”

“Do I have a better choice? Try to keep it to yourself until it no longer can be a secret. I’m dreading the moment Deb or Mikey find out.”