Chapter 16 - KO’d at GQ.

‘You know, sometimes trying to train up your people things the right way really sucks, and not in a positive, warm, tummy-filling way, either,’ Kevan thought to himself as he was jiggled uncomfortably around by The Daddy for the millionth time that day.

Kevan had had a rather long and stressful day already and now The Daddy thought it would be a good idea to bounce him around some more? What a big dolt! Didn’t The Daddy know it was long past Kevan’s bed time and all he really wanted was to go to the nice green and brown room, cuddle up next to The Daddy in the big comfy chair and let The Daddy do that thing where he made Kevan’s tummy nice and warm and full.

Instead Kevan was here in this noisy, too-bright place where all the strange big people things were poking at him and making babbling noises at him.

It was really too much!

Kevan was going to have to show The Daddy that he wasn’t going to get away with such bad behavior. Kevan was an understanding baby and he loved his people things, but he couldn’t let them just do any old thing they wanted. They had to be taught how to properly care for Kevan. Kevan needed and wanted certain things in his life. And he wanted things done the way they should be - his way - not just any old willy nilly way the big people things decided they should be done. Both The Daddy and The Papa needed to understand that and learn to act accordingly.

Even while he was thinking these things and contemplating how he was going to go about rectifying the situation, the Daddy jiggled Kevan AGAIN!

‘Oh boy!’ Kevan sighed.

He really didn’t look forward to what he would have to do, but it had to be done . . .

From the moment Brian Kinney stepped out of the limo onto the red carpet in front of the New York Metropolitan Opera House, he knew that this was exactly where he was supposed to be.

The setting for GQ’s ‘Most Stylish Men of the Year’ Awards Party was perfect. The opera house and the big fountain out front were expertly lit up, showing off the richness of the decorations. The other people around him were equally well dressed and almost as beautiful. Even the weather had cooperated - it was a cool, crisp night but free of any precipitation that would have required bulky outer garments or dampened the mood.

Brian was completely in his element here. There were crowds of people lined up all the way from the street to the entrance, each simply waiting to get a glimpse of him. As he stood there trying to momentarily acclimate himself, thousands of flashbulbs went off as camera after camera tried to capture his image. Brian smiled his most enigmatic and sexy smile for the media, then waved randomly at all the adoring fangirls with their homemade posterboard signs welcoming him as well as the fanboys all holding out markers and hoping for an autograph. He reveled in the waves of adoration that were radiating out towards him from all directions. Really, it wasn’t much different than the greeting he regularly received when he walked into Babylon back home - just on a bigger scale - and he loved the approbation he felt coming his way.

After he felt he’d let his public adore him for a sufficient amount of time, Brian pulled at the lapel of his tux jacket - Armani, of course - straightened his black silk bow tie and then stepped further away from the limo so that the rest of the party inside could emerge. He reached down a gentlemanly hand to help Miss Scarlett out first - her pixieish appearance and bright red hair perfectly set off by the red sequined Dolce & Gabana gown that she wore so very well. Next came Brian’s young, blond, arm-candy and date, who also happened to be the other father of his child. Justin was dressed a little more sedately since he wasn’t going to be at the center of all the attention like Brian, but he was still adorned in a nice black cashmere Armani Exchange sweater and a pair of slacks just the same. And finally, in Justin’s arms, was an equally stylish baby Kevan, wearing a custom made tux to match his Daddy.

The idea to bring the baby along to tonight’s shindig had been Miss Scarlett’s. She had argued that Brian’s popularity hadn’t come about until the pregnancy and that his public would expect - possibly demand - that they get a peek at the little miracle baby as well. Brian didn’t argue against the idea too strenuously since it went along with his personal philosophy that it was better to give the public a little of what they wanted at a time of your own choosing, or else they would track you down and hound you until they got what they wanted. Hence the inclusion of a not-quite-four-month-old in the evening's festivities, over his Papa’s loud objections.

