Justin was running a little late so he was surprised to find that Brian hadn't beaten him to the Liberty Diner. It had been a couple of weeks now since Justin first arrived in Pittsburgh and he was just beginning to feel more comfortable in Brian's world, although he still preferred to have Brian nearby whenever he was spending time with the ad man's circle of friends. It wasn't that they hadn't welcomed him into their little group...he could tell that Brian would not have tolerated anything else from his friends...but not all of them were as openly accepting of him as some others were. One in particular, Brian's best friend, really seemed uncomfortable with Justin's presence. The man had never once been hostile to him, but Justin sensed there was an unspoken rivalry between them for Brian's attention. Justin didn't mind that much. After all, these people had known each other for ages and he had only known Brian for a couple of months at most so he could kind of understand their mixed feelings about him. And to top things off, it was obvious that Brian was more interested in pleasing Justin than his oldest pals.

Justin was slowly but surely getting a more complete picture of what had made Brian Kinney tick before one young Justin Taylor had come into his life. What he was learning didn't always mesh with the image Justin had developed in his head while spending time with Brian in New York City. In the City Brian had been totally absorbed with Justin and Justin only. In the entire time they had been together Brian had never shown an interest in anyone else. From what he had been gathering from the circle of friends Brian was actually quite a player, if not the number one player on the gay scene in the Pitts. Justin was clued into that from the reaction he saw of the men at the dance club Brian and the gang took him to only days after Justin had agreed to stay in Pittsburgh for a while. Beautifully built men seemed to seek out Brian's attention more than anyone else and several of them openly tried to get him to go into an area that Brian casually mentioned was the infamous 'back room', which Brian explained was the most active spot for public sex in town.

In all the time that Brian had taken Justin around to the best gay spots of New York City, he had never tried to have public sex with him. Justin was hearing enough from conversations around him to know that the Brian everyone here knew had not been adverse to indulging in public displays of sexual conduct in the past, including with multiple partners. For some reason Justin was a little surprised at what he was learning, and yet Brian was still very solicitous of his feelings and never went out of his way to ignore Justin or wander off with someone else. He even seemed proud to display his relationship with the young man, which Justin was savvy enough to see was a big surprise to a lot of people. He had also met a woman named Debbie Novotny, who was best friend Michael's mom, and he could see that even this really nice lady was taken by surprise by the connection between he and Brian. Justin wasn't sure what to make of it all, but he had made up his mind that it didn't matter what others thought as long as Brian was happy with him and continued to make it clear that he wanted Justin to stay by his side.

Justin had been kept busy by Brian every evening since they had gotten back together but the young writer's days were his own for the most part. During the last couple of weeks that Justin had been staying at Brian's loft apartment he had gotten a lot more accomplished than he had ever done back home in his tidy little apartment. Brian had provided him with his own new laptop computer and the young man had copied his files from his home computer so that he could continue to work on the novel that had begun with getting to know Brian. The novel was coming along nicely. Justin was writing up to a chapter or more per day. He had the feeling it would be complete within another month at the rate he was going. Being with Brian was more than enough fodder for the romantic parts of Justin's novel. However, without even knowing it he had begun to change his main character into a person who was resembling the old Brian more and more. Justin hadn't yet realized to what extent that the stories he was hearing about Brian were affecting his image of the man. It didn't diminish his love for him...it just seemed to add layers to the original hero who was almost too good to be true.

Justin, surprisingly, had stopped showing Brian the updates on his story. It was not a conscious move on his part. It was more like a need to nurture his baby without any distractions. Brian had sensed that Justin wasn't ready to share his work and never pushed to see what was pouring from his lover's fevered brain. The book was very much on Justin's mind as he stepped into the Liberty Diner for an arranged dinner with Brian and his friends before they had planned to attend a benefit carnival at the GLBT center for a hospice that Brian's company had sponsored. Brian's devotion to causes that interested he and his friends was one of the things that Justin really loved about the man. When Justin arrived he could see the friends taking up two booths at the back of the diner but no sign of Brian. Justin hurried down the aisle and waited for the tall friendly one named Emmett to move over and make room for him. A minute later the red headed mother of Michael showed up and offered to take Justin's order.

