Chapter 7

First Day at Work

So there Justin was, once again, falling out of one of the genie's cockamamie magical realms. He fell through the endless cloudy void hearing the whistling sound of the air rushing past like one of those Wile E. coyote cartoons, although instead of an amusing BLAM and cloud of dust, he was sure that this would end in his much messier and certain doom. Justin sighed, a trifle bored, and examined his manicure, the gay way, palm out. He sighed again and though perhaps.....

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Oh, but this is a trifle boring, I'm sure, and it occurs to me that you're probably dying to know what Brian and Michael have been up to. It's been a while since I've gotten around to them but with Justin and his wishes and the whole skag angle has been going on, I'd quite forgotten about them.

Both Brian and Michael had had a shit first day at work. By the end of it, they were both tired, full of nervous energy and yet pissed off at the same time.

At Ryder's Advertising, Brian was shown to his cubicle by his supervisor. His supervisor was "supervising" Brian and 20 other ad execs. However, you'd never know it because the supervisor (ok, this is stupid, his name was Gary Sapperstein), anyway, Gary hovered over Brian the entire day and proceeded to micromanage the shit out of him until Brian felt Gary had crawled up inside his ass and laid eggs like the bug he was being.

Every time Brian reached for a folder...(Are you sure that's the right account to be working on right now?) Brian always answered yes and did what he was going to do. As an ALPHA, any decision he made was the right one. Anytime he tried to get up to get coffee or take a piss or simply stretch his legs, Gary was there, hovering, asking, "Are you sure this is a good time to take a break Brian?"

The first two times this happened, Brian shrugged and sat back down. The third time this happened, Brian stood deliberately and got right in Gary's face.

"Yes! It is 10:45 and I think that it is the perfect time to take a break. And I need one. From you. So unless you'd like to come to the bathroom and watch me piss and pour me cup of coffee yourself, back the fuck off!!"

"You know, Kinney, we're looking for team players here at Ryder. Maybe you don't know that, since it's your first day."

"I'd be happy to work in a team. Just make sure YOU'RE not in it, hovering over the rest of our shoulders!"

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about," Gary said smarmily and prissily.

"I'm sure you do. Now get the hell out of my way. Or I can unzip right here and let loose but at this point I'd probably end up spraying you in the face!"

Gary got out of the way. "You'll pay for this Kinney! I'm going to tell Mr. Ryder all about your insubordination!"

Brian ignored him and rushed to the bathroom and peed like a racehorse. He viciously pretended Gary was on his knees chained to the wall and muzzled with an S/M urinal gag. Ahhhh well...Maybe one day...

The rest of the day was...tolerable. Gary kept his distance and Brian kept a stink eye on him to make sure he did. At the same time, he waited for the other shoe to drop.

At 4:00 PM, half an hour to closing, it dropped. Ryder opened his office door, yelled : "Kinney, get in here!" and slammed it again.

Brian sighed. A long day was about to get longer.

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Meanwhile, Michael was faring no better, only his day was horrible in a much more direct way.

Michael's job was just back-breakingly and non-stoppingly hard. They gave him a boring grey coveralls uniform and all day he lifted heavy boxes out of a truck onto a dolly, pushed the dolly into the building, emptied it, and returned to the truck. He and several others did this until the truck was empty. He then had to organize the boxes into a huge cube which often involved playing a giant game of tetris. Another worker then came along with a forklift and lifted this huge almost cube and carried it away in a kind of mail delivery to all around the storeroom.

As the forklift took off, Michael would turn and see with a kind of never ending horror that a new truck that looked just like the last truck was waiting for him. It was full to the brim.

Wash, rinse, repeat...and repeat...and repeat. Repeat ad nauseum, and it didn't take Michael long to become ad nauseum ed.

And meantime, all the while he was pushing and shoving and lifting and wheeling and otherwise breaking his back for these assholes, every few minutes one of them would make a horrible and thouroly offensive joke.

