CHAPTER 7 - MORE MANNERS AND SHE WONDERS
BRITIN - AN HOUR LATER
KITCHEN
BEN
“He’s going to ground you for the rest of your life!” I growl at an unrepentant Gus and Daphne.
“That’s okay, we love living with Dad!” Gus declares. “I don’t see the problem. It saves his reputation and gets Drew out from under that Janus-faced jackass!”
“Janus-faced?” I frown.
“Janus was the Roman God of Beginnings and Transitions in mythology. He had two faces: one looking to the past, the other to the future.” Ted explains, whilst helping Pheebs dip the cookie in the chocolate.
So, Ted is not only so adorably hot, smart, and can sing. He makes perfect scrambled eggs, and Pheebs approved chocolate dipped strawberry and chocolate chip cookies!
“I see. But you know your Dad doesn't like his private life being scrutinised; by doing this, you’ve opened him up to that.”
“No we’ve not.” Gus asserts. “Because there’s part two to this!”
“Want to explain how part one came about?” Brian stalks in, looking thunderous, but it's Mel’s expression that makes Daphne quail. “And you will be apologising to Ems right now!”
“To say the least!” Ems declares from Brian’s phone. “You waited until I was gone! And the person that needs to apologise is Daphne!”
“Daphne?!” I gasp, but it’s Ted’s smile that has me scowling. “Ted, did you know what was happening?”
“No, and I resent that question!” He returns my fiery glare. “I was smiling, if that was why it was asked, because I think I know what part two of the plan is.”
“Mr Teddy, the chocolate.” Pheebs tugs his sleeve whilst I feel like a twit.
“Sorry, Pheebs.” He smiles down at her. “Mr Teddy needs to step out for a second or two. He will be right back and we finish the cookies, okay?”
“Okay, Mr Teddy, promises to hurry?”
“I promises.” He kisses her cheek then walks towards Brian. “Could I prevail upon your service to drop me off at Liberty Avenue after I’ve finished with Pheebs?”
“Please don’t go, Mr Teddy!” Ems begs. “It's his default, Ben I mean. He cheated on him!” Married for seven years, wasn’t faithful; ironically before they got married he was.”
“Ems!” I groan.
“You’re not letting him walk!” He bellows. “Nobody is to move an inch or speak before I get there. Have Drew with me, and we’re five minutes away!”
FIVE MINUTES LATER
LOUNGE
BEN
“Now, Brian, you are peeved, which I get, but it’s genius now that I’ve calmed down from the duplicity.” Ems looks over his shoulder. “Eyes to the wall!” He orders Gus; his head droops as he obeys. “Oh, for heavens to murgatroyd, come out and sit down!”
“Thank you, Emsy!” He kisses his cheek before side eyeing Brian nervously. “It was both of us to be fair. I was spitballing and suddenly Daph squealed and the idea was born. Drew was still here and he knew it would work.”
“Wait, where were you two?” Ted frowns; I sigh as he’s still not looked at me since the great revelation. “Pheebs, can you please give Uncle Ben this cookie, it’s got extra strawberries?”
“It does? Cans I has it instead?” She pleads.
“No, Pumpkin, this is especially for him.” She makes her way over to me. I take it and carefully wrap it in a napkin and put it to one side. “I take it, it needs milk and privacy?”
“Yes.” I smile in relief. “I’ll tell you everything later.”
“Great, that’s great. Meanwhile, back to the primary issue.” Mel declares. “We went to meet Novotny’s Mother and Uncle, plus the boyfriend of the Uncle. They gave us this.” Ems takes it and tucks it under his arm. “Isn’t it time for her bath?” She looks pointedly at Gus and Daph. “And your bedtime?”
“Yes ma’am!” Daph declares, and despite her vigorous objections, Pheebs is taken upstairs and the door firmly shut.
Quietly, we pour over the contents. “They just wanted to give you this, that’s it? That's very kind of them, I guess.”
“Well, that and he offered to out himself as a chickenhawk.” Mel grins. “And I think he still might.”
“But why?” Drew frowns. “Me dating Brian negates that need.”
“They're emigrating, so he wants to do this.” Brian helps himself to a cookie. “They also wanted me to give their numbers to you, Ted. Said they wanted to apologise to you face to face too. Do you want them?”
“Yes. Um, question, what happened to Justin?”
