Walking into his apartment, Justin threw his keys down onto the small coffee table next to the front door and made his way into the kitchen. He opened up the fridge, took out an ice cold can of Baja Blast and chugged it down before letting out an almighty burp.

“Ooh, excuse me,” Justin said out loud more out of habit than anything else. He then made his way into the living room and settled himself on the couch.

As soon as his bum hit the soft cushions, he felt Dowager jump up and make herself comfortable on his lap. She’d obviously missed him as she started rubbing her face against his leg.

“Hey, girl! You miss me?” Justin asked as he gave her a little stroke behind her ear.

Dowager purred, clearly happy to have her favourite human home with her at last. Justin laughed as he watched her wriggle around until she was laying comfortably on her back -  which was her way of getting you to rub her tummy.

“How’s that? Feel good, huh?”

Ethan would always tease him for having full on conversations with Dowager.

You’re so childish sometimes. She’s a cat for christsakes, Justin. Justin could almost hear the derogatory comment and the patronising manner Ethan would use towards him.

Justin would often get home from work and would immediately start asking her questions about her day or what she would like for dinner. It wasn’t like he was actually expecting her to answer him or anything. And as strange as it sounded, he believed she understood everything he said to her. Maybe it was wishful thinking, but whatever, it was a nice thought to have nonetheless. And he’d never admit it to anyone, but having Dowager around kept him company and made him a little less… lonely - especially when Ethan would be holed up rehearsing into all hours of the night.

He closed his eyes and sighed loudly. He wanted to call Brian to see if he was okay, but he knew he shouldn’t. Brian needed time. Time to think about what happened earlier. And Justin was totally okay with that. He understood it - sort of.

It was pretty obvious that the guy they had run into earlier was an ex of Brian's - or at least that is what he assumed. He had so many questions that he wanted to ask Brian, but they’d have to wait. Clearly Brian wasn’t ready to talk about it and for some reason that scared Justin shitless.

Was Brian’s reluctance to discuss it because he wasn’t over the ex? What if seeing Adam again had sparked something in Brian - a renewal of interest perhaps? Adam was hot as fuck. It was the first thing Justin had noticed about him. What if, when Brian saw him again, he realised what he was missing?

During his mini freak out, Justin had somehow stopped stroking Dowager. She took exception to this and knocked his hand with her head to let him know she was unimpressed. However, even his demanding feline friend wasn’t enough to keep Justin’s mind off the encounter earlier. Was Brian okay? Was he already asleep? God, Justin so desperately wanted to call him - to hear his voice - to see if Brian was alright, but he knew he shouldn’t. In fact, it was probably the last thing he should do right now. What if Brian didn’t want to hear from him? Or worse, what if seeing Adam had Brian questioning whether things would even work out between them? Was there even a them? Had he pushed Brian too far, too quickly? Maybe he wasn’t ready to move on?

Fuck, his head had started to throb from thinking too much. Reaching across, he grabbed his pain meds off of the side table next to the couch and threw a couple back with a half empty bottle of water he’d left laying around just for this purpose. Going over and over tonight wasn’t helping with the pressure in his head. Urgh, he needed to do something to take his mind off of Brian, so he pulled his laptop out of his bag and began checking his email. Nothing too exciting there.

Suddenly a message popped up on Facebook messenger.

Daphne: Yo, you wanna do breakfast at your place tomorrow? I’ll bring bagels…

Daphne: And pastries.

Daphne: And chocolate milk…

Daphne: Justiiiiiiiin??

He laughed as he hit reply.

Daphne: I can see you’ve read my messages, asshole.

Justin: Jesus, Daph, I’m here. Give me ten seconds to type my response before you bug me again LOL

He always could count on Daphne to cheer him up.

Daphne: Well? Breakfast tomorrow? I feel like we haven’t seen each other in FOREVER.

Justin: We saw each other a few days ago… but I would never say no to free pastries ;)

Daphne: :(

Daphne:  :’(

Daphne: WOUNDED.

Justin: Dry those eyes, Mi Amor… and see you around 9?

Daphne: See you at 9, buttmunch. xx

Justin: DON’T FORGET THOSE CHOCOLATEY THINGS.