At the moment that Justin and Kevan appeared, the crowd, which had been mostly appeased upon Brian’s appearance a few moments earlier, once again went wild. There was another slew of flash bulbs going off as everyone attempted to get the best ever picture of the baby. The fans got a little more manic - struggling against the red velvet ropes that had been set up to keep the pathway to the door clear. Miss Scarlett quickly waved over a few of the burly security guys that were waiting by the front door. It took them a few minutes, but eventually it seemed like everything was back under control and the little family was safe to make their way up the red carpet and into the building, suffering only the incessant cries of ‘Brian! Brian!’ as they passed.

Frankly, Brian was too concerned about getting Justin and Kevan through the gauntlet of groupies to notice any of them, let alone bother responding to any of their requests for autographs, although he did think that he saw a few faces he recognized and even one or two hailing from back in Pittsburgh.

As soon as they made it inside the doors of The Met, the noise level dropped considerably and they all felt like they could breath again. Of course the interior of the famous landmark opera house was even more elegant than was the exterior. Immediately after stepping through the entrance, Brian was pulled aside to be interviewed by one of the the usual television news magazine shows. He, of course, handled the short sound-bite-long interview with panache, smiling that irresistable sexy grin for cameras so that all the world would see it the next day on the news. Once he was free from that minor obligation, Brian escorted Justin, who was still holding the baby, up the wide staircase to the ornately decorated main floor where all the rest of the beautiful people were waiting and mingling before the official start of the festivities.

Brian was doing his best schmoozing - smiling, nodding at people or stopping for a brief word every few feet. He apparently recognized practically everyone they passed as they walked through the room. The only people that Justin recognized were Marty Ryder and his wife, who greeted them and kissed cheeks like they were bosom friends. Ryder clapped Brian on the shoulder and gave him a little good-natured reminder to make sure he made as many contacts as he could tonight - again dangling the prospect of Brian making partner if this night went as well as they expected, in front of his oh-so-popular employee. Brian’s eyes narrowed briefly at the comment, but he managed to hide his annoyance from his boss long enough to make his escape and move on to talk to the next person he recognized.

Brian might have been in his element at this kind of event, but Justin felt completely left out. He trotted along obediently at Brian’s heels and smiled when addressed, but he didn’t say much. He compliantly held Kevan out for inspection whenever someone indicated they wanted to look at the baby and he accepted all compliments about what a beautiful baby Kevan was graciously. But he didn’t know anyone there and he didn’t really fit in with all the beautiful people. Nobody wanted to talk to him or have their photo taken with him. Tonight was really all about Brian. Justin felt like he’d been brought along more as the baby minder than as a true date. Thankfully, Kevan was over his colic and was generally a placid, easygoing baby, so at least Justin didn’t have to spend too much time fussing over the baby.

Justin thought that the only real benefit in him being in attendance tonight was that his presence seemed to deter most of the fawning wanna-be tricks who were so obviously sniffing after Brian.

‘Well, MOST of them, at least,’ Justin thought to himself as he watched one extremely brazen, muscle-bound model type brush enticingly against Brian’s side as he sauntered past. Brian was luckily too busy chatting with some publisher, whose name Justin had already forgotten, to notice the blatant pick-up move. Justin noticed though and shot the guy a withering look which was completely ignored but made the younger man feel better nonetheless.

The really sad thing was that Justin wasn’t so sure that Brian wouldn’t have taken the guy up on his obvious offer if he had noticed it even with Justin standing right there.

Sadly, things had been decidedly cool between Brian and Justin over the past couple of weeks, although Justin really didn’t know what had caused it or what to do about it. Ever since Brian got back from the Armani photo shoot, their relationship had felt strained and uncomfortable. That first evening, and even the next morning, had been wonderfully pleasant with both of them spending quality time together and with their son. But somehow everything had seemed to fall apart after that. Justin suspected that it had something to do with one Michael Novotny, but he had only heard the tail end of Michael’s little speech the other day, so he didn’t know for sure everything that had gone down. All Justin really knew was that right after Michael, Ted and Em showed up at Britin’s Chapel that day, Brian had practically run out of the house and hadn’t come home till after 2:00 am. And ever since that afternoon, Brian had been acting distant.

