**Justin's POV**

"Yes!" I yelled, pumping my fist in the air like I was at a rock concert. "Now, we're getting somewhere."

Brian and Dr. Vic both laughed, and Vic pushed the chair back from my desk and said, "Alright Justin, it seems like the two of you are on the right track." He walked across the room towards the door and called out, "I'll see you two later at evening group."

"We'll see ya, Doc," I said. The door closed, and I glanced down at my watch and saw that we still had a half hour left in our session.

Before I could ask him another question from my list though, Brian looked at me and asked curtly, "So, what was with the baby sitter?"

I tried to play dumb and shrugged. "Like he said, he wanted to observe some of our session, since-"

"He only had the time to do it since that asshole, Cameron, left last night, and it was conveniently right after I asked you to have dinner with me and after you asked me not to call you anymore."

Shit... he's on to me. Dr. Vic did tell me after our morning group meeting that he would sit in on our session to try to re-establish a professional environment between Brian and I, and I had hoped like hell that Brian wouldn't see through the ruse. But he was right- if Cameron had not left last night, Vic would have never had the chance to "observe" me in action. Trying to divert his attention away from the doc, I timidly said to Brian, "I didn't ask for you not to call me anymore. I asked-"

"Don't bullshit me, Justin," Brian barked. "Did you ask him to come in here today or what?"

I stared at him with my mouth open, surprised that he was suddenly being so stern with me and that he called me by my first name. "Br... Brian-"

He scooted forward in his chair so that his right knee was touching my left, his darkening hazel eyes deadly serious. "Is your attraction to me preventing you from keeping in control? Were you just using him to try to establish who's in charge here?"

My heart thumping rapidly in my chest, I faked a laugh and said, "Don't flatter yourself, Brian. I'm a professional, doing my job... and you're just another patient."

He sat back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. "Sure," he said, clenching his jaw while staring at the clock next to the door.

I took a peek at Brian's toned, lightly tanned biceps, which were nicely shown off today with the black muscle tee he was wearing, for a moment before clearing my throat and looking back at my list. "Can we finish our session now?"

Brian gave me a silent shrug.

Great... "Will you consider letting someone, such as Lindsay or Michael, know that you're seeking treatment here?"

He continued to sit there like a bronzed statue. "Fuck no."

I shifted uncomfortably in my chair. "Well, I think-"

"It's none of their fucking business," he all but growled at me. "Next question."

We were obviously not going to get anywhere, as long as he continued to queen out over my rejection... which was of course a blatant lie. "What's your problem, Brian?"

"Is that question on your list?" he asked, still staring at the wall.

"No," I said, exhaling with a sigh. "I didn't ask Dr. Vic to come in here today, but I..."

He finally looked at me and asked, "But you what?"

I swiveled in my chair so I was facing him more. "I called Vic last night, right before you called me, and I told him that because you have shown interest in me, I didn't think it would be proper for me to be your counselor anymore."

He cocked an eyebrow. "I've shown interest in you?"

I scoffed and asked, "Well, you haven't been very subtle- you spend each group session practically eye-fucking me, and you've asked me several questions about my sex life. And, you tried to tell me what you would have done to me, if you had been the one to take my virginity before I stopped you."

He mocked me with his own fake laugh and said, "I'm a sex addict Justin, and we're both fags. Of course I want to fuck you... but I'll fuck almost anyone, so don't flatter yourself."

My breath caught in my throat, and I had to use every bit of strength I had to maintain an indifferent exterior. This really wasn't news to me. Hell, he admitted in the first group session that he normally fucks three or four guys a day, so whatever interest he had shown in me over the past three days just came natural to him. He probably had all sorts of tricks and pick-up lines he used on his conquests, and probably went into detail of what he planned on doing to them. Maybe he called every blonde twink he hooked up with "Sunshine," and regularly employed that sexy drawl of his- that buttery voice that shoots down my spine and never fails to make me hard- with everyone he fucked.

I looked back down at my clipboard, and suddenly my scrawled words began to swim around on the page. Goddamn it, butch up, you pussy! "Uh..." I blinked a few times to clear out the tears, and unfortunately one hit the paper with a "whap."

"Are..." Brian snorted a laugh. "Are you crying?"

"No," I said snapped. "My allergies always flair up this time of year- you know, pollen, mold. I must have forgotten to take my Claritin this morning." I sniffed hard to play it up, slid the clipboard under my chair, and got up to grab a tissue from the box on my desk. "Excuse me," I said before blowing my nose and wiping the remaining tears away before tossing the snot rag into the trash can.

My back to Brian, I took a few deep breaths before turning around to return to my chair. I grabbed the clipboard and tried to pretend like the last few minutes didn't happen. "So, we have talked about your mom a bit, but I wanted to ask you a few questions about your dad."

Brian sighed and crossed his left ankle over his right knee, so I had a view of the bottom of his left foot. I couldn't help but notice that he had no rough spots on his heel or toes, which led me to believe that he got regular pedicures. What's your deal with feet? I remembered Daphne asking me at dinner the other night. I believe that you can tell a lot from a person by how they take care of their feet, and Brian obviously pampered himself.

