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CHAPTER 5 - PLANS ARE MADE AND MEETINGS DISCUSSED


BRIAN


He perches on the end of the bed, lip biting as I splutter. “There’s a napkin.” He drawls. “So? What’s he like?”


Jen had said that he was an arrogant, cheeky young pup, who she sometimes wanted to either hug or hire someone to give him a sound spanking. His level of cockiness, combined with his form as he gets comfortable at the end of the bed, I can see why she would want the latter and right now I would volunteer.


“How much detail you after? Need something for your wank bank?” His slight grimace has me smirking. “So, you want to know what I’m like in bed, not him. I’m excellent - I’d fuck me. Drive is very high, recovery is quick, and I can go for hours.” His smile widens but there’s a slight blush. “How’d you know?”


“He was on the phone, Talking in a very hushed tone but quickly. Seems to be trying to find someone to take you over as a patient. When did you two fuck?”


Emmett takes that moment to come in. “Who fucked?” He demands. Putting down a tray of coffees and biscuits, he hands me one of both. “Jen said to drink it all. Back to fucking, who and when?”


“Where’s David and Ben?” I sip then sigh. “Can I have this first?”


“It smells really good.” Justin looks at the remaining mugs. “Don’t suppose those two are the same, and what are the cookies?”


“No.” Emmett pouts. “She said just for him.”


“St Helena Tipped Bourbon coffee, also those are not cookies, they’re biscuits, sea salt and caramel biscuits.”


“Ooh how fancy.” Justin jibes. “What’s so special?”


“A perfect pairing. And at £170 a pop for the coffee, which we have to travel to England to get, you have to be a very special person to have some.” 


“She wasn’t kidding about that?” Justin chuckles. “The broth will keep, have the coffee, and Ems, you and I will get our own bag. Well, I’ll get Mom to get our own bag.”


“Yes, yes, that’s great. The fucking.” Emmett joins him at the end of the bed, handing him a mug. “Begin.”


“I fucked David. Ben watched.” Both mugs are still, jaws swinging, eyes are wide. Emmett puts his down then pulls out his phone. 


“Hey, you need to listen.” He orders. “Repeat, please.” I oblige. The silence at the other end stretches, I’m beginning to get annoyed. 


“Where are you?” A female demands.


“Hospice.”


“Ten minutes away. Not another word till I get there!” 


“Who was that?” I growl.


“Daphne, his daughter.” Justin laughs. “This is going to be fun!”


GROCERY STORE - SAME TIME


MICHAEL


I feel like hell after the drinking we did last night. Ma is still resting, we’ve decided not to open the store today. We’ve been to Uncle Prick’s ever since Brian came back. Okay, he did return our call, but just to say he’s going out of town for a week. We didn’t believe him of course, since he lied about his contact with Brian.


As I wheel the trolley around the corner, I find Mel looking at some wine. “Hey! What are you doing this side of town? What are you and Emmett doing tonight, perhaps we three can go out on the tear and have one of her legendary recovery brunches.”


“Just visiting a friend.” She replies. “As for tonight, we’ve got plans. Maybe another time. How’s Debs doing? You okay? You're looking a little tired.”


“Ma’s fine. Reason for tired, thanks for pointing that out, is that I've been under a bit of strain and not sleeping well.”


“What’s wrong?” She puts in two bottles of Beam.


“Brian’s back in town, did you know? Is that who those are for?!” She’s starting to look pissed. “Okay, okay, you didn’t know. Let’s not fight, I’ve got a headache as well. Looks like it’s just Uncle Prick who knew!”


“Don’t call him that, I’ve told you this before!” She scolds. “Back to the Brian situation, where is he, is Vic with him?”


“That’s what he deserves to be called after lying to us all this time. As for where, he’s out of town, and yeah, most likely with Brian.”


“Did he say anything before he left?”


“Nothing, which is so annoying. Ma’s devastated. Seems that Brian’s still harbouring this silly grudge. When he saw us in Woody’s, he said something about me and Uncle Vic being together. Where’s Gus?” I look around. Normally where she or Emmett are, he’s not too far behind.


“He’s on a play date.” 


“He goes on more dates than you these days.” I tease just as a call from Ma comes through.


“Well, I’ll let you take that.” Mel starts to leave.


“Hang on, say hi to Ma!” I grab her trolley, she takes the phone. Whilst she chats to her, I check out her shopping. She’s got some fancy stuff in there. She and Emmett are living the high life!


I still can’t believe they live together. After she and Lindz split, she moved to the other side of town, and when Ted took Emmett’s money, leaving him on the brink of homelessness, she gave him shelter. Ma was going to let him come live with us, but I persuaded her not to. That’s our home and the only people that will live there are me, her, and now he’s back, Brian. Their house is really nice, although we’ve only seen it once, which was when she moved. I’ve not seen Gus in about a year, what with the store and various play dates he goes on. As she's wrapping up the call, I have an idea. 


“She sounds in good form.”


“She’s putting on a brave face, of course. Listen, why don’t you and Emmett come to ours for dinner this weekend?”


“At Deb’s?” She frowns. “Maybe not dinner, you know how fussy Gus can be!”


“No, and he sure is. I meant David and mine. Ma will be there, of course. You’ve not seen David in a while, besides you can help me with Daphne. She’s still being prickly over Ma using her room.”


