Lois, thank you for the beta...you are the greatest!
Chapter 19 – A Quiet Evening A Little Later…(Day 40) “Whose brilliant idea was it that we play this friendly game of pool?” Brian asked. Justin just smiled and prepared to finally take his shot. “Glenn insisted that we disappear so that he could work. This seemed to be far enough away. You have to admit the logic made sense since Paul and Jason would be so distracted here that they wouldn’t try to help Glenn and his crew. I would say everything is going as planned.” “Thank you for that public service announcement, Mr. Taylor. This was obviously your plan. My plans work out better than this,” Brian continued to complain, “I think I now know how Ryan feels when he plays with Lee,” he mumbled to himself. “C’mon Brian, stop complaining. We don’t have the time to play like we used to. Nicky keeps us too busy to get in a lot of play time,” Paul pointed out with a laugh. “And you’ve been forcing Nicky to be excessively neat, that has obviously still allowed you too much practice time; however, once you implement the creative changes Justin suggested, I sure the pool-playing field will be leveled,” Brian said seriously. Paul and Jason couldn’t help themselves. They burst out laughing. “I knew you had some ulterior motive regarding Nicky’s creativity, but this is low even for you, Brian,” Jason added, still laughing as he took the next shot. “Speaking of Nicky, what are the kids up to?” Justin asked. “They are huddled together watching the Curious George video. I figure that as soon as you two finish losing this round, I’d go check on them again. I suspect that they have probably fallen asleep. You and Brian gave them a rather full day,” Paul agreed. “Especially with the trip to the Aquarium.” “It was our pleasure,” Justin added. “I think they had fun.” “Besides, we shouldn’t have any problems getting Nicky to go to bed tonight. He knows that when he wakes up in the morning, he’ll be four year old. That’s a major incentive for him to go to sleep tonight,” Jason professed. “How so?” Justin asked. “His little three-year-old brain uses the logic that if he doesn’t go to bed tonight…tomorrow will never come. And if tomorrow doesn’t come he will never be four years old. So the key is not to resist going to sleep tonight,” Jason recounted. “So we won’t have any trouble getting him to go to bed tonight. You’ll see.” “And you know this how?” Justin asked. “One of my psychologist friends explained this to me…how the three year old brain interprets reality. It’s the same reason that little kids go to bed on Christmas Eve,” Jason explained. “Ah huh.” “And, if little kids didn’t go to bed on Christmas Eve, Santa would never come and leave their presents, and Christmas morning would never arrive. Surely you see that?” “And I thought that Michael had a vivid imagination for the stories he comes up with for Rage. Remind me to never let the two of you be alone together,” Justin teased. “Are you finished?” Jason asked, standing with one hand on his hip. “Sorry,” Justin admitted with a laugh, “Go ahead and take your shot.” “Thank you.” Brian and Paul were both now laughing hysterically at the exchange between their partners. *** Their game was interrupted as Glenn appeared at the doorway to the room. “Justin, can you follow me? We need you to take a look at this,” Glenn said with a smile. “We need to know what you think?” “Justin? Why Justin? Don’t you care what we think?” Jason teased. “Yes, you obviously forget who you work for,” Paul added for good measure. “These are Justin’s designs. We want to be sure that he’s pleased, and that we carried out his artistic vision, ” Glenn affirmed. “I already know from personal experience that you two are really lousy at the decorating part. That’s why I handle decorating at the office. I also know this is why you keep me around,” Glenn teased. Everyone laughed. Justin followed Glenn back down to the playroom. Justin stopped at the doorway and took in the manifestation of his creative vision. The sketch had come to life. Justin just stood there and took it all in. He was pleased. Paul and Jason came and stood beside him in the doorway and looked all around. Brian came up behind Justin and wrapped his arms around him. Brian could feel Justin lean into him. Brian leaned down and ever so gently kissed the top of Justin’s head. “Glenn, it’s wonderful,” Justin said, “But how did you get it done so quickly? It seems like you just got here?” “Let me introduce everyone,” Glenn said, introducing the six people with him, “Sherry, Dave, Mike, Linda, Peter, Steven…meet the infamous Brian Kinney and his partner, Justin Taylor that you have heard so much about. And of course, you’ve all encountered Paul and Jason before.” “Justin Taylor, as in the artist?” Sherry asked, “You’re going to be here for the opening of the new wing of the gallery. I read all about you. Wow!” “Now you see why we had to handle the decorations with special care instead of entrusting them to Paul and Jason?” Glenn reaffirmed for his crew. “I knew they were different when we were putting them up,” Dave commented, “Now I understand why.” “The truck pińata was the dead give away,” Steven teased, “I had never heard of a truck pińata before?” “Created from the mind of Justin Taylor Artist,” Jason said softly. “I can’t wait until Nicky sees it.” “By the way, where is Nicky?” Glenn asked “He and a friend are watching movie. They are probably asleep by now.” Brian took another look around the room. “I know what you told me you had planned, but this room is spectacular,” Brian said. “ I can’t believe how successfully you integrated the trucks with the party streamers and tinsel and the balloons…it’s all so festive. When you were describing it the other night, I didn’t know what to expect. I love the way you did posters too, to cover the walls. They are as amazing as your paintings. You can feel the power of the trucks on the walls.” “Be sure that you tell Spyder that when you see him. Those are his drawings of the trucks in the posters. I only modified them to fit the festive party theme. After all, we didn’t want this to look like a construction work site, now did we?” Justin explained. “Oh my god, it looks so much better than your simple sketch,” Paul exclaimed, coming inside the room and taking one of the seats. “I know that we worked on some of the individual pieces, but I had no idea they would look like this