"I'll just have coffee Mrs. Novotny. I want to wait on Brian."

"It's Debbie, sweetie. Now I've told you that before. Debbie...okay! No one calls me Mrs. Novotny. And there is no telling what is holding Brian up so you had better go ahead and order."

For some reason Justin felt uncomfortable with the way Debbie made that last statement, as if she had suspicions as to why Brian was running late but didn't want to say. Justin brushed it off. He quickly decided he was becoming paranoid because of some of the tidbits of info he was getting on Brian's life before he came into it. He decided to follow Debbie's advice and placed his order before turning his attention to the animated conversation that had restarted almost nervously when Debbie finished talking. The food came and he began picking at it, still wondering what could be holding up Brian.

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Brian was irritated and that didn't bode well for his employees. For the last couple of weeks he had relied more heavily on his troops to get things done than usual, being the hands on kind of boss that he was, and his desire to make as much time for Justin as was feasible had now cost him. He had a client sitting in front of him right now who was none too pleased and poor Brian was being forced to stay late at the office in order to placate the man. Brian and a couple of his underlings had come up with a sound campaign for the athletic shoe company the client owned but Brian hadn't been keeping an eye on how it was progressing lately. Now, only a week before the deadline for a completed first campaign, Brian discovered that the work was not done to his client's satisfaction and the man was asking for major changes. When Brian quietly ordered (which his employees knew was more deadly than a screaming demand) that the men assigned the job should bring him the completed placards and displays, they hustled them right to him. This was when Brian first realized he had dropped the ball, which for him was a huge rarity. He had been so wrapped up with Justin that he hadn't even noticed that the campaign was not following in the direction he had outlined in earlier meetings the previous month.

His first response was to offer his employees the opportunity to look for new jobs elsewhere, but he immediately recognized that it was himself that had failed. Even while in New York City, Brian had kept a sharp eye on his employees and their work via the internet and UPS. He knew it was his job to oversee what was going on with a new campaign, especially one that had a deadline right around the bend. He calmed himself enough to give a verbal beating to the employees which concluded with their being offered a chance to keep their jobs if they fixed the problem. Now Brian was stuck placating the client. He thought about calling Justin and passing on to everyone that he would probably miss dinner and would meet them at the carnival, but his client demanded his full attention and it wasn't the first time he had been late because of one reason or another. He had no doubt that his friends would let Justin know that there was nothing to worry about. He wasn't used to checking in with anybody anyway. He nixed the idea of upsetting his client with a phone break and spent the next hour pouring on the charm and eventually convincing his client that the completed campaign would be ready in plenty of time and more than spectacular.

Finally Brian saw that he had calmed the waters and his client left with a satisfied smile. Brian left the building, locking up behind him, and watched his client's tail lights fade down the near empty street. Brian walked over to his classic 'Vette, his pride and joy, and opened the door. He climbed in and started the engine. As it purred contentedly, he pulled out his cell and tapped in #1. Justin had moved up to that position just recently. He heard a couple of rings and then Justin's voice, although it was nearly drowned out completely by raucous background noises.

"Justin," he shouted into the phone, "can you hear me?"

"Brian?" came the reply in a barely audible tone.

"Yes. I just wanted to let you know I was on my way. I'll fill you in on why I'm running behind later."

"What?" Justin wasn't sure of what he was hearing.

"I said I'm on my way. I'll see you soon. We'll talk then."

Brian hung up. He was only ten minutes away from the site of the carnival. It would be better, he decided, to wait till he got there to speak to Justin. The party at the LGBT Center was obviously in full swing. Brian set his car in gear and peeled away from the curb. He was anxious to get there. He had been forced to swallow a lot of shit tonight and he needed Justin's sweet lips and warm body to get the taste out of his mouth. With that in mind, Brian gave the 'Vette more gas and moved quickly to his destination.

