Justin’s cab pulled in front of the loft building’s back entrance as instructed. Justin knew for a fact that Michael was due to appear any minute now and if new keys and codes could keep Michael out of the building, nothing short of a call to Carl who wasn’t very fond of his whining step son could remove Michael’s waiting ass from the sidewalk. With the janitor’s help, Justin loaded the bags in the cab’s trunk and left the building before Michael had made it to Tremont.

A small part of Justin wanted to be there to witness little Mikey’s meltdown when he’d realize that the locks had been changed. He wanted to watch from the loft’s large windows a gesticulating Michael obsessively calling Brian and leaving hysterical messages when Brian wouldn’t pick up. But he could easily imagine Michael going in withdrawal of his drug of choice that he was sure he wouldn’t be missing a lot. Now watching the cops hauling Michael’s ass to the precinct when the neighbors would report him for disturbance, that would have been a beautiful sight. But hey, sometimes one had to sacrifice small pettiness in order to achieve the greater.

Michael reached Tremont ten minutes after Justin’s cab left. He was so excited he was tripping over himself. The trick that wouldn’t leave had finally left and Brian was finally ready for a serious relationship. Things couldn’t be better in Michael’s world. All the happiness and excitement came to an abrupt halt when his “emergency” key wouldn’t open the building’s door. He repeated the action of trying to open the obviously new lock with a key that obviously didn’t work half a dozen time before frantically calling Brian’s cellphone.

Brian it’s me Mikey! Pick up the phone!

Brian pick up the phone!

Brian my key isn’t working!

Brian I think someone changed your building’s lock. I can’t use my key!

Brian I’m outside your building pick up the phone!

Brian I don’t care who you’re fucking open the door now!

As his calls kept rolling to messages, Michael started buzzing the loft. When it became clear that the loft was either empty or whomever was in there was deaf, Michael started buzzing the whole building. The janitor, who was waiting for Michael’s appearance, answered within seconds.

“Yes. How may I help you?”

“Open the door for me.”

“Buzz the person you’re here to see.”

“This is Michael.”

“And this is Ed.”

“I mean it, this is Michael.”

“I mean it too. My name is Ed. Unless you have something else to tell me, I have a job a need to do!”

“I’m Brian’s best friend.”

“M. Kinney isn’t here.”

“I need you to buzz me in so I can wait for him.”

“I’m sorry Michael, but unless M. Kinney or M. Taylor ask me to, I can’t let you in.”

“Who the fuck is M. Taylor? You mean the boy wonder? Why the fuck would this trick decide who you let into Brian’s loft.”

“Michael, you need to take your issues up with your friend. Now please leave.”

“I’m not going anywhere before I see Brian.”

“Good for you. Enjoy your stay on the sidewalk.”

Michael went back to calling Brian and leaving messages. Inside the building, Ed called Ted as it had been agreed upon.

“M. Schmidt, M. Novotny is here and acting true to character.”

“Thank you Ed. I’ll be over shortly.”

When Schmidt parked in front of Tremont, Michael was stomping on the sidewalk and shouting into his phone. He truly looked like a madman. Where was Debbie’s itching hand when you needed it?

“Michael! What the fuck are you doing here shouting like some insane asylum runaway?”

“Some what?”

Michael, the man who was a fourteen-year-old asshole. But wait a minute, isn’t a fourteen-year-old supposed to know what an insane asylum runaway was? You don’t need to be older than fourteen to be able to read “What About Evans?”. Ted chuckled. Yeah, Michael reading something other than a comic book! Ted wasn’t sure Michael read the dialogues in his juvenile comic books. He’d bet a whole year’s salary that little Mikey only looked at the drawings.

“Some crazy asshole trying to wake the dead! What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“I’ve been trying to get ahold of Brian for hours now! My key isn’t working, the fucking janitor won’t get me in, the fucking neighbors don’t answer my buzzing and Brian won’t pick up the phone.”

“So you stand on the sidewalk screaming and shouting! You’re lucky the janitor called me instead of calling the cops! Or even worse, Jennifer! Do you want to bet Jennifer wouldn’t have brought your mother with her?”

“What the fuck does Jennifer have to do with anything? And why did the asshole call you?”

Ted had been waiting for this moment for months now. It’s been years since he last saw anything worth loving in Michael. He saw him as the egocentric obsessed idiot he was and he was so happy to be the one to slap him down a peg.

“Jennifer’s firm manages Brian’s properties and property business. And I’m said business CFO.”

“Brian doesn’t own a property business!”

“I’m sorry to burst your bubble but Brian own several properties he rents out. This building was the first one he bought. Not that any of this is any business of yours. You need to go back to your house and stop acting like a crazy asshole.”

“Brian is my best friend. Everything about him is my business.”

Little Mikey never failed to make a stupid fourteen-year-old out of his adult, physically adult, self.

“That’s not the point. You really need to leave. People can refrain themselves from calling the cops only for so long.”

“I am not leaving until I see Brian.”

“You’re in for a long wait.”

“I don’t have anything to do. I’ll wait.”

God, don’t you ever let me forget this glorious moment!

“Brian went on a short vacation. He’s in a plane heading to California.”

“WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?”

“I said he’s going to a short vacation to California.”

Wait until you know what he’s going to do in California.

 “How is it that you know and I don’t? Why didn’t he consult me?”

Ted’s slapping hand was itching as it only itched when he was around Michael. He wanted to slap this self-righteous idiot squarely on the face.

“Because I am his CFO and right hand at work. Why would he need to consult you? You’re not his fucking husband. Speaking of husband, where is your husband? Does he know you’re here acting like a world class asshole?”

And so came the news Ted should have seen coming but was too normal a human being to expect.

“We broke up this morning.”