Chapter 15

Over the next 12 months many things changed in Brian's life while others had stayed exactly the same.

After his talk with Emmett, Brian had known that it was time to make some decisions regarding his future. No matter what he had wished for when he had come to Canada, life had had different ideas and had turned out differently, so now he had to make the best of it.

He knew that at the end of the day, he couldn't really complain. Maybe things with Justin hadn't worked out the way he had hoped for when he had escaped from Gilead, but just the fact that he had made it out of there and had made it to Canada, that he had been able to see Gus again and spend time with him had made him realise how lucky he had been. And definitely a lot luckier than many of their friends and family and other members of the LGBTQ community had been.

No, it wasn't the life he had hoped and dreamed for during all those cold and lonely nights in the concentration camp where they had kept him, when he hadn't even known if Justin and Gus were still alive, but it was what it was and he would be damned if he didn't make the best of it. It wasn't the first time his life threw him a curveball and damn if he wouldn't make the best of the situation.

It had taken him about a week to come up with a plan for his life and to make some important decisions. Emmett had been right, he needed to figure out what to do with his life, now that he had one again. After thinking about it long and hard, he had known that he would always be an ad man. He had been an ad man for all of his professional life and he was damn good at it and he had liked it and it was what he wanted to do again.

So he had sat down and had looked up advertising firms in Toronto. A couple of them rang a bell and he was familiar with some of their work from his pre-Gilead days as an ad man in Pittsburgh at Vanguard.

He sent out resumes and quickly got invited to several interviews. Apparently his name still held some fame in the advertising world and before long he had the choice between three jobs that had been offered to him. None of them were as partner, like he had been at Vanguard and none were in the salary range he had received then, but he knew that he couldn't really complain. After all these years of not working at all and not having his name and his campaigns out there, he was grateful for every offer as an ad exec that he had received.

In the end he decided to go with a company called ECHO Advertising. They seemed to have the best creative team around and seemed to be edgy and non-apologetic like himself and he really liked the package they had offered him.

He stayed with them for six months, getting his name out there again, before he realised that working as an ad exec wasn't really what he was looking for. He had been used to working on his own, had been used to being a partner and to not having to answer to anyone and while he did the best he could as an ad exec, he just realised that it wasn't him any longer. Once he started feeling unhappy about his situation and when he realised that the promises of becoming partner one day seemed to have been just that: empty promises, he decided that it was time to move on and take the leap he had wanted to take for years.

Of course his boss hadn't been happy and had threatened him with all kinds of lawsuits and had even threatened to badmouth him in the industry, but at the end of the day, Brian followed his contract, didn't take any of their accounts with him and left according to the stipulations of his contract.

He took the daunting step of opening his own advertising agency and within a couple of weeks of leaving ECHO, Kinnetik had been born in the living room of his new apartment.

A stylish, modern apartment with huge windows, modern Italian furniture and state of the art appliances. And most importantly with a bedroom for Gus.

That had been the good thing about his six months at ECHO: They had paid him a decent salary and he had been able to make the downpayment on the new apartment. Between the salary he had pocketed for six months and the money still in the account that he had set up years ago, he had been able to set up Kinnetik without much trouble.

It had been daunting in the beginning to go out and try to start his own agency and even though he would never admit it, he had been scared as hell of failing, but in the end he knew that he needed to take that plunge or he would never be happy and would always regret it.

He had teamed up with a young artist called Mitch who had just left the Toronto Art Institute and was known for edgy, futuristic designs. He had met him at an art show the Institute had put on, an art show that Brian had attended for the sole reason to find some young, talented and mostly cheap artist to work with him and he and Mitch had just clicked as far as their creative vision was concerned. Other than that, no. Mitch was as straight as they came, but didn't mind working with a gay man. He had a gay brother himself and was more than happy to work with Brian and to start this new business venture.

They worked well together and sometimes Brian was reminded of the times when he had worked with another young artist, still in art school, so many years ago...who had been just as edgy and fearless where his art was concerned.

At times it made him sad that his relationship with Justin was strained on the best of days, because he had secretly dreamed of opening an ad agency one day and having Justin be his art director, they had worked so well together in the years before, but it was just one of those other things that hadn't been meant to be.

It had been hard in the beginning to get the company going, after all there were already more advertising agencies in Toronto than you could count, but with the help of his friends, mostly Daphne and Emmett, Brian had managed to get Kinnetik's name out there.