Daphne: I shouldn’t know what you mean, but I do. And I won't. Promise x

Daphne was pretty successful in taking his mind off of Brian, but the moment they’d stopped talking he had started thinking of him again. Fuck.

“I wonder if he’s on Facebook,” Justin said out loud, still staring at the computer screen. Dowager just lifted her head off of his lap and purred sleepily.

Before he thought about what he was doing, he’d opened Facebook back up and had begun searching for ‘Brian Kinney.’

Damn, how many were there?

Justin scrolled through the entire list of people that shared that name but couldn’t find the Brian Kinney he was looking for. That can’t be right, he must have missed it. He scrolled through the list once again, and nope - he definitely wasn’t there. How the fuck could Brian not have a Facebook account? Didn’t everyone have one nowadays? Even his 87 year old grandma had her own profile, sure she used it mainly to snoop on her grandkids, but she had one nonetheless.

What else could he look up? Maybe Kinnetik? If he remembered correctly, that was the name of the advertising agency that Brian owned. They must have a Facebook page.

He typed Kinnetik into the search bar on Facebook and it was the first company that came up.

Kinnetik is an independent, 21st century, Pittsburgh-based advertising agency that creates brand and creative communication ideas to cut through the noise. We translate ambition into results through clear and simple creative strategy, skillfully brought to life.

He clicked on the page link that would take him to view the members of Kinnetik’s team.

Brian Kinney: Founder and CEO

Our CEO, Brian Kinney, founded Kinnetik in 2010. His entrepreneurial spirit, aspiration, and hard-nosed work ethic are deep-rooted in our agency’s culture, and the same principles that he founded the business with are still very much at the heart of his approach today: A ‘can do’ attitude with an ambition for business transforming ideas. Brian has partnered with businesses from launch to evolution including Iconics, Remson Pharmaceuticals, Start Right Footwear and much more

Brian has an exemplary vision when approaching his client’s needs. Not only can you spot a Kinnetik ad from a mile off, you can feel it.

The picture underneath Brian’s name was absolutely beautiful. How had he never noticed how perfect the gorgeous brunet’s profile was before?

Justin rubbed at his eyes tiredly. Shit, he was pathetic, he was getting hard just from looking at a picture of the man.

Right as he was about to click on the tiny x in the top right-hand corner to minimise the picture, his finger accidentally clicked on the like button.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he said loudly, startling the sleeping kitty on his lap, causing her to hiss vociferously at him. “Sorry,” he muttered, as he stroked Dowager’s head gently, trying to settle her while attempting to unlike the picture at the same time. The last thing he wanted was for Brian to catch him Facebook stalking him. That would be fucking mortifying and he had no doubt that Brian wouldn’t let him hear the end of it.

Once he’d successfully un-liked the picture, he closed his laptop - he was supposed to be taking his mind off of Brian, and all he was doing was making it worse.

His stomach growled loudly. shit, he was hungry. Maybe he’d call Daphne and see if she wanted to come over tonight instead  - she always brought the most delicious snacks with her.

Picking up his cell, he dialed Daphne, who answered after the first ring. Luckily for him, it didn’t take much to convince her to drop everything she was doing (marathoning a T.V show on Netflix and painting her nails) and agree to come over.

“Thanks, Daph. It’s just…” He cleared his throat almost nervously. “I just don’t really feel like being on my own tonight,” he explained into the phone. He didn’t say any more, he didn’t need to - she knew him well enough to know that he just needed a friend right now and promised she’d be over within the hour.

Traffic was light, so it didn’t take long for Daphne to arrive - her arms ladened with an abundance of snacks.

“Hey,” Justin smiled before taking his best friend into his arms and giving her a huge hug. “Thanks for coming.”

“Oof,” Daphne laughed as Justin squeezed the life out of her. “Jesus, Jus, could you maybe take the shit out of my hands before hugging me to death?”

Smiling apologetically, Justin emptied her arms of the snacks, and dumped them onto the breakfast bar.

“Now you may hug me,” she beamed, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist - practically squeezing the life out of him.

“Thanks for coming, Daph.”

Daphne pulled away from him and smiled softly. “No problem…So, you gonna tell me what’s wrong?