There were jokes about everything, yo Mama jokes, blond jokes, Helen Keller jokes, Black person jokes (sigh, really now??) and of course, Mikey was just waiting for it, homo jokes.

There was no stop. There was no escape. They wouldn't be ignored. God know he tried. But when he tried, whoever it was would stick his face right into Michael's and tell the whole thing over again twice as loud as if Michael was deaf. The whole thing was so loud it echoed through the entire warehouse. (The acoustics were very good there.)

And so, eventually, Mikey learned that if he did the fakest "ahh haw hawww hawww" the idiots would be satisfied, not know the difference and leave him (mostly) alone...until the next terrible, terrible joke.

By noon, Mikey was feeling permanently ad nauseumed in both his body and mind. He could barely eat his lunch. Well, of course he did because he probably would have collapsed without it, but it was now like stuffing his face with Styrofoam packing peanuts. I mean....what he imagined they tasted like, he didn't know exactly. I mean he'd never had them for real. Neither have I. I mean, that would just be...crazy. And neither Mikey or me are crazy now...so...yeah, couldn't tell you.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, so after lunch it was more of the same. And everyone was making those jokes. The workers...the truck drivers...the forklifters....the supervisors. Mikey blanched when he saw that I mean, what the hell?? Was there a space he missed on his application...? Are you a: Pick one... a racist__ homophobe__ troglodyte caveman__ Y/Y.

Finally, it was 5 PM. Michael refused all offers to go have "a cold one" and punched out and got the hell out of there with hell hound at his heels and feeling sick in stomach and soul until he could get to his car and go find Brian.

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Brian had fared no better. Inside Vance Gardner's inner sanctum and cushy corner office with a view, Vance screamed at him non-stop for the last half hour of the day.

Brian waited patiently to get a word in, then waited a bit more, realized he was in this for the long haul. So he stopped listening and gazed out the window at the fabulous view.

"KINNEY!! Oh...I'm sorry.... Am I.... booorring you?"

"Not at all. But then again, I didn't think you hired me just so you could waste your time trying to amuse me."

That brought Gardner up short.

"I assume you're done? Good." Brian smiled a small, feral smile. "You also didn't hire me to sit around wasting YOUR or MY TIME. And yet that's what went on here today. You hired me to make you money. You hired me because I got top marks in my class in half the time it took the rest of them. You hired me because you know that I know what I'm doing and don't need to be micromanaged and hovered over by a British nanny. I wasn't hired to be given the third degree every time I want a cup of coffee or to take a piss. You hired me to create advertisements and to MAKE.... YOU... MONEY. Making ME stressed and wasting YOUR valuable time yelling at me is doing neither of these things. Did I cover everything?"

Ryder's mouth was flapping open and closed in fury. "But he said... I said...Insubordinate...I...I...I....."

"At this point it doesn't really matter what he said but whatever it was, it was painfully one sided. And since you're clearly not interested in hearing my side, I'm not going to offer it." He theatrically looked at his watch. "Well, look at that! Five o'clock. And this is painfully boring." He got up and went to the door. "If you'd like to keep me, do nothing and keep that SAP away from me. See you tomorrow. If you'd like to fire me, Tweet Me!" The double meaning was clear.

He left. He left the meeting, left Vance's office, left the agency, left the building. He mentally left the office and situation as well, closed himself off as if none of it had ever happened. As if his first day had never happened. As if Ryder's had never happened.

And the whole time he was expecting a tell tale vibration and jingle of some kind from his phone. But there was nothing when he got into his Jeep. There was nothing as he drove away from the building. Finally, about halfway to the Diner, his phone buzzed. Wow, took him long enough, he thought as he dug it out.

But it wasn't Vance or even Twitter. It was a normal text message from Michael. ‘Hell of a day. How was yurs? Diner?'

Brian waited till he was at an intersection and at a complete stop and then quickly tapped the microphone option.