"What do you want to know about dearly departed Jack?" Brian asked me, snapping me out of my foot examination.

"How did Jack react to you being gay?" I asked, trying to avoid eye contact or looking at his feet.

He chuckled a bit before saying, "I didn't come out to him until a couple months before he died. Actually, I told him a couple days after he told me that he was dying of cancer."

I looked at him, surprised. "And you said that he died just a few years ago?"

Brian started playing with a loose thread at the cuff of his jeans. "Yeah, a couple of months before I turned thirty. Debbie suggested that I tell the old fuck the truth before he croaked. I'll never forget what he said." He dropped his voice to that of a raspy old smoker and drawled, "You picked a hell of a fucking time to tell me you were a fairy. You should be the one dying."

Despite the remaining hurt I was feeling from his earlier rejection of me, I couldn't help but feel terrible for him. "After my mom told my dad that I was gay, he spent about an hour trying to convince me that I wasn't. ‘It's just a phase... you can't be gay, I didn't raise you like that... you're sensitive, that doesn't mean you're gay.' I ended up stomping out and going to a drag bar with Daphne that night."

"Is it reciprocal sharing time again?" he asked sarcastically.

"I'm just empathizing with you. Unfortunately, a lot of parents don't react positively when their kid comes out, no matter at what age. Although my mom accepts my lifestyle now, she took me to a psychiatrist right after she first found out. The doctor assured my mom that yes, her son was a cock-sucking queer. My dad still doesn't want to believe it, which is a big reason why he's no longer a part of my life."

"Joan didn't find out until a year after Jack died, and it was only after she came over to my loft while I was ‘entertaining.'" Brian looked over at me, his brow furrowed. "Did you dad ever tell you that he wished your mom had gotten an abortion?"

Another pang to my heart. "No, but my mom once said she wished I hadn't been born, when we got into a fight one time when I was a teenager. I don't even remember what the fight was about, but after her anger simmered down, she got all upset, saying that she didn't mean it and begged me to forgive her."

"Well, Jack used to tell me that all the time... usually when he was beating me after he had knocked back a drink or ten. And I'm pretty sure he meant it."

All I wanted to do at that moment was climb into Brian's lap and hold him... but instead, I decided to cut our session short. "Why don't we stop for the day? You've made a lot of strides, but I don't want to overdo it."

Without another word, Brian slipped his shoes back on and walked out of my office.

**Brian's POV**

I was sitting on the roof finishing my third cigarette in a row when the muncher came over to join me at the table. Her session with Eric must have just ended.

"What's wrong with you?" Mel asked me as she lit a cigarette of her own.

I narrowed my eyes at her and grumbled, "Nothing's wrong with me."

Mel scoffed. "Oh please, you look like your dog just died."

"I'm fine," I snarled as I hung my head in an attempt to hide myself from the nosy lesbian. I lit another cigarette with shaky hands and let out a rattling cough. Since when have I been a chain smoker?

Don't flatter yourself, Brian. I'm a professional, doing my job... and you're just another patient.

Well good, that's how it should be, dammit. My ass will be out of here in eleven days, and I'll never have to see that little twink again. I'll be back in glorious Pittsburgh and he'll be here in New York, and I'll never think about him again.

So then why when he said that did it feel like someone drove a fucking knife through my chest?

**Justin's POV**

After spending an hour with Nick and listening to him give me a play-by-play of all the times he had cheated on past girlfriends and ex-wives (it was as if I was reading his diary; the man remembered dates, locations, and first names of every encounter), I went into the employee break room for a cup of coffee. Just my luck, this occurred at the same time that Hobbs had decided to take a break.

"Taylor," he said as I walked over to the coffee pot.

"Hobbs," I replied, pouring what I hoped was fresh coffee into a Styrofoam cup.

I dumped in a few sugar packets and was about to leave when Hobbs asked me, "So, uh... did you have any dinner plans tonight?"

I looked over at him as if he had asked me if I watched the game last night. "Huh?"

He chuckled and said, "I was wondering if you would like to grab a burger or something."

"Why the hell would I want to do that?" I asked him.

He sighed and said, "Look Taylor- Justin- I know that I was an asshole to you back in high school, and I figure that since we work in the same building, we need to clear the air. I'll treat."

I couldn't help but agree with him. Maybe Vanessa was right and deep down, Chris wasa nice guy. Besides, Daphne had a blind date that night with a guy that a classmate set her up with, so I most likely would have gone home to eat a TV dinner and watchThe Yellow Submarine for the millionth time. "Alright," I said. "When does your shift end?"

"I work from eight to five."

"We're usually finished with our afternoon session by five, and I always type up a short daily report before I leave. Do you have a car?" I asked him.

"No, I ride the subway."

"Okay, how about I meet you in here around quarter after five or so and I'll drive us? I can take you home after, if you'd like."

He smiled and said, "Cool. I'll be waiting for you here."

I nodded and turned to leave. 

This should be interesting...