How the hell did she know something was wrong?

“Nothing’s wrong,” Justin said weakly.

Daphne raised her eyebrows as she shoved Justin towards the living room. “Don’t give me that shit.”

“Daphne…”

“Stop fucking whining and tell me what happened with Brian.”

Justin’s head snapped up from his place on the couch. “How did you know?”

“Are you kidding? We’ve been friends since we were three, Justin. I know everythiiiiing,” she singsonged.

He rolled his eyes playfully. “Urgh, you’re so fucking annoying.”

“You can talk,” she grinned, as she threw a bag of salted popcorn at him.

Justin rubbed at his head. “Ow.”

“Oh please, like that actually hurt you.” Daphne laughed as she took a seat beside him on the sofa and handed him a packet of Oreos. “Now open those and start talking.”

Justin did as he was told and opened the packet of cookies. He took one out and looked at Daphne as he removed the lid of the biscuit. Then, using his front teeth, he scrapped out the sweet vanilla cream filling before placing the lid back on top and handing the now empty cookie to Daphne.

“We’re so gross,” he laughed.

“We are,” Daphne agreed as she grabbed the cookie from him and took a huge bite as she leaned back on the couch, resting her socked feet on Justin’s legs. “Now talk.”

Justin sighed loudly. “I don’t know what the fuck happened, Daph. It was going so well…”

“What was?” She asked softly.

“When I woke up this morning, my hand was fucked; I could hardly move it…”

“That’s still happening?” Daphne asked sadly as she reached for his hand and stroked his fingers affectionately.  

Justin gave her hand a squeeze. “Yeah, it might never stop acting up like this,” he explained. “Anyway, it was too fucked up for me to go into work so I called in. I completely forgot Brian had an appointment this afternoon, so when I didn’t show up he tried calling me.”

“And I guess you didn’t charge your phone,” she laughed knowingly.

Justin nodded his head, was there anything about him she didn’t know?

“Right.”

“So what happened?”

“He came over – and it was fucking perfect, Daph. He seemed genuinely worried about why I wasn’t there and wanted to check I was okay.”

“Aww.”

“And when he saw my hand…”

“If you tell me he flipped out, I’ll fucking lose my shit, Justin.”

“Geez, calm down, Daph. He didn’t. He was actually really sweet about it. He even massaged my hand and loosened ‘The Claw’ for me.”

Daphne swooned. “That is so cute.”

“And then we messed around a little…”

“Niiiice.”

Justin ignored her as he carried on. “He then took me out to dinner at this little diner on Liberty… you’d love it. Anyway, we had a really nice time – like a really nice time… I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed myself so much.”

“So far this sounds like a pretty good day to me.”

“It was.”

“So what happened?”

“When we got to the car we got a little… carried away,” he smiled dreamily as he remembered the feel of Brian’s hands doing wonderfully dirty things to his body. “He had his hand on my dick and I was so fucking close to coming in my pants…”

“You didn’t,” Daphne gasped.

“No, I didn’t,” Justin laughed bitterly. “Not for want of trying.” He held up his thumb and index finger. “I was this close though, Daph… and suddenly this guy walks up to us and more or less starts cheering us on.”

“Ewww.”

“Right? So, I turn around and I’m about to tell him to fuck off and leave us alone so we can finish what we were doing when he goes and recognises Brian.”

“Okay… I just… I still don’t understand why this is so bad.”

“It had to be an ex, Daph. The way the guy was looking at him like he wanted Brian to fuck his brains out… and Brian completely freaked out. I could feel him tense up in my hands.”

“Alright, so you bumped into an ex of his, big deal.”

“You didn’t see him; he shut down – said practically nothing to me in the car on the way back to his place.”

“Well, it was probably really fucking awkward for him, Jus.”

“He’s not over him. I can tell. I can’t fucking believe I let myself fall for someone so quickly. I wasn’t ready, and judging by Brian's reaction to this guy, he certainly isn't ready either.

“Wait, I’m confused. if he didn’t say anything to you in the car… how do you even know it was an ex?”

“I could just tell. The guy was practically undressing him with his eyes.”