"O-M-W," he spoke into the phone and then hit send. He then flipped it shut and put it back in his pocket before the light went green. It buzzed again but he ignored it. Anything further could be taken care of when he got there. Texting and driving was a big no-no.

And that's when the blond boy on a flying carpet appeared right beside him.

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Down, down, down..... again.

Well, of course Carpet caught him again. It was still full of joy and energy at Justin's praise and saving of him.

Carpet caught him and zoomed off into parts unknown and Justin was ready to let him.

Instead, the carpet hit a wall. The sky of clouds seemed completely clear, but Carpet hit a barrier nevertheless and Justin was nearly pitched off again.

He hung on though and Carpet searched for a way past. But there was no way. They were in a kind of invisible cylinder. They followed the wall a bit lower and saw that it was getting closer.

"We're in a funnel!" Justin yelled, "Follow it down!"

And so Carpet did. Around and around, down and down, closer and tighter until....

"There!" Justin yelled and pointed.

Down below them was a yellow, pulsing glow. The carpet flew into it. There was blinding flash and...

They were back in the real world. They were in traffic. To their direct right was a black jeep with a gorgeous man in a blue suit in it.

The man looked over with incredulous eyes and open mouth. "Where did you come from?" he asked wonderingly.

"Your dreammmm... This is allll just a dreeeaaammmm." Justin tried.

"Nice try. But I'd never dream I was stuck in traffic," said the gorgeous man.

"Now you're wondering....Who am I?" Justin intoned, gamely soldiering on.

"You're right about that."

"For these questions and many others, you can find me at my coffee and tea shop in an hour..." He named it.

"I hate tea," said Brian.

"I allllsoooo have iiiiiccee creeeaaammm," Justin intoned.

"I never eat sweets or carbs after 7."

"It will still only be 6:00.... Besides, if you really don't want any...come anyway. You can watch me eat it." Justin winked and Brian got painfully hard in 2 seconds.

"Well....bye then." Justin tapped his foot and Carpet zoomed up and away so fast that it was out of sight in two seconds and made the Road Runner look like an asthmatic slouch.

Brian sat staring after it with only the wind on his face to tell him that indeed this was NOT a dream.

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At the diner, Brian walked in the door, took one look at Michael, and decided this would be a short visit. One look at his hang dog face and Brian decided he preferred visions of blond boys slowly sucking....on spoons of vanilla and rocky road ice cream much better.

As internally predicted, Michael launched into his tale of woe without even saying hello. The bent over, back-breaking work! The unending jokes. The bigotry against...everything! The unending jokes! He couldn't be out of the closet there! It was all hopeless....hopeless!!

"Well... as much as I am fascinated listening to the wonders of Hitler's Happy Hunting Grounds...it's been an hour and I have a previous engagement." Brian failed to mention this previous engagement had been made scarcely an hour ago. "By the way...I had a shit day too. I might be fired. Thanks for asking."

Uh Ohhhh!!! Michael sensed he had made a mistake and was losing his audience.

"Oh gee, Brian! I'm sorry! I guess I'm just tired. I guess I just..."

"Oh I see. Tired huh? Is that why you attached a motor to your mouth?"

"Oh, now was that necessary? Honestly, Brian, that was just mean."

Brian shrugged. "Maybe."

Michael sighed but didn't press it as he knew this was as close to an apology he was going to get.

Michael sighed again and toyed with the chain around his neck. As he twisted it around his finger, the medallion that was attached to it slipped out of his shirt. The medallion was a twisted snake made out of silver with rubies for eyes.

"Are you sure you can't stay....just a while longer?" he asked softly.

"I can't....I have to meet... I have... I....."Brian's gaze was caught in the snake's ruby eyes.

Michael let it drop right over the center of his shirt.

"You have to what?" he asked softly in monotone.

"Nothing."

"You don't have to go anywhere."

"No."

"What was your appointment?"

"I'm going to meet a blond boy I met an hour ago."

"That's not really important, is it?"