“Oh crap!” Brian and Mel exclaim and rush out; we catch up with them at the closed attic door. “Do you think he’s okay?” Mel whispers.
“One way to find out.” He opens the door quietly, then looks appalled. “What is that noise? It can’t be him snoring; he sounds like he's playing drums with a wrecking ball!”
“Thanks!” A sleepy voice grumbles before his head appears over the balcony. “I’m hungry. And it’s not that bad. Can I be fed?”
“Since you asked so nicely.” Brian scowls, starting to shepherd us out.
“Wait, Brian, I’ve had an idea!” Justin calls down. “Give me a few.”
“Sure, but check the trash sites in the meantime!” Brian returns.
“Will do. And make me a hot chocolate with sprinkles, if you’ve got such a thing!”
“I’ve got a toddler in the house; of course I’ve got such a thing!” Brian carps back.
FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER
KITCHEN
EMS
“For someone hanging, you sure are a drink of fine!” I beam as Justin finally comes in, but Brian is bristling at his earlier surliness. He slams down the mugs and bangs the cupboard shut, which is making Justin wince - good, he had no right to be rude! “So, Justin, what’s your idea?”
“Drew’s already done it.” He replies, only pouting slightly. “So has Michael been in touch? Did I miss anything else?” I explain what Vic wants to do. Whilst he’s listening, he’s watching Brian making the chocolate. “But, maybe we can ramp up the pressure on him. Hey! Where’s the sprinkles?!”
The pot of cream doesn’t spill as it’s banged down; the angry breath as he turns off the stove silences the room. “Everyone except Justin, go to the lounge, please.”
JUSTIN
In seconds it’s just the two of us. “You’ve been banging about on purpose!”
“You’ve spoken enough. Be quiet and listen.” He slowly turns. “I don’t care that you’re tired, hungry or hungover. You’re a beautiful and smart man, get your manners to match! Understand that you will not speak to me that way anytime, anywhere, ever; especially in my home.”
“As you can see, I get cranky when I’m tired, hungover and hungry, which doesn’t excuse my behaviour, for which I sincerely apologise.” He nods his acceptance, then slowly starts to smirk. Sighing, I swallow down my brat-attack. “May I have my chocolate, please?”
“Yes, but no sprinkles.” He turns the stove back on. I fold my arms, cheeks flaming. “Ted made strawberry and chocolate chip cookies, you can have one of them instead.”
“And this is where?” Me almost sounding feral makes him snort. “Please!”
“Lounge. I’ll bring this.”
Although I’m embarrassed at him laughing at me, it sounds so hot, but not as hot as him being mad at me made me feel.
MICHAEL AND LINDSAY'S HOUSE - TWENTY MINUTES LATER
LINDSAY
“MICHAEL, WAKE UP!” I shake and scream at him at the same time.
With a groan, he opens one eye. “Not now, whatever the hell it is can wait!”
“Drew Boyd has come out!” I snarl, throwing his phone at him, which he sadly doesn’t catch with his face. “Says he is dating Brian Kinney!”
“What the hell?!” He yells, snatching it from the bed before taking on a cadaverous hue. “We’re screwed!” He turns it to me.
“You think? I told you that this would happen one day, didn’t I?! So how do we fix this?! I can't believe Boyd is out and claims he’s dating Brian Kinney!” I stop railing, as for the first time in forever, he looks worried.
He gets out of bed looking like he’s going to faint. “Boyd can wait, this needs fixing fast! I need to go and see them, you call Kip and ask him exactly what he said to them!”
“Michael, why is that more important than Boyd?!”
He sinks down before running to the bathroom; I grimace as he throws up. By the time I come back with water, he's getting dressed but not looking any better. “Have you called Kip?”
“No. Drink.” I order coldly. “You call Kip; I’ll call the website company.”
He slams the glass down. “All our numbers have been blocked. For once, can you just do as I ask?!”
“Why? Who’s blocked us?!”
“Leon. He texted me to say I’m on his shitlist until I apologise for my behaviour yesterday.” I clasp my hands tightly. “I was hungover! I assumed that he couldn’t fuck up a simple phone call!”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to mention Kip’s earlier presence, however, something about his fear keeps me quiet. “What does he have, and who is it on?!”
“What do you mean?” He demands; now he's defensive.
“Fine, play it your way, but I’m not leaving this room until we’re off the shitlist your laziness and stupidity got us onto!”