The rest of the week and a half between then and now had left Justin feeling totally confused. It wasn’t that Brian hadn’t been around at all. He had . . . for the most part. Brian was still doing his Daddy thing whenever he was home - nursing Kevan, spending time with his son, doting on the boy whenever he was around. They’d spent a relaxing Christmas morning taking turns opening Kevan’s many presents from all the Grandma’s, aunts and uncles he’d amassed even though the infant was totally unaware that it was even Christmas, let alone that any of the presents were for him. Brian was even still pumping during the day when he was at work, even though he continued to grumble about it to Justin whenever possible. Justin couldn’t really fault the man for not paying attention to Kevan.

And, whatever else was going on in Brian’s mind, Justin knew that he hadn’t started tricking again yet, since they were still condom-free in the bedroom. The one time that a worried Justin had brought up the subject - asking obliquely if he needed to pick up a box of condoms at the store while he was out - Brian had specifically told him ‘No’. Brian was clear that, if and when that became an issue again, he would speak up. Justin trusted that Brian would never do anything to put him at risk, so he let the subject drop after that.

However, the more nights that Brian spent away from the house, hanging out with ‘the boys’ and frequenting all his old haunts, the more Justin wondered how much longer it would be before that particular item was added back to the weekly shopping list. Because it seemed like every time Brian had the least little excuse, he’d be off, back to his pre-pregnancy hangouts. He’d even bugged out right after lunch on Christmas Day, thanking Justin for the wonderful painting he’d done of Brian and Kevan in one breath and then telling his partner not to wait up in case he didn’t get back until late with the next. Justin was not only worried about Brian and what temptations he was being put back in the path of, but he was also starting to resent the fact that he wasn’t being invited on any of these excursions and was instead left home to mind the kid.

He hadn’t said anything about all this to his gorgeous playboy partner, but something was gonna have to change. And soon. Justin was NOT going to be left home to play the good little housewife for much longer.

Which was why he’d been so excited about tonight. Justin was really looking forward to going with Brian to the big GQ party in New York City. As Brian’s date, no less. He just really could use a night out on the town and the prospect of spending New Year’s Eve at a glamorous party with his glamorous partner was just what the doctor ordered.

Or at least he’d thought it was the perfect idea, right up until the time he was told that they would be bringing Kevan along.

Now Justin was convinced he was just tagging along as the pretty blond baby sitter while Brian basked, as usual, in the admiration of his public.

“Brian! Darling! I simply must introduce myself,” Justin was brought back to the present as Brian moved away from the publisher he’d been talking with - towing Justin and Kevan in his wake - and was immediately accosted by a pushy older woman who looked like her skin had been turned into leather by too many hours in the sun and who was acting as if she was determined to become the next Joan Rivers. “I’m Margot Treatweiller and I JUST heard from my dear friend Giorgio that he’s agreed to do his summer collection at my villa in Cancun. Which MEANS, darling, that you and I are going to get INTIMATELY acquainted since I hear you’re going to be one of the models. Isn’t that just FABULOUS news! I can’t wait. I’ve already called my staff and started them getting the villa ready - I know the photo shoot won’t be for months yet, but there’s just so much to do, you know . . .”

Justin had tuned out of the conversation after about the second sentence. He detested the type of fake sincerity women like this one exuded. He’d been exposed to that sort of person as a child at his father’s many Country Club dinners and he’d hoped to have escaped that life once he escaped his father. He figured he’d just hunker down, pretend he wasn’t there and let Brian deal with this old biddy. Of course, as soon as he’d decided that, he was once again forced back into the conversation when he found Ms. Biddy shoving her too-thin leathery arm, which was incidentally adorned with far too much jewelry, into his face as she faked an interest in Kevan and inexpertly chucked under the baby’s chin. This did NOT amuse the baby, however, who was scared off by the clunking jewelry and the too-rough tickling. Kevan, of course, immediately started to cry.

