Almost But Not Quite

Chapter 21





An annoying sound woke both Justin and Brian. It was the alarm clock. They had set it for ten a.m. before they collapsed into a sated sleep the night before.

Justin yawned and stretched. He turned to look at Brian when the annoying alarm ceased its jangling. “Morning,” he said mid yawn.

“Morning to you too. How’s your ass?”

Justin giggled. “You seem to have a great many concerns about my ass. It’ll be fine.”

“I think we should shower and then I’ll doctor it for you before you leave.”

“You will? That’s awfully sweet of you,” Justin said coyly.

“Don’t press your luck, buddy,” Brian teased. He held out his hand to help Justin up off the bed.

“Ow! Fuck! Ouch!” Justin gasped as he slid across the bed.

“See, your ass requires the attentions of an expert,” Brian smirked.

“I thought it had already had the attentions of an expert.” Brian smiled. “And that expert would be you,” Justin giggled.

“I don’t see anyone else here that fits that description,” Brian smirked.

“Come on,” Justin said taking Brian’s hand. “We stink.”

“Ah, there’s nothing like the smell of sex in the morning.”

“Get in that shower,” Justin laughed, pushing the annoying and beautiful man into the shower enclosure.

“Yessir, right away, sir,” Brian saluted.

After a fun filled and sexless shower they emerged ready for their day. The thought of sex did cross Brian’s mind, and Justin’s too, for that matter. However, Brian thought he better leave Justin’s ass alone if he ever wanted it to return to its natural state.

“Where do you have to go this morning?” Brian asked wondering what Justin would be up to.

“Work,” Justin said as he dried himself off.

“Where do you work on a Sunday morning?”

“The Liberty Diner.”

“You work at the fucking diner? Why?”

“Why what? I work there so that I can earn money.”

“But you have a business degree from Dartmouth, or did you flunk out?” Brian asked with a frown.

“No, I did not flunk out! But I don’t work for my father anymore, so I needed a job. There was one available at the diner.”

“Good career choice, Emeril.”

“Well, the fucking electronics business wasn’t my first choice either. Now that I’m not trying to please my father I can do whatever I want. Got a problem with that?” Justin demanded.

Brian draped the towel around his hips and then raised his hands in surrender. “Far be it from me to tell you what to do.”

“That’s exactly what it sounded like you were doing,” Justin said, obviously miffed.

“I didn’t mean it that way. I used to spend a lot of time at the diner and I don’t think I’d want to work there,” Brian said trying to mollify Justin.

“The tips are great.”

“Watch your ass today. It may not appreciate the pinches,” Brian said tongue in cheek.

Justin giggled in spite of himself. “I’ll remember that advice. Why don’t you go to the diner anymore?”

“When Debbie and I had our falling out, I thought it was prudent to stay away,” Brian said as he lathered his face to shave.

“You? Prudent? I don’t think those words belong in the same sentence.”

“I have my moments,” Brian said superciliously, as he finished shaving and handed the razor to Justin.

“Thanks,” Justin smiled before he lathered his face.

Brian stared in fascination as Justin shaved. He could not remember ever having let a man, a trick, stay as long as he had kept Justin at the loft. And now he was sharing his razor with him. Justin Taylor was definitely not a trick, but Brian had known that when he had asked him out on a date. What was so fucking different about this man shaving at his sink?

“You’re staring,” Justin said as he wiped the last of the lather off his face.

“Hm.”

“And what might that mean?”

“Just thinking.”

“About what?”

“About how to get your suit in some semblance of order so you can go home.”

“You could always go buy me a pair of jeans and a T-shirt,” Justin laughed.

“You want me to?” Brian asked. Christ, when did he get so lesbianic?

“No, I’ll be fine. I need to go back to Debbie’s and change before I go into work.”

“I’ll drive you.”

“Thanks,” Justin said with one of his winning smiles.

Justin’s suit looked pretty dilapidated as he left the loft. It was so wrinkled that it looked like Justin had slept in it all night, but that was maybe a good thing. He could say he had slept in it, rather than trying to explain what he and Brian had actually been doing. His shirt had several buttons missing. And there seemed to be one sock that had disappeared from the face of the earth.

Brian offered to stop at a drive through so Justin could get some breakfast, but Justin decided he needed to get to Debbie’s and get into his work clothes or he was going to be late.