It's not important." Brian's voice was full on monotone now.

"You have no engagement, do you Brian?"

"No."

No prior engagements."

"No engagements."

"You want to stay with me..."

"I want to stay with you."

"You love to hear me talk."

"I love to hear you talk."

You want to stay with me....and take me to dinner."

Yes, Michael."

Dinner....and a movie." Michael knew he was pushing it but he loved watching movies with Brian...especially when Brian paid for it.

"Yeah...dinner and a movie..." Brian slurred still watching the snake eyes, unable to look away.

Smiling, Michael slipped the necklace back inside his shirt and waited for Brian to snap out of it.

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Carpet was still on a high of sublime joy. He continued his manic pace, did barrel rolls soared to higher and higher heights. Since he could not voice his thanks, he showed it instead. He raced Justin to Paris, spiraled him all the way up the tower and then rested for five minutes atop the very tip top of the tower. Carpet slowly turned in the air giving Justin a 360 degree panoramic view of Paris twice.

At last Justin burst out laughing and cried out: "OK! OK! You're welcome! You're welcome! Will you take me home now!?

He decided it wouldn't be wise to look over the edge, so instead he took out his phone and turned on the camera. Then he ventured this over the side and looked at the screen.

Uh! Oh! As well as the mob of civilians waving and yelling at him from the highest vantage point, there were a number of uniforms ascending. Armed uniforms.

"Oh dear! Not good! Carpet, I'm really going to have to insist now! It's time we were off. Home please!"

And with the unfettered freedom that matched his joy, Carpet did exactly that. He shot up and away like a bullet from a gun. He was a distant dot in two seconds and gone from the astonished eyes of the French in another two.

He flew high, higher, highest until he found a nice current in the jet stream and took Justin back to New Liberty in no time at all.

They spiraled neatly down to the coffeehouse that Justin invited Brian to and opened shop for an hour or two.

Seven came and went but Brian never did do either one. Justin couldn't deny being a little disappointed. He had been hoping for another meeting with the tall, dark and cynical stranger. But he could wait. He had a new life and it stretched out in front of him. No more debt. No more hustling. No more stealing. No more ..... No more Twelve.

And men. Lots of Men. Leo. More conjured up muscled bodyguards and/or attendants. And sex. Decent sex. Sex on his terms with pillow talk and rimming and foreplay and no...absolutely no hands changing money. That was a small thing but at this moment....to Justin....it seemed like heaven.

At 8:00 PM, when it was quite clear Brian nor anybody else was coming, Justin "carried" out Carpet, locked up and flew home.

There he found a partially reverted Jennifer who had again retreated to a trance-like hibernation. After Justin had shook her hard awake again, she awoke to a frantic joy. Justin questioned her and was shocked to discover that the financial realm had taken up 3 days! After two days of waiting, Jennifer had lapsed into daydreaming about her two lost children but it was a twilight sleep from which she could not wake on her own.

"Mother! This will not do! I may have to go away again sometimes and it seems time is erratic there. You HAVE to find a better coping mechanism! Especially since we are so close to our goal! Molly will be home soon and you can NOT lapse into one of these states when she is around. If anyone found out, she'd be taken out of reach for good this time!"

Jennifer promised and Justin showed her the passbook.

After they both had stopped screaming and hugging and jumping for joy, Justin ordered out for pizza and used some of the cash to pay for it. While he was waiting, he wrote out cheques to pay off the rest of their creditors. He wrote off several monthly installments and planned to go to the bank the next day to instruct them to send each one, one at a time at the beginning of the month instead of all at once. This would insure that the hospital and the other people they owed money to, would be surprised at the sudden steady income, a little curious even, but not curious enough to investigate, merely be happy that they were finally being paid.

This plan was duly carried out and went off without a hitch. Everyone in the bank, recognized him immediately, showed him to a soft chair and his own private teller and was served a small cup of muddy thick Turkish coffee. A small sip gave Justin an instant high.