Before he can speak, his phone rings. “Michael Novotny speaking. Leon, how - yes, just a minute.”
“Mrs Novotny, can you hear me?”
“Yes I can. I apologise on behalf of Michael and his messenger yesterday.”
“Messenger? So that wasn’t you speaking to me like that?” He sneers.
Michael scrubs his face, scowling at me. I return it. “No, no, it wasn’t. That was my assistant. I asked him to call you because I wasn’t feeling well.”
“So, you got mullered in your midden last night? Why not call me when you were feeling better; instead of giving my number to a person I don’t know?”
“I didn’t think.” Michael whimpers.
“That’s obvious. So when am I getting it back?!”
“Leon, as you’ve said, this was not his finest hour; but can you tell us exactly what it is you want back? We’ve been trying to get hold of his soon to be ex assistant to no avail.”
“The money. His assistant demanded he got everything back.” Michael grips the chair. “And I mean everything.”
“Yes, yes, you will get it back, every penny.”
“Plus 17.5% interest for the inconvenience and hurt feelings.” His chuckle makes my skin crawl. “I expect it in the next ten minutes.”
STUDY - TWO MINUTES LATER
MICHAEL
“How much have we paid him?” Lindsay demands as I logon to the bank account.
“Lindsay, not now, okay? Let me just sort this out.” She stands beside me. “I really don’t need you looking over my shoulder!”
“Why not? It's from the business account, correct? I can logon and check, but this saves me the bother.” Bracing myself for her reaction, I open the account; she gasps and grabs the mouse. “We’ve paid him that much?!”
“He’s the best.” I retort. “And that’s over the entirety of his association with me.” I point out.
“Us! And that’s $2 million!”
“It costs a lot to keep our hands clean!” I snarl, trying to take the mouse back off her. However, not only does she move away, she takes the laptop with her. “What are you doing?! We need to pay this back, he’s the best!”
She shakes her head. “No. We end this business arrangement. How did it even start?!”
“Family business.” I grouse, clicking my fingers for the laptop. She curls her lip and tucks it under her arm. “Lindsay, do you really think that we have the skillset, let alone the time to do that ourselves?!”
“Suppose not.” She concedes, starting to release her possession; then she pauses. “But do we need him anymore?”
“What do you mean?” I keep my tone level.
“Well, with the clients and our reputation; why not cut his losses and put that money to better use?” I nod and smile. “Well then, I’ll take this and move the money to our joint account after my bath. A soak is called for!”
She sweeps out, leaving me dumbstruck and furious.
BRITIN - THREE HOURS LATER
LOUNGE
JUSTIN
Brian and I are friends again, helped by my repeated apology and ordering of chicken and waffles. Okay, I had help from Pheebs to persuade him that we all needed this, but now it's arrived, we’re digging in.
“That isn’t mine, is it?!” Brian looks like he’s going to have an attack of the vapours.
“Yes, but we can share if you want.” I offer, mentally crossing my fingers. He regards me coolly. “What?”
“I see your game. No, thank you, I shall face this alone.”
“Told ya that wouldn’t work!” Daph guffaws as she cuts up the waffle for Pheebs.
“So, what’s the 2nd part?” Brian moves his plate away from my inching-towards-it fork. “I’ve only just forgiven you, want to be on the naughty list again?” I smile and lick my lips. “I see. Good to know.”
“Ahem. Young impressionable children present!” Gus teases. “So yeah, the 2nd part, threaten to out him instead.”
“Michael? We’ve no proof.” I sigh.
“No, not him. That’s perfect!” Drew exclaims. “And we’ve got the perfect bait to get him into our web!”
“What and who?” I frown.
“Jerome and you.” Brian leans across and kisses Gus’s cheek.
“Jerome?! That creep! Why would I want to - oh!” I kiss Gus’s other cheek. “So what do I say?”
MICHAEL AND LINDSAY'S HOME - FORTY MINUTES LATER
LINDSAY'S BEDROOM
LINDSAY
He’s gone out, finally! I sip my wine as I wait for the account to load. Not the business account we were looking at earlier; oh no, I’m checking Michael’s secret account, he thinks I don’t know about. And, as I suspected, despite what we agreed less than an hour ago, he’s repaid the money to Leon. So what does he have on Michael that got him to do that?
Cookies: https://www.bakerita.com/chocolate-dipped-strawberry-chocolate-chip-cookies/