“I simply ADORE children, you know,” Ms. Biddy was now assuring everyone around them, including all the newcomers who’d joined the group in order to find out why the baby was now howling like a banshee. “Of course I was lucky enough that I never had ANY of my own. But I LOVE playing Auntie . . .” Ms. Biddy continued on even in the face of a wailing infant.

Justin was too busy trying to hush the baby to bother with Ms. Biddy. Brian was standing there looking half amused at Ms. Biddy’s complete discomfiture and half embarrassed by his son’s drama princess moment. To Justin’s consternation, however, Brian didn’t make any move to try and help him with the baby. Luckily the wise Papa had come prepared and had a binky handy in the pocket of his designer slacks - which had fucked up the lines of the pants, according to Brian, but for which the man was now grateful. Justin quickly stuffed the little plastic pacifier into the wailing child’s mouth and received nearly universal congratulations from everyone nearby when the crying instantly ceased.

Which was precisely the moment when Miss Scarlett came jogging up - well, jogging as much as possible in her four inch stiletto heels - and immediately glommed onto Brian. “Brian! There you are! Don’t you know you’re supposed to be up on the stage right now? They’re about to do all the announcements. Hurry up! Oh, and bring Kevan too,” Scarlett ordered, officiously grabbing the baby out of Justin’s arms and thrusting him at Brian. “The Editor in Chief thought it would be a great photo op to have the baby on stage with you, seeing as you’re the best dressed daddy in the world right now. It’ll be great for the magazine’s image. Makes us seem more in tune with the family crowd. Come on!”

Neither Justin nor Brian had a chance to object to Scarlett’s demands as she tugged Brian, and by extension Kevan, through the crowd and up the stairs at the side of the huge stage. Kevan was still actively sucking on the binky that Justin had used to quiet his prior crying jag. The baby was working at that pacifier a little bit too energetically, Justin thought. It was a dead giveaway that the infant was not really all that calm. He might not be crying right that minute, but he was teetering on the edge of being upset enough that not even a binky would keep him quiet. Justin knew that because he’d had months of experience quelling the crying spates of a collicky baby. Brian might not have had quite as much experience as Justin, but he had enough. He might even have realized the same thing if he hadn’t been so distracted by Miss Scarlett’s ongoing instructions as he was thrust up onto the stage amid the array of the year’s other most notably beautiful men.

Brian didn’t think that the announcement of the awards should have taken so long. Regrettably, this year’s announcer, the Editor in Chief of the magazine, seemed incredibly long winded. Brian and the other attendees were forced to stand in place under the hot stage lights during the whole spiel without much to do other than look pretty and keep smiling. Which wasn’t really that onerous of a task for the adults. It WAS a difficult feat though for a not-quite-four-month-old baby. Kevan really did not like all the noise and the bright lights. He didn’t like the way the noise would roar up at him every so often as the audience clapped and cheered for one thing or another. He also didn’t seem to like how hot it was up there on the stage.

Brian, who was momentarily distracted by the nearness of the wildly popular Hollywood actor of indeterminate sexual orientation who was standing next to him and sort of half flirting throughout the proceedings, didn’t notice that his child was becoming increasingly more and more agitated as time went by.

When Eddy the Editor was only about halfway through his prepared remarks, Brian’s attention was torn away from his hottie neighbor by Kevan suddenly spitting out his binky and rather loudly emitting an emphatic ‘GAH!’ just as the announcer had paused for breath. The binky went flying off the stage somewhere to Brian’s left but nobody seemed to notice. The audience all exclaimed and cooed at how cute the baby was being. Brian smiled a response but in his heart he wasn’t nearly as excited by his kid’s seeming cuteness, because he knew what actually happened to cause the ‘GAH!’. Brian knew because he was holding the infant with his one arm tucked supportively under Kevan’s little bum at the time the baby made his ‘GAH!’ and he felt the gooshy wetness that seeped out of Kevan’s now full diaper a half a second after that triumphant ‘GAH!’. Thirty seconds after that, Brian also smelled the sulphurous emanations that came along with such a big ‘GAH!’ in his child’s diapers. And, about a minute and a half later, he also got to deal with the now not-so-happy infant in his arms who was more than ready to have the big ‘GAH!’ in his diapers removed since it was rather unpleasant to have that much ‘GAH!’ in one’s pants no matter what your age.