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Justin closed up his cell and tucked it back into his pocket. He was a little ticked that he couldn't really talk to Brian. At least he was fairly certain that Brian said he was on his way so they could talk then. Just then he felt someone tap him on the shoulder. Michael leaned in as close as he could since it was the only way to be heard above the racket of a couple of hundred men and women letting loose in gay abandonment, all in the name of charity.

"Was that Brian, if you don't mind me asking?" Mikey asked, using a tone that clearly said he didn't really care whether the young man minded or not.

"Yes", Justin responded. "He said he was on his way here."

"Did he say why he was so late?" There it was again...that tone that said there was more than a surface meaning to his words. It was beginning to get under Justin's skin but he wasn't about to show it.

"Not really."

Emmett and Ted had stepped up to Justin's other side and overheard their conversation.

"Maybe it has something to do with that client who was in the office all hot and bothered about his account just before I left earlier," Ted offered.

"Well if it IS the reason he's late, we can all guess how he is cooling down his client," Emmett offered up without thinking. "I mean from some of the stories you've told me Teddy."

It was then that Emmett realized what he was hinting at. He quickly tried to reverse course.

"Well anyway, we all know that Brian goes above and beyond to satisfy his clients."

He turned to Ted who gave him a stern look. It was one thing for Ted to gossip about his boss to their closed circle of friends, but he didn't feel comfortable talking about Brian's work habits with newcomer Justin yet. Emmett noticed Justin's slightly confused face...or was that look saying something else? Whatever Justin was gleaning from Emmett's words, he wasn't asking any questions from this group. Emmett decided the best option was to change the subject entirely.

"So Justin, have you ever seen a party like this one? I'll bet so, living in New York City and all."

Justin was relieved to follow Emmett's lead. "I didn't get out much, to be honest. I was too busy trying to make a living. The City isn't exactly cheap to live in." He gave a tight laugh. "Actually, I spent all my time writing but not really working on the one thing that I wanted to the most. Brian is the one who encouraged me to spend more time working on my novel and even took the time to start taking me around so that I could learn a lot more about the subject matter of my story. I think that's what he is trying to do here in Pittsburgh too. That's why he keeps taking me around on all these adventures that I've never had before...like this carnival. Is it true that he had a lot to do with the programming as well as sponsoring the whole event?"

"That's our Bri," piped up Michael. "Anything for a good cause or to make a point. And speaking of the devil," Michael concluded, pointing over to the main entrance to the building.

Brian spotted his friends and saw Justin in the middle of the group at the same time that they spotted him. He hurried over to where they stood in front of a small stage where there was a man who was popping out bingo balls from his ass in a game of butt bingo to the delight of the large crowd gathered there.

"How's it going?" he asked his friends loudly as he threw his arm around Justin's shoulders and pulled the young man close to him. "Sorry I'm late, but it looks like the party is doing fine without me." He looked up on the stage. "This game was my idea. It should pull in a tidy sum, don't you think?"

"Doesn't surprise me," Michael muttered under his breath when he saw Brian going in for a firmly planted kiss on Justin's willing lips.

"We're just glad you made it," Justin announced, with the others nodding agreement.

The rest of the evening was spent in enjoying the many wild games that the planners, including Brian, had dreamed up. No more mention was made of why Brian was running late and had missed dinner or the hints that the reason could be something that Justin wouldn't want to know about. Justin had made up his mind that any questions he had could wait until they were alone. He and the others were having too much fun. But Justin did make a mental note that he needed to dig a little deeper into Brian's previous life. It wasn't that he had any intention of holding anything against Brian. Hell, he didn't have any right to and he knew it. It was only that he wanted to understand this man that he had fallen so completely in love with as fully as he possibly could. He wouldn't go behind Brian's back, of course. He would begin by asking Brian to be honest with him and he would start the first thing in the morning.

To be continued...................................