MEL


Help with Daphne?! The only thing I’m going to help is getting you away from her father! How he’s kept him in his thrall is beyond comprehension, there’s no way, none, that he’s any good in bed! As he prattles on and on, out of the corner of my eye I watch Gus smirking after bailing. I had wondered why he had suddenly run off. He’s also holding bags of their favourite cookies. 


“Michael, I’ll speak to Ems about dinner, but I really do have to go.”


“You never said who the Beam is for.”


“Cooking, I’m doing a bundt cake.” 


“Why waste that on a cake? Jeez, someone’s got money to throw about!” He grins. I suppress my flinch at whatever the hell is caught in his teeth. “Well, you can bring that with you on Saturday, I’ll let David know.” Before I can remind him that I said I’d think about it, he’s off, telling his precious Ma about our dinner plans.


“Why do we have to go?” I look down at a smouldering Gus. “I’ll need to reinforce my cheeks from all that godawful pinching she does! I’m not a frigging chipmunk - and he’s gonna have me wearing a mouthguard trying to bite my tongue!”


“An hour or two with them vs them blowing up my phone for three days. Daph and Justin will be there.” 


“Justin’s going to be there, neat, but why?” He grins as he adores the pair of them.


“You know how those three Musketeers love to band together.”


“Fine.” He sighs with a smile. “Grab those two.” He points at the cheap-ass whisky. “He’s right about one thing, Beam’s not not being wasted on those two crones.” I squeeze his shoulder and he relaxes a bit. “Are we done here now?”


“Yeah, let’s go.”


HOSPICE, BRIAN’S ROOM


DAPHNE


We, as in me, Justin, Ems, Jen and Ben, all have his special coffee. He’s pouting, but I can be very persuasive. Okay, Jen did have to say that she would be flying to London especially on her way back from Paris to get three more bags. But we could not get him to give up the biscuits. The plate’s currently in Ben’s lap, although I can see Ems might take a chance, you know go to grab hoping to miss!


“So you were about four, maybe five years ago, and the reason for the big smile and limp.” I declare, silencing the room. “Chances of a return visit? And why, Ben, were you watching?”


“Stop making me sound like a pervert!” Ben protests. “Head of security. When he said I watched - he means I watched David arrive then leave.”


“Did he come and go in the other sense?” Justin teases. I roll my eyes. Ever since Jen started working for Brian, he’s been trying to figure a way of meeting him. She’s sung both his praises and bitched about his brattiness. 


“Justin.” Jen sighs, he smirks. “I know you want to get into his pants. At least let him recuperate so he can fight off your advances.”


“Mom!” He goes purple.


“Then don’t ask questions like that in front of me.” She retorts. He sits back, cutting his eye at her. “Keep side eyeing me and I’ll tell him all about what happened when you were 16.” 


“Sorry, very sorry!” He declares, the blush now spreading down his neck and chest. 


“Accepted.” She replies coolly. “But I can answer the return visit question, no. He never repeats. Now that he’s got Hunter, he’s not so fast and loose with his goose.”


“Pity.” I sigh. 


“As a matter of interest, why would you want him to sleep with your father?” Jen pulls out another pack of biscuits from her holdall. Brian huffs, then waves a yes. “Isn’t he in a relationship?”


“Yes, with Michael, his ex-best friend.” I gripe, she pauses. “Didn’t I mention that?”


“No, you just said that the boyfriend was a spoilt by his mother, wet nosed bastard of a barnacle.” She looks at Brian, he shakes his head. “Just mess with it a little, please? You won’t even have to pay my bonus this year. Close your eyes and think of how much it will hurt him when he finds out!”


“Mom?” Justin looks concerned. “What?”


“I hate them. I had to deal with them for years before they got the message.”


“Years?” Ems echoes. “How many?”


“Four.” Brian’s voice is pained. “Never once said sorry.”


“Four years. And they never do!” Ems spits. “Just expect you to forget what they did because they’re Mikey and Debs, the bedrock of the fucking family!”


“What do you mean?” Brian growls, beckoning Ems closer. “Our time to talk is now.”


MEL’S CAR - SAME TIME


GUS


Mom’s humming as she drives. It’s been two days since she told me about my Dad being in town. Although she told me everything about him, Lindsey's parting note telling me he’s an absolute uncaring asshole who didn’t want me, hurt and haunts me. I asked Mom if it was true what she wrote. She said it kinda was, but that he was never going to be a full time father to me anyway. However, she doesn’t think he’s like that now.


“So who are the kid and the guy?” I ask. If she’s surprised by the question she doesn’t show it.


“The kid is Hunter. As for the guy, he’s Ben, his best friend.”


I tense up. “Like Michael was his best friend?”


“Hold on.” She squeezes my hand. “Let me pull over.” Although we say nothing as we get in the back, she pinches her forehead then sighs. “I promise you, everything that your Dad did was out of the hurt we caused, nothing to do with you.” 


“So why does he have another kid?” I try to stop my lip from wobbling. As always when I get as emotional as a Kinney can, another Lindsay compliment, she looks away. “Has he replaced me then?”


“No, nothing like that. The first thing he asked was if you were born.”


“He did? So Hunter’s Mom is where?”


“He adopted him after she died when he was three.” 


I stare out of the window for a minute. “So can I go and see him, I mean them, if he’s there too?” 


“Really?!” I turn to her, my heart beating a little faster. “Yes, he wants to meet, but only if you’re ready.”


“I’m ready.” 


“That’s great. When do you want to go?”


“Now.”

 

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