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TED


I was thrilled when my boss said that he’d didn’t need my notice. I think he was just relieved that I was leaving. He never made it a secret that he was uncomfortable with my being gay, but left me alone because I was good at my job. I was packing my things when I pulled out the picture of Michael I had forgotten was in my desk. Instead of seeing what used to excite me, I started wondering what the hell was attractive about him to me. It’s not that Michael is bad looking, it’s more that when you get to know him, he becomes less attractive. Emmett used to say the reason we didn’t all salivate over Brian all the time was that over time we stopped seeing the God and were able to see past it to the man.


I see a man who sees my contribution to his company as valuable. I realized that in Brian’s eyes I am not just a boring accountant, but a man who is an expert in my field. I could almost feel my spine straightening as he outlined what was expected of me and then just threw the negotiation for a multimillion dollar buy-in into my lap, with no doubt that I was capable. And I really need to unswell my head and get out of this dreary office.


“Ted, I haven’t seen you in a while.” Michael tells me, walking into my office.


“Lately I just don’t agree with the way you and Lindsay treat people. You know what, I hate the way you treat people in fact. You both think that we are all here to serve you, and I don’t see the point in hating myself because you and Lindsay like to comment on all the reasons no one wants to be with me. My real friends would never say that I was old, boring, or reliable, as if they were complimenting me and insulting me at the same time.” I tell him.


“Ted, I need a favor.” He tells me as if I hadn’t said anything.


“No.” I answer, without even hearing what he wants.


“I borrowed money from Ma and well, I need you to let me borrow it so she doesn’t find out I lied about why I needed it. I told her I was giving the girls money, but now I’m happy that I didn’t, because Mel lied to all of us, and I just found out that kid she’s carrying isn’t mine. Well the bitch is going to find out that you don’t lie to your friends.” He tells me, once again acting like I didn’t say anything.


“Do you ever listen to yourself when you talk? Mel can’t lie to her friends, but when you do, and to your own mother, it’s okay? Let me say this with you actually paying attention, I won’t give you money I work my ass off for, when you borrow money and don’t even do what you said you would with it.” I tell him, picking up the box on my desk. “By the way, I knew it wasn’t yours, because she couldn’t stomach the idea of you and your mother always being a part of her life.” I tell him walking past him.


“You kept that bitch’s secret?” He screeches turning everyone’s head, not that I cared about what these people thought.


“I was the secret.” I tell him.


BRIAN


Justin took the kids with him to pick up Daphne, while Mel went through her files for all the paperwork she had that pertained to Gus. I sat in the kitchen going through the box she found in LIndsay’s closet. I agree with Mel after looking through the box, it’s not healthy that Lindsay seemed to follow our lives. With me, she seemed to only want to know where I went when I was on business trips. Justin’s was more extensive, but still only seemed to be about anything he did that pertained to art. I picked up the pictures and looked through them again, and realized that Hannah might have been in them but it wasn’t a chronicle of Hannah’s life, but of Justin’s life. Mel came down and handed me the papers she had.


“Mel, look at the pictures.” I hand them to her.  


“What am I looking for?” She asks.


“What do you see around them?” I tell her.


“There out someplace, possibly an art show?” She asks.


“All but the ones at the hospital and the few at his house, notice they’re taken when he was at some event.” I tell her.


“Detectives find it easier to get what they need when there are other camera’s around. The people they’re investigating are likely to not notice as much.” She tells me.


“People would notice someone at the hospital.” I tell her.


“Brian, when babies are born people take pictures. Think about Michael, he was snapping all sorts of pictures.” She tells me.


“And every one of them had me in them, he didn’t take one unless I was in it.” I tell her.


“Like none of us knew why that was, he’s always been obsessed with you.” She tells me.


“What do those look like, because she didn’t have pictures of me in there.” I tell her.


“Brian, she isn’t in love with Justin.” Mel tells me.


“She was in love with his art. She would rave to Justin about all the things he could do if he took his art seriously. When she was at the loft the other night she gave him this speech about his career being ruined and that staying with me would have had him in essence being the wife I pat on the head and go live my dreams. Justin threw it back at her, asking who’s life she was describing, because it sounded like hers.” I tell her.


“It was the one she wanted when Gus was born.” She tells me.


“Look at the difference in the two, she ran around playing mommy, Justin was still creating, even being a single father. Something Lindsay couldn’t do, with you helping her with Gus.” I tell her.


“Lindsay never really tried to do it, it’s not like she had all that much to do when Gus napped. She wasn’t cleaning the house. Watching Justin, you could tell it was just something he did unconsciously. If he was sitting, he was drawing. Lindsay was always jealous of the way he got lost in his art, she had to make herself do the work, and when I say work, for her it was like a job with all the stress, to try to create something.” Mel tells me


“But the pictures of Justin are all pictures proving it was possible, that he could be a father and still pursue art.” I tell her.


“But not how she views success Brian. In these, she would see them as his failure to live up to the potential that Justin has.” She tells me.


“Except, according to this report,” I hand it to her. “Justin had Hannah a month early, so there was no reason that he wouldn’t have been able to do the show he was invited to in New York. It was canceled because Justin spent the next month with Hannah.” I tell her.


“Okay, but it still proves Lindsay’s theory that Justin couldn’t have a career because of Hannah.” She tells me.


“Like she was validating herself. Only Justin is about to prove he can do it. How do you think she’s going to feel when he has his first show, proving all the pictures she had wrong.” I tell her.


“Just hope she never finds out.” Mel tells me.


JEN


I went to answer my front door to once again find Deb standing there. I stepped outside because this was not going to be a long visit. I just didn’t have the patience to listen to her anymore.


“Deb, I really don’t care if Michael has two black eyes now.” I tell her.


“I came here to see if Brian was here, he’s not at his loft.” She tells me.


“He’s not here, but right now I don’t think he wants to talk to you.” I tell her.


“He needs to talk to Mel and help Lindsay get Gus away from that lying bitch.” Deb tells me.


“I’ll give him the message if I see him.” I tell her, turning to go in.


“Mel lied about Michael being the father of the baby.” She tell me.


“Which is Mel’s business, not mine.” I tell her.


“Brian needs to know.” She tells me.


“I’ll tell him, but really, why does he need to know? It doesn’t have anything to do with him.” I tell her.


“She’s keeping Gus from Lindsay. Brian should be concerned about what Mel could be doing to Gus.” She tells me.


“The way you were concerned what Justin would do, because Justin won’t stand by and let someone call his daughter a bastard?” I ask.


“Justin still had no right hitting Michael.” She tells me.


“That it took Justin this long to do it, should show you the restraint he has when it comes to your son. One day Deb, he’s going to say something to the wrong person and what Justin did will seem like a drop in the bucket compared to what someone who barely knows Michael would do.” I tell her.


“Brian needs to see the kind of woman Mel is, and help Lindsay.” She tells me like a broken record.


“Mel most likely saw what her future would be like and saved herself from having your adult child as a father he wouldn’t be capable of being.” I tell her.


“Fuck you Jen, my son and I would have shown Mel how to raise that child right.” She tells me snapping her gum.


“That would be enough to scare any mother, you telling them how to raise another Michael.” I tell her, going in my house and slamming my door.


I want to pat Mel on the back for knowing that would have been a mistake.



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