“Alright, say it was an ex, just because he got weird about it, doesn’t mean he’s not over him. Are you telling me that if Ethan walked up to you while some guy was stroking your dick, you wouldn’t freak out – even a little bit?”

Justin sighed. “Yeah… I would. I just, the guy was totally hot, Daph. I looked at him and I don’t understand what the fuck Brian is doing with me.”

“Whoa, hold on a minute. You’re beautiful, Justin... You know what, I can’t talk to you about this sort of stuff without being at least a little high - you’re too fucking aggravating.”

Justin scrunched up his nose in shock. “Are you serious?”

“Like a freaking heart attack. Now, roll this for me,” Daphne said as she pulled a little baggie out from her purse and threw it at him.

It didn’t take long for the weed to go to their heads. They both sat on the floor sharing their second… or possibly third joint of the evening.

“Oh, God,” Justin moaned as he handed the smoke back to Daphne. “I completely forgot I Facebook stalked him this evening… can you believe he doesn’t have his own page?” he gasped. “ Who doesn’t have a Facebook, Daph. I mean, that’s not normal, right?”

“Your face isn’t normal,” Daphne laughed at her own joke.

“Fuck you… Seriously, though, I found his work page, right?” Justin continued, talking a mile a minute.

“Right?”

“And I’m looking at his picture and he looks fucking delicious and I accidentally LIKED the picture.”

“No! You didn’t? Justin!!”

“I did! I lived out my biggest fear.”

Daphne gasped. “Wait, your biggest fear isn’t being murdered?”

“Not even close, Daph. At least being murdered doesn't have the shame afterward. Announcing to someone you stalked them on Facebook is much worse,” he rambled.

Fuck, he was high.

***

Justin awoke with a start, kicking Daphne in the face with his leg as it came to.

“Watch it,” Daphne hissed, as she rolled over and pressed her face firmly into the pillow. “I’m trying to sleep here.”

“Sorry,” Justin yawned as he began to fall back asleep.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

That must have been what woke him he thought sleepily - but made no effort to stand up.

“Justin. Open the Goddamn door,” a loud voice from outside shouted.

“Tell your door to be quiet,” Daphne mumbled, pulling the pillow down over her head. “S’too early.”

Justin pushed himself up and walked towards the door just as the knocking started up again.

“Jesus, I’m coming. Give me a minute,” he shouted as he pulled the door open.

“Hi,” Brian said nervously.

“Huh?” Justin said as he covered his eyes from the bright sunlight

“I said hi…”

“Huh?”

He could feel Brian looking at him like he was an idiot. “It’s me… Brian.”

Justin groaned. “I know it’s you, Brian,” his voice croaked from lack of sleep. “But why are you here so early?”

Brian laughed as he looked at his watch. “Early? It’s lunchtime, Sunshine.”

“Huh?” Justin walked back towards the couch and looked at his phone. “Shit, Daph. It’s 11.30.”

“Don’t care,” she mumbled but got up anyway. “Is my toothbrush still in your bathroom?

Justin nodded. “Yeah, it’s in the medicine cabinet.”

“Can I come in?” Brian asked hesitantly, as he leaned heavily against the doorframe.

Justin rubbed at his eyes. “God, come in. Sorry, I’m still waking up.”

“I can see that,” Brian laughed. “Fun night?”

Justin looked up and met Brian’s eyes. “No, not really.”

Brian sucked in a breath and nodded. “Yeah. Me too.  Listen, we really need to talk.”

Justin’s face instantly dropped and Brian’s expression went from utterly confused to slightly embarrassed all within the space of a couple of seconds.  “Oh shit, I didn’t mean – not that kind of talk, Justin.”

Justin couldn’t help the sigh of relief that he let out.

“Alright, I’ll leave you guys to it,” Daphne said as she emerged smiling from the bathroom.

“Okay, thanks, Daph,” Justin said as he went to stand up, but stopped when Daphne waved him off. “Sit. I’ll call you later,” she promised.

Brian waited until the door had closed behind her before beginning to speak.

“Hey.”

“Hey...Can...Can I get you a drink or something?” Justin asked as he stood up and started heading towards the kitchen.