After Justin explained everything discreetly, the tall, tanned teller with bulging biceps toadishly told him that he totally took in his meaning and would personally see to it that everything was done to the letter. He gave him his receipt with his phone number on the back.

And the next day after that, the Taylors woke up in their new house.

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Michael and Brian were enjoying their sumptuous Thai feast at their favorite restaurant. Well, it was Michael's favorite, especially when he was eating with Brian and especially when he took it upon himself...to take control.

"Man, I love Thai food! This was a great idea I had!" Brian congratulated himself...of course.

"It sure was!" Michael agreed, "What movie shall we go see? We can go back to your place and choose on Netflix in the media room."

"How about one of The Fast and the Furious?" suggested Brian. For some reason, his pulse quickened when he thought of fast and speeding things.

"Briii - yaaaannnn..... I don't want to sit there for two hours listening to motors revving. I was thinking of something more romantic....like 'Hearts of Spring' or ' Date with Love'."

Brian had no idea what Michael was talking about so he looked them up with a search engine on his phone. He blanched.

"Are you fucking kidding me!!? I mean seriously, Michael, what happened to you? Did you have a vagina transplant?"

"What? They're not that bad."

"They are made by the fucking Hallmark Channel!!! Yes, they are too that bad!"

"How 'bout Heart Felt?"

Brian looked it up and his face twisted in distaste. He looked up and although he never uttered a word, his expression spoke volumes.

Mike shrugged and said: "At least it's not made by Hallmark."

"Mikey, how in the hell do you even know about these movies? They're for ugly single lesbians who can't get a date because they have yeasty twats!"

"Oh now that's not true!" protested Michael vehemently, "I'm sure not all of them have yeasty twats."

"Well, let's make a rule. No movies with the words Love, Heart, Valentine, or Date in the title."

"My Big Fat Greek Wedd ---"

"Nooooooooooope."

"Mother's Day."

Brian had to look that one up. "Good Lord Mikey! Seriously...what is wrong with you?"

"I just wanna unwind after a hard day," Mike said sulkily.

"Yeah but there's unwinding and then there's...who the hell is Timothy Elephant?

"That's Timothy Olyphant. And he's a great...fantastic....well, he's a good romantic lead OK? Plus there's Jennifer Aniston in it too."

"Geez...how does she keep gettin' work?"

"Well, there's got to be a happy medium somewhere. Michael scrolled down a list on his own phone and then stopped: "Here we go. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Romance for me and violence and flesh eating zombies for you."

"Oh brother! All right, fine! You ready? Let's get this over with."

"Oh Brian! I don't just want to get this over with. I want...I just wish...."

"What the hell are you talking about, Mikey?"

Frustrated, Mikey spoke the words: "The sun was shining on the sea, shining with all it's might."

"It did it's very best to make the billows smooth and bright," said Brian.

"And this was odd because...."

"It was the middle of the night." Brian said.

"Pay up and let's go."

"Yes, Mast - uh...Mikey."

"Good Boy," said Michael.

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Later, in the Mayor's Mansion's media room, Brian and Michael sat on the couch, side by side. Michael sighed and rested his head on Brian's shoulder. The opening credits of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies started to roll.

"See? Now isn't this nice?"

"Yes. This is nice," Brian said woodenly.

"You know Brian, I was thinking."

Brian was silent.

"I was thinking, I've outgrown menial labor. I didn't like the Diner and I don't like the Q. I need a different field of work. Something important. I want you to talk to your father and convince him to give me a interview as his intern. Show me the ropes to becoming a councillor or something."

"This will not be easy. Will be hard to convince him and hard to pass the interview." said Brian.

"You're so so sweet to be concerned," purred Michael, "But you just leave all that to me. I'll take care of it. You just do your part." He snuggled in closer and gave a kiss to Brian's neck before laying his head on his shoulder again. He tried to ignore the way Brian's eyes were looking off in two different directions.

"Yes..... Master," said Brian.

TBC