Daphne had pushed several Red Cross events and campaigns his way for which he would be eternally grateful to her as they had helped get his name out there and had opened his advertising to a wider audience. Emmett had also allowed Brian to take over the advertising for his business and had happily refered to Kinnetik every time one of his clients pointed out how well done the ads for his company were.

That had generated a lot of business for Brian, more than he had anticipated and it had really helped get Kinnetik off the ground.

Within three months Brian had been forced to hire another ad exec, another artist and two secretaries and Kinnetik had moved into an old warehouse building downtown which had been refurbished into state of the art office property.

Kinnetik was doing well and growing quickly and by now, six months after Brian had started the agency he was already working with a team of 15 employees.

His biggest client to date had come from an unexpected source and Brian would never forget the help he had received from the most unlikely ally.

Brian sighed when he saw who was coming into the building. For a second he was thinking about hiding as he had no interest at all to talk to the person walking in the direction of the welcome desk, but he knew that would be childish. Brian Kinney didn't hide, not from anyone and definitely not from Justin's little boyfriend.

Deciding to be proactive, he made his way over to where Ethan was looking around the big lobby.

“Ian, what can I do for you?” He greeted the man, tongue-in-cheek.

“Ethan,” the younger man replied politely, knowing fully well that Brian knew his name.

“Right,” Brian nodded as if he had forgotten the name, but never apologised for using a wrong name to begin with. “Is Gus alright?”

Things between Brian and Justin had been pretty strained for months and they didn't talk more than was necessary. Now that Brian was working again and had his own agency, Gus came to the agency after school sometimes and hung out there, trying to spend some time with Brian there, but by now they mostly spend time on the weekends when Brian would take Gus to his soccer games and would practise with him. It wasn't because either of them wanted it this way, it was merely how circumstances had worked out. Once Gus had realised that Brian would be staying in Toronto for good and he would have his father back for good, he had started to go back to more of his after school activities and had started to hang out more with his friends again, all activities that Brian had supported as it had given him the time to focus on his job and then starting his own company. Of course Brian would have liked to spend more time with Gus, but he also knew that an age appropriate social life was important for his son and that it was important that he himself had a job, so he would be able to provide for Gus when the day came. He knew that he would have to get his life back on track and everything in order before he went after custody of Gus. There was no point running into a potential custody battle without being prepared.

Brian made it a point to have time for Gus every time he showed up at the office and to keep his weekends free, so he could spend them with his son, but of course it wasn't the same as spending every afternoon after school with him as they had done the first couple of weeks after Brian had arrived in Toronto.

So far Justin had been adamant that there would be no sleepovers at Brian's and while both Brian and Gus had been unhappy about that, Brian had known that patience was needed. If he wanted to have a real chance to get custody of Gus, he needed to have his life figured out and needed to get his company up and running. He had tried to explain it to Gus as best as he could and so far his son had been more understanding than he could have expected.

Whenever they got to spend time together, they made the most of it and it warmed Brian's heart that still to this day Gus would call him every evening to check in with him and tell him about his day.

“Gus is fine,” Ethan replied, immediately recognising the worry in the older man and trying to calm it down right away. “I am not here because of Gus.”

“Then why are you here? I have to admit I didn't expect to see you here today,” Brian admitted as he led the younger man to his office and offered the seat across from his desk to him while he sat down in his own chair behind the desk. “Or any day to be honest.”

“I have become aware of a situation at the Symphony that might be interesting for you and your company,” Ethan started to explain, meeting Brian's gaze head on.

Brian knew that Ethan played violin for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra because he had been told that information about the younger man, but other than that, wasn't really aware of what was going on at the Symphony. That wasn't really where his interests lay.

“Interesting how?” Brian raised an eyebrow, not quite sure how a violin player, the Symphony and his company would go together.

“The Symphony is looking for a new advertising partner after there was a scandal with their old agency. So far it's all hush hush as everyone is trying to bury the scandal before it becomes public knowledge, but pretty soon the Symphony will be looking for a new ad agency,” Ethan explained.

“And how do you know about this scandal if everything is hush hush?” Brian asked, feeling slightly confused that a violin player would know something like that.

“Because it involves another violin player from the Orchestra and I will be replacing her now that she has left the Orchestra because of that scandal,” Ethan explained calmly.

Brian nodded, slowly getting an idea what the scandal was about. Sexual harrassment most likely. It wouldn't be the first time.

