MICHAEL

Ben was pissed at me for trying to pawn off JR and Joanne. He wanted to take the girls out to the mall. I stayed quiet after that. I was mad. Ben couldn’t see that I needed to spend time with Brian. Ben has us going out with his friends all the time. I mention comics and they all ask why I still read them. Ben told them I sold them at my store. They just started talking about some article they read in the paper. I don’t like being ignored.

We took Joanne home this morning and we had JR till noon. I decided if Mel wanted to make an issue about my visitation, I would make sure to mention every time they were late bringing her or picking her up. JR started asking to go home.

“JR, as soon as your mothers come, you can go home,” I told her.

“Dad, I’m bored now that you sent Joanne home. I want to add the stickers Ben got for me to my book. It’s at the house.” She tells me.

“I don’t want to be accused of dumping you off on your mothers,” I tell her.

“JR, go get your things, I’ll walk you over to your moms,” Ben tells her.

I wanted to protest. Mel started this when she accused me of not following our agreement. Ben told me to let it go, we were supposed to have JR all weekend. Mel was allowing us to send her home early yesterday. Ben had wanted to take JR with us to the party but I told him I wanted to be able to enjoy the party.

JR and Ben leave and I decide to call and see when Gus is going home. Brian could hang out with me after dropping Gus off.

“Hey, I need to talk to Brian,” I tell Justin when he picks up the phone.

“Brian took Gus out to get new sneakers. You can try his cell.” Justin tells me.

I hang up and call Brian’s cell. It keeps going to voicemail. I called five more times, in case he didn’t hear it ring. Then I called Mel.

“What time is Brian bringing Gus home?” I ask her.

“Hello to you too Michael. And to answer your question, I don’t know. Brian and Justin will have him home by bedtime but they don’t set a specific time. When is... never mind, JR just walked in. Bye.” Mel hung up on me.

I call Justin again and ask him when Brian is bringing Gus home.

“I don’t know for sure Michael. They planned on spending the day together, father and son time. Normally we take him home around seven on Sundays.” Justin tells me.

“Brian should take him home at noon. Tell him to call when he gets back and I’ll meet him at the girls. We can go to Woody’s for a while. You better tell him. I know you like to take up all of his time, but you need to consider he might want to spend time with other people.” I tell Justin.

“I’ll let him know your opinion on how he spends his time, but Michael you need to remember, opinions are like assholes, everyone has one but everyone also thinks yours stinks. Later.” Justin, the fucker hangs up.

Justin thinks he’s so smart but that didn’t even make sense. Well, I’ll just save it for a night when we are all together and use it on him.

BRIAN

I got back with Gus to find out Michael wants me to report in to him. I texted my middle finger to Mikey and told him that is the only schedule I am willing to give him.

“Brian stop kidding around and call me.” Mikey texted back.

“That was me being serious.” I text to him.

My phone starts to ring again, and just like the last six calls I send him to voicemail. I dropped the phone in my office and went to see what everyone else is doing. They wanted to watch another movie. Gus wanted to watch Ice Age. Justin told me he would watch with them. I got my laptop and told Justin I could work while they watched. I want to be around the kids. I got to my office and looked at my phone, it was ringing again. Twelve so far.

It was time to take Gus home. Justin and the girls were going to stay home. I called Mel to let her know this was going to be a drop and run.

“Meet me at the diner,” Mel tells me, whispering.

“I can just bring him to the house,” I tell her.

“Not if you don’t want to listen to a whining Novotny. He came over an hour ago, saying he was supposed to meet you.” She tells me.

“Just be outside in five minutes. I can drop Gus off and be gone before Michael makes it out the door.” I tell her.

I’m not going to play secret agent because of Mikey. I get to the house and Mel is waiting. Gus got out and I waved and left. I saw Mikey run out the door. My phone, of course, blew up. I silenced my phone and drove home.