Brian shook his head. “No, I’m good. Sit back down,” he said as he patted the space beside him on the sofa and waited for Justin to join him.

Clearing his throat nervously, Brian began to explain.

“About last night, I didn’t handle the situation very well. I know that. It’s just…”

“Who was he?” Justin surprised himself by asking.

“Adam – he’s my ex.”

Justin nodded. “I thought so.”

“I saw him and…”

“I get it, you saw him and you didn’t realise you still felt something for him… it’s fine.” Justin stood up quickly.

Brian reached for his arm. “Is that what you thought?”

“Yes,” Justin muttered quietly.  

“Fuck, Justin… That couldn’t be further from the truth.”

“I don’t understand.”

Brian pulled Justin into his lap. “He left me…”

“So that still upsets you?”

“Will you stop interrupting me?” Brian smiled gently.

Justin blushed. “Sorry.”

“He left me after my accident. I woke up in the hospital and he wasn’t there. He came to see me, maybe once the entire time I was there.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah… I had no idea what was going on. As far as I knew, things were going great before the accident – so it kind of threw me. I hadn’t seen him since, so yesterday – yesterday brought up all these feelings… and not in the way you think. The only things I feel for him now are anger.”

Justin wrapped his arm around Brian’s neck. “I’m sorry. How long were you together?”

“Six months… which I know isn’t long to most people, but he… he was the first real relationship I was in.” Brian’s blushed profusely.

“I can’t believe he did that to you,” Justin said sadly. “You deserve better than that – better than him.”

Brian rubbed his nose into the crease of Justin’s neck and inhaled deeply. “And now I have better,” he told Justin honestly. “I know I could have handled things better. I should have explained all of this to you in the car last night, but I saw his face and I got so fucking angry that I just couldn’t.”

Justin smoothed back Brian’s hair and smiled. “It’s fine.”

“No, it’s not. I really like you, Justin. And I don’t want you ever doubting that, okay?”

“Okay,” Justin nodded shyly.

“Good. Now, one more thing.”

“Hmm?” Justin sighed as he was planting soft kisses on Brian’s cheek. “What’s that?”

Brian moved his head a little so that Justin had better access to his face. “I heard you found Kinnetik’s Facebook page last night,” he laughed.

Justin could feel his face getting hot. “Oh, God. Who told you?” he groaned, completely and utterly mortified that Brian had found out.

“Cynthia. She runs the the page,” Brian smiled. “Apparently, you liked my picture. I can’t say I blame you,” he teased.

Justin buried his face into Brian’s shoulder. “This is so fucking embarrassing.”

Brian laughed again. “No, it’s not.  I’m sure I’d have done the same if the roles were reversed.”

“No, you wouldn’t.”

“You’re right. I probably wouldn’t have,” they both laughed. “I couldn’t have anyway. I don’t have a Facebook account.”

“I know. What IS with that? Everyone has an account, Brian. I hope you realise how extremely hard you made it for me to Facebook stalk you,” Justin smiled playfully.

Brian bit nervously at his bottom lip. “I can’t apologise enough for that. But, now that we have that sorted, are you hungry?” Brian asked, as his hand found its way up the back of Justin’s t-shirt and began caressing the soft bare skin of his back.  

Justin nodded his head before turning in Brian’s lap and leaning in for a kiss. After all of the stress from the night before he desperately needed to feel Brian’s warm mouth on his. To know they were okay.

And what started out as a soft, sweet kiss escalated rather quickly into something much more. Something desperate and heated.

Before long, Justin was thoroughly lost in the kiss, releasing a sigh of relief as their lips moved urgently with one another and their tongues danced together in the warm heat of their mouths. The cinnamon sweet taste of Brian's tongue drew him in even deeper, reminding him of his favourite Ice Breakers.

“Mmm,” Brian moaned as he pulled his mouth away.

“Why’d you stop?” Justin asked breathlessly - the sound of his own heart was beating so loudly that he could barely hear what Brian was saying.

“When I asked if you were hungry, I meant for food. Not me”, Brian grinned cheekily.

“I’m always hungry for food,” Justin explained as he peppered Brian’s cheeks with soft kisses. “But right now, I’m even hungrier for you.”