When they pulled up at Debbie’s Justin slid out of the Jeep. “Thanks for the lotion,” he grinned. Brian had carefully taken care of Justin’s sore ass before he got dressed. It did feel quite a bit better.

“You’re welcome,” Brian smirked.

“And thanks for the two most memorable nights of my life,” Justin said sincerely.

Brian smirked more, and then his face turned serious. “We could try to top those two nights the next time we get together,” he suggested.

“I’d be up for that.”

“I’m counting on you being up for it.”

Justin’s smile was blinding. “I’ll call you.”

“You better get changed or you’ll be late,” Brian directed the young man.

“Yeah.” Justin still stood beside the Jeep with the door open peering in at Brian.

“You going?”

“Yeah.”

“Or staying?”

“Yeah.”

“Justin, go. You’ll be late.”

“Okay,” Justin sighed. “I just don’t want our date to be over.”

“We can have another.”

“I’m counting on that.”

“Say goodbye, Justin.”

“Goodbye, Justin.”

Brian laughed loudly. “Twat.”

“Asshole. I love you,” Justin blurted out, before he slammed the door and ran into the house.

“Shit!” Brian said aloud. “I love you too, Sunshine, whatever the fuck that might mean.”



*****



As Justin stepped through the doorway of Debbie’s house, the woman pounced.

“Where the fuck have you been?” she demanded. “I was worried sick. Did Brian Kinney hurt you? If he did I’ll fucking kill him. Are you all right?”

“Out, no and yes,” Justin replied. “I have to change for work.” He started up the stairs.

“Stop right there, mister. You look like you’ve been dragged through a knothole backwards. Tell me what happened.”

“I have to change, Debbie, and I really don’t want to talk about it.” He continued up the stairs.

“Justin Taylor, you come back here. You listen to me. Stay away from that asshole.”

Justin kept going until he could close his bedroom door on the Debbie harangue issuing from downstairs. He didn’t want to hear her bad mouth Brian. That was the last thing he wanted.



*****



“Marty.”

“Brian.”

The two men sized each other up. Brian thought Marty looked older and tired. Marty Ryder thought Brian looked as handsome as ever and just as arrogant.

“Let’s sit down,” Marty said as he seated himself at the head of the table in the conference room at Ryder Advertising. He had called Brian a few days earlier and Brian had agreed to this meeting. Marty hoped Brian didn’t notice that he was sweating. He wanted to look confident.

Brian glanced around. The room looked the same as the last time he had been in there, the day Marty had told him that he had made a deal with Kip Thomas and Brian was to collect his belongings and get out. Brian wondered if Marty remembered that day or that it took place in this very room. He walked to a chair at the other end of the big table and sat down.

“You’re a long way away,” Marty observed with a frown.

“Then move over here,” Brian said tapping the arm of the chair next to him … at the side of the table. Brian could play the power game with the best of them.

Marty hesitated for a moment and then rose. He walked over to the chair Brian had indicated and sat down.

Brian couldn’t help but smirk. “So, you asked me to come here today. Why?” Brian asked deciding that he was sick of this game.

“I … I understand you’ve done very well for yourself since you left here,” Marty began.

“You mean since you fired me.” Marty recoiled just enough to please Brian. That was the reaction he had been looking for.

“Well, you did do something really stupid.”

Brian raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think it’s your prerogative to judge what I do … or did. You may have had the power to do that once, but not anymore,” Brian said flatly. He was not pleased.

“Brian, please, let’s not go down that road.”

“It seems to me that you brought it up, and it was you who asked me to come here today. What do you want, Marty?”

When Brian had got the call from Ryder Advertising asking for a meeting, he had been intrigued. He wasn’t sure what would motivate such a call, other than the fact that the Ryder Agency was close to bankruptcy. He had returned to his old stomping ground to find out what Ryder wanted. The place had not changed at all, which was not a good sign in the advertising world. Change was a must.

“I … I’m thinking about retiring,” Marty started again.

“I thought you would have retired long ago,” Brian said rather uncharitably.

Marty cringed. He wondered if Brian knew just how badly things were going for Ryder Advertising at the moment. “I want to sell out,” Marty stated, deciding he needed to get to the point. “I’d give you a really good deal. Are you interested?”

“Interested? In your retirement?” Brian asked with a smirk.