JUSTIN

Brian and I are going to Babylon tonight. My mom is taking the girls overnight. She told us she could take the day off tomorrow and we could pick up the girls when we get up. Brian and I tried to tell her we could get them at eleven, but she said to let the girls sleep. The only reason we were going was that Ted and Blake’s son was born late last night. We offered to come last night but Ted said to come in the morning. We decided to stay at the loft tonight. We came into town and looked in on Austin. I told Brian it was like seeing Gus all over again. I dropped Brian off at work, the girls with Deb, and went to see Sydney Bloom.

Sydney is ready to sell his gallery. He wants to retire, so he can spend time with his wife. I told him Brian would buy it but would want to put a manager in place. Brian said he would buy it as an investment. I told him I didn’t want to be trapped in a gallery all day. Sydney had four people we could interview for the position. I told him to do it quietly because Linds would probably wait outside and get rid of the applicants if she found out.

We interviewed all the people and Sydney and I talked over what he thought. He told me that Reed was probably the best person for the job. I actually know him from a Chicago gallery. I told him that we should also hire Elle, she could take an assistant manager position. I called them and informed them, the jobs were theirs if they wanted them. Sydney is staying to train them for the next two weeks.

I went to the diner to meet with Deb.

“Did you get the positions filled at the gallery?” Deb asked me.

“Yes, thank God. I mentioned to Brian that Sydney wanted to sell and he decided to buy it. I somehow ended up having to help with the hiring. I didn’t want to have to keep looking but Sydney has been fielding applicants since he and Brian discussed the sale.” I tell her.

I lean down and kiss my babies. Deb gave them apples and bananas to eat. She tried to give them ice cream, but the girls didn’t seem interested in it. I swear I’m never going to get sweets if these two don’t start liking something. We sit and wait for Brian to meet us for lunch.

“Good afternoon, young ladies.” Brian greets the girls.

“Da.” They both say and smile at him.

Brian kisses me and sits down. We order so that Brian could eat and run today. With Ted off, Brian is overseeing the accountant Ted trained to take over until he comes back to work. Ted was only going to take a couple of days, but Brian told him to take two weeks like Brian did when the girls were born. The girl who is covering for Ted is good, but Brian is a control freak.

“Did you and Sydney hire the help to cover the gallery?” Brian asks me.

“Why would Justin need to hire help at Sydney’s gallery?” Linds asks Brian.

I didn’t see her come in. I was hoping we wouldn’t have to tell her at all. This is going to be a conversation on either why didn’t we ask her to run the gallery or Brian trying to hurt my career.

“I bought it when Sydney decided to put it on the market. I didn’t want to run it, so Sydney was going to hire people to manage it.” Brian tells her.

“Brian you need to stop trying to derail Justin’s career. He’s an artist, he can’t devote time to a gallery. I guess I can run it since I worked there before.” Linds tells Brian.

“I already have people who are going to run the gallery. Sydney hired them this morning.” Brian tells her.

“I’ll go tell Sydney that he can tell them he changed his mind and I’ll do it,” Linds tells Brian.

“Linds, I wanted to hire people with experience, it’s an investment for me. If you had more experience in management, I would have considered it.” Brian tells her.

“I’m really tired of you constantly putting me down Brian. I have a degree in art history, and was responsible for a lot of the sales in the gallery when I worked there.” Linds tells Brian.

“Linds, you're also the one who slept with one of the artists. I can’t risk that happening again.” Brian tells her.

Linds turns red and walks out the door. I get where Brian is coming from, but he could have told her that in private. He told me she needs to understand that it’s business, and she could risk the gallery if there was a repeat of Sam.

EMMETT

Justin called and told me they were going to Babylon tonight. I asked Deb if she could watch Mark till ten so we could meet the guys. Deb told me she would get Carl to drop Mark off in the morning at school and we could stay out tonight. I kissed Deb. We don’t go out much anymore, but I really wanted to dance. We would probably still leave by eleven, that way we could have a night to ourselves.

We dropped off Mark at eight so Deb could just put him to bed if she wanted to. Justin and Brian were going to meet us at Woody’s and we were going to Babylon at nine. My God, we are getting old. In the past we would have waited till ten or later to go, now we are all getting there early on a weeknight.

We were leaving Woody’s to go to Babylon when we heard the dreaded Whine.