Without a binky at hand any more, all Brian could do to keep the baby from launching into a full out screeching protest over the ‘GAH!’ in his diapers was to bounce the baby in his arms, whispering in Kevan’s ear all the while in an effort to distract him, and pray that Eddy would SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY!

Eddy, whose wife had always had to change all the diapers in their family, was completely unaware of any problems and just kept prattling on. Brian kept jiggling the baby in his arms and praying. Kevan started making little unhappy mewling sounds and squirming around so that Brian had to wrap another arm around him for fear of dropping the little wiggler. He unconsciously bounced the baby a little more strongly to try and keep him from wiggling.

“Let’s have one more big round of applause for these gorgeous and very stylish guys,” Eddy suggested, finally finishing up and standing back so that the audience could get one last good look at the beautifully dressed and poised men on the stage behind him.

With one last big jiggle to baby Kevan, Brian half bowed to the spellbound audience, stood up and was forthwith covered all down his front by half-digested, curdled breast milk which Kevan spit up all over his daddy’s lovely new tuxedo.

A little too late, Brian realized that maybe he’d been jiggling the baby just a tad too vigorously.

Justin, who was watching with guilty amusement from amid the throng of spectators, couldn’t believe how red Brian’s face turned as the big studly daddy basically ran off the stage. Justin  quickly retrieved the stylish black leather bag that Brian had insisted they bring instead of their usual diaper bag from the spot where Miss Scarlett’s aide had stashed it while they were mingling and headed off to look for his now soiled partner and child. It took him more than ten minutes to discover which restroom Brian had retreated to with the baby. When Justin finally pulled open the door of the small back-stage men’s room, he found Kevan lying precariously on a scrap of countertop with Brian holding him in place with one hand. The baby was diaperless with his butt propped up by a stack of paper towels several centimeters thick. With his other hand, Brian was frantically pulling one paper towel after another out of the nearby dispenser, wetting them at the sink and using them to daub at either the big whitish-yellow mess on the front of his tux jacket or at the larger dark grey-brown muck on his left sleeve.

“Hey!” Justin said in order to announce his presence. That was actually the only thing he could trust himself TO say without breaking out in uncontrolled laughter over the consternated look on his partner’s face.

“Fuck!” Brian spat in response to the cheery ‘Hey’. “Look at this shit! And I DO mean shit! It’s fucking green! How can shit be green? What the fuck have you been feeding my son, Justin? His shit is fucking green and now my jacket is green too! This is so fucking wrong!” Brian continued to curse at his jacket and swab the two big splotchy stains alternately.

“Sorry, Brian,” Justin started to apologize, although he wasn’t sure exactly why he had to apologize for Kevan’s bowel movements or upset tummy. “I think I’ve got a ‘Tide Stick’ somewhere here in the diaper bag. Hopefully it will work and you can save your jacket from staining. Just let me get a clean diaper on Kevan first and then . . .”

Of course Justin didn’t get a chance to finish that sentence before baby Kevan took it upon himself to demonstrate to his neglectful Daddy just why you shouldn’t leave a baby boy lying on his back on a countertop without a diaper covering his private parts. Just as Brian shifted around to face his partner, and in the process switching hands so that he was now holding the baby in place with his clean right arm, Kevan’s adorable little penis popped straight up in the air and a remarkably strong stream of urine projected out, perfectly aimed so that it drenched Brian’s right arm and the clean lapel of his tux jacket with bright yellow piss. Kevan seemed pleased with himself and gurgled happily as he finished peeing on his Daddy. Brian gurgled too but it wasn’t a happy noise.

“We’re fucking going home! NOW!” Brian screamed, picking up his still diaperless son and shoving the boy into his Papa’s arms before storming out of the men’s room.

‘So much for a night out on the town’, thought Justin.