“And why are you telling me about this?” And this was really the question that interested Brian. Why would Justin's partner, the person that raised his son together with Justin and lived with him, a person that must know how strained his current relationship with Justin was, why would he come to his partner's former partner and tell him of an opportunity like this? And Brian was well aware how big of an opportunity this was. The Toronto Symphony Orchestra was world famous and had many concerts, tours and DVD releases each year. An advertising deal with them would involve many different avenues of advertising that could be very interesting and definitely would bring in a lot of money for a small boutique agency like his own.

“Why not?” Ethan shrugged, still meeting Brian's gaze head on. He looked innocent enough as he asked the question, but Brian doubted that that innocence was real. No one would offer an opportunity like that without having their own goals as well.

“What do you want in return?” Brian asked, getting straight to the point. “I will not give up any time with Gus,” he immediately made clear, right away shutting down that idea.

“And I wouldn't ask you to,” Ethan answered and even to Brian he sounded honest enough as he spoke. “Gus loves you and loves spending time with you. I would never come between that.”

Brian snorted in reply to that, rolling his eyes. “Yeah and my name is Princess Di...”

“Whatever is happening between you and Justin has nothing to do with me. I want Gus to be happy and I can see how much he enjoys spending time with you. I would never take that away from him. Not when it makes him so happy to have you around again.”

Brian eyed the younger man for the longest time, finally realising that he really seemed to mean it. He nodded, before he spoke again. “So what is your angle here?”

“No angle. Justin has always told me what a great ad exec you were. How innovative your campaigns had been back when...before Gilead and all. He would tell me again and again what a great ad man you were and I know that he doesn't give praise when it isn't due. So you must be good... As part of the Orchestra, I will benefit from good advertising as well. It's as easy as that: Justin said you are the best and as the best, you should get a shot at this. And I guess it wouldn't be a bad thing for a company that's just starting out to get an account like the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.”

“No, it wouldn't be,” Brian had to admit. An account like that could bring in many more afterwards and could open doors for him that would still be closed to him otherwise. It would be a great account for his company, he had to admit that himself.

“Does Justin know that you're here right now?”

“No, but I will tell him later,” Ethan answered calmly. “We usually try to stay out of each other's professional lives, but because of the current...situation...between him and you, I will of course mention it to him.”

“He won't like it,” Brian said truthfully, knowing how bad things were between them. It had been weeks since they had last spoken and whenever they saw each other, there were mostly short greetings that couldn't have been colder if they had been between the presidents of North and South Korea.

Ethan shrugged. “He doesn't have to, though I doubt it will matter much. He knows how good you are at your job and has always admired your work as an ad man. That hasn't changed just because other things have changed. And just because I told you about this opportunity, doesn't mean you will get the contract.”

Of course Ethan couldn't have been more wrong in his assessment. Justin had been pissed when he had found out, Brian had heard that much from Gus, but obviously Justin must have gotten over it as he and Ethan were still together and according to Gus still happy.

And as far as Brian had been concerned, Ethan had been right about one thing: He had given Brian the information that the account was up for grabs, but it was up to Brian to get it. And he had gotten it. He had created a campaign for the Symphony that had blown them away when he had presented it to them, making the Symphony look young, edgy and modern. They had loved the campaign and in the end Brian had gotten the account. Whether Justin had liked it or not.

Which had resulted in Kinnetik being a healthy, well-performing ad agency only six months after its creation.

Kinnetik doing well and making a profit, had also allowed Brian to go ahead and pay off the mortgage on his new apartment way faster than he had anticipated and even more importantly it had allowed him to hire the best custody lawyer in Toronto. Now that he had his life figured out and his professional career was doing great, he finally felt in a position to go after custody of Gus.

He had had several meetings with that lawyer in the last couple of weeks and they had finally been ready to file the papers for full custody for Gus. The papers should be served to Justin some time today.

Brian knew that filing for custody of Gus wouldn't improve his relationship with Justin at all, but there was nothing he could do about that now. Justin had made his choice when he had decided to be an ass about Brian spending time with Gus and at the moment his relationship with his son was all that mattered to Brian. Since there was no reasoning with Justin at the moment, there really hadn't been in months, the younger man had left him no other choice but to get lawyers involved.

At times he wished that they could have avoided it going this far, but if he had to make the same decision again, he would because he would do whatever it took to be able to spend more time with his son. A son he had missed for years and had fought so hard to be able to see again.