Marty’s eyes dropped and he shook his head. Obviously Brian was not going to make this easy. “Interested in buying me out,” Marty admitted reluctantly. Somehow it sounded like begging and he didn’t want it to be that way.

“Why would I want to buy this tired old company?”

“Brian…”

“Not interested,” Brian said definitively.

“I thought since you cut your teeth in advertising here, you might want to take over the business,” Marty said with a sigh.

“I was the best ad exec you ever had and you fired me,” Brian stated. “There are no fond memories here for me.”

“I guess I made a mistake.”

“Yes, I guess you did,” Brian said standing up. “But you do have one thing I want.”

“What’s that?” Marty asked feeling fear run up his spine. He expected Brian to call down the gods of revenge or threaten to stomp the place into the ground.

“Cynthia,” Brian said. “In fact I think I’ll go get her right now.”

Marty felt all the air drain from his lungs. He slumped in his chair. “Brian…” he said after a minute, but when he looked up, the room was empty.

Brian walked down the hall looking for his old assistant. Cynthia came out of an office and nearly ran into him

“Brian!” she said in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to see if you’d consider a job offer to work for me at Kinnetik.”

“Really?” she asked with a huge grin on her face.

Brian nodded. “Could you start today?”

“You bet your ass,” Cynthia practically yelled. She threw her arms around Brian’s neck and hugged him hard.

“How long will it take you to gather your stuff?” Brian asked. “I could give you a ride over to Kinnetik.”

“There’s nothing here I want but my purse. Let me grab it.”

Brian smiled as Cynthia raced down the hall and yanked her purse out of her desk. She also grabbed the photo of her latest boyfriend that sat on top of the desk. It was almost an afterthought. She ran out into the hall and met Brian at the elevator.

“That was fast,” Brian smirked.

“Yep.”

“Don’t you have to give notice?”

“I told Ryder months ago that I was leaving, but he kept asking me to stay just a little longer, and then a little longer still. ‘A little longer’ just ran out,” she stated.

Just as the elevator door opened Brian caught a glimpse of someone who looked like Kip Thomas down the hall. “Is he still here?” Brian asked.

“Kip? Yeah, he’s going down with the ship if there’s truly a God in heaven,” Cynthia said wryly.

“I wouldn’t count on God helping us out.”

“We don’t need his help. Ryder is in big trouble.”

“I know,” Brian said as the elevator doors closed on them. “I hope the rats know how to swim.”

“I don’t. They can all fucking drown as far as I’m concerned,” Cynthia stated.

Brian chuckled. He had always enjoyed having Cynthia around and she didn’t seem to have changed at all. He should have come to get her months ago. But now that he had Liberty Air, he could finally afford to pay her what she was worth.



*****



Justin was finally finished his shift, make that shifts, at the diner. He had survived his shift on Sunday, but had gone home and collapsed into bed. He had been asleep before his head hit the pillow. He had managed to drag himself out of bed to do the Monday morning shift at the diner and he was now headed home after staying through the rest of the day and the worst of the dinner shift.

Debbie was still at the diner. Justin didn’t know how she worked all the hours she did, but he guessed she wasn’t up most of the day and night in a marathon fuck session like he had been. He had managed to put off her questions about him and Brian. Thank God the diner had been busy, and there had been little time to talk. He didn’t want to talk about what had happened on the weekend with anybody … except Brian. He wanted what they were doing to be just between the two of them. It was nobody else’s business.

Justin walked along the street headed for Debbie’s. He was pooped. His bed was calling to him. He was almost to the corner when he heard a horn honk. He looked up to see a black Jeep parked just ahead. His face broke into a smile and his tiredness fell away. It was Brian.

“Hey,” he said with a happy smile on his face as he looked into the Jeep.

“How’s it going? Had a busy night?” Brian asked with a smirk.

“Just checking out the bars. You know Boy Toy, Meathook.”

“Meathook? You into leather?” Justin merely grinned. “Where ya headed?”

“Nowhere special.”

“I can change that.”

“You already have,” Justin whispered.

“Get in.”

“Where are we going?” Justin asked as he buckled his seat belt.

“Loft.”

“Okay.” The fatigue he had felt a minute ago was suddenly gone.

Brian looked over at Justin. He wasn’t sure why he was doing this. But he did know deep inside that he wasn’t done with Justin Taylor yet. He needed to be with him. He stepped down on the gas and headed for the loft.