when everything was done…I had no idea that it would come together like this,” Jason remarked, taking a seat next to Paul. “When you decide you want to give up painting, you have a great future as an interior designer,” Paul added, “That’s why I want you to come and work for me,” he teased. “Really?” Glenn asked all excited, immediately picking up on the remark, “You’re coming back to work with us at the agency?” “Glenn, you know that Paul has been delusional for some time. That is still the case. I’m sure he must have sniffed quite a bit of the glue when he was working on the pińata. That has to be what must be causing this latest round of delusion,” Brian said, attempting once again to set the record straight. “Leave me alone in my delusion. I can dream if I want to, can’t I?” Paul protested. “Oh, I was already looking forward to working with the kid again?” Glenn said with a laugh. “The kid?” Justin questioned, ““Will you ever stop calling me that me that?” “Probably not.” “By the way, congratulations on your Bronze Quill nomination.” “Thanks.” “And Brian, everyone at the office is very proud of all your accomplishments. We always knew that you would go far, especially with Kinnetik. “Thanks.” The conversation once again returned to the decorations. “I can’t believe the table set up for the kids,” Mike said, “With the balloons and streamers all around it. And everything is kid sized.” “And then you had us set up these extra chairs for the adults to drop in, without intruding on the kids and their activities. That’s great planning,” Linda added. “We have to remember that the next time we plan a party. It’s like there are areas set aside for everyone.” “It looks like you’re expecting more adults than just kids,” Dave commented with a laugh. “My sister, Gabrielle, swears there will be more adults here than kids, and Mom is betting that part of the agency will show up to see Brian and Justin, so I guess Justin must have tried to design things to handle the total chaos,” Paul said with a laugh. “We have a rather large family,” Jason added, as if that explained everything. “And lots of friends,” Glenn added, “So when we stop back tomorrow, can we have cake and ice cream? I really want to see the trucks that Justin sculpted?” “How did you hear about that?” Justin asked with some surprise. “I might have mentioned it,” Jason admitted sheepishly. “And what makes you think you’re invited back?” Paul asked teasingly, already knowing the answer, and already knowing that Glenn had always considered himself family, so he would show up invited or not. “Why else do you think my crew and I volunteered to handle the decorating duties?” Glenn confirmed. “Besides, my crew and I have saved Nicky from nightmares. I’ve seen what happens when you two put up decorations,” he continued to point out, leaving the images to everyone’s imagination. Brian and Justin couldn’t help laughing at the banter between Glenn and Paul and Jason. Likewise the crew was equally amused, but most of them had obviously witnessed this kind of exchange at least once before. For it seemed that Glenn was constantly making sure that Paul and Jason did not hang decorations at all costs. “Well my work is done here so we’re going to go,” Glenn said, “So we can relieve all our babysitters. Brian, Justin, we’ll see you tomorrow sometime during the all day party…as usual,” he teasing, hugging them as he was leaving. Paul and Jason just sighed and shook their heads. Paul and Jason reassured everyone that they would see them tomorrow with their kids. Glenn’s crew all thanked them for the invitation, while Glenn simply smiled victoriously, as he was leaving. *** A few moments later, everyone went in to check on the Gus and Nicky. True, they were watching a video and had fallen asleep, but now that they had company, they were both fully awake and ready to play. Justin and Brian couldn’t help laughing at the turn of events. Jason and Paul decided to give Nicky a special shower. Since this would be his last shower as a three year old, they wanted to make it a big deal and a family event. Brian and Justin decided to take Gus to their room and give him a shower as well. They really hadn’t spent much time together just the three of them since they arrived, so this gave them a chance to spend some time together. They agreed to eventually meet back in Nicky’s room once Gus and Nicky were in their pajamas and ready for bed. “Besides Nicky, you have to go to sleep. Now you’re three years old,” Jason began for good measure, “The sooner you go to sleep and wake up in the morning, the sooner you will be four years old,” he continued. Justin tried to contain his smile as his listened to this logic again. Nicky merely appeared to think it over, looking over at Gus for confirmation. Gus simply smiled and nodded his agreement. Brian and Paul tried to contain their laugh as they watched the nonverbal conversation between Nicky and Gus. The kids settled down for the night and were kissed and tucked into bed. Everyone said good night and the lights were turned out. Brian and Justin and Paul and Jason headed for the living room for a nightcap. *** In the living room everyone began to relax. Paul dimmed the lights and added soft music. Jason returned with glasses and Beam. He poured drinks for everyone. As usual, Jason and Paul spooned together on the sofa. “I can’t believe this day,” Brian said, pulling Justin to spoon into their favorite oversize chair with him. “It has been one of the record books,” Paul added with a laugh. “I can not believe how much energy Nicky has as a three years old. What is he going to be like at four?” “I did notice that he has finally stopped bossing Gus around…just a little,” Jason added. “A very little,” Brian added. “I’m not sure that I remembered to thank you properly for bringing Gus,” Paul added. “It did make for a very long day getting here, yesterday…was it only yesterday,” Brian seemed to asked himself, “But our kids really seemed to be having a good time together. I flew to Toronto from New York, and it looks like we’re both going back to New York when we leave here. Of course, we’ll drop Gus off in Toronto first.” “That’s a really hectic schedule,” Jason commented. “ I had no idea.” “When will you be back at the mansion?” Paul asked. “Maybe about midweek…by the weekend, for sure,” Justin commented, “Gus visits that weekend, and we have to go riding.” “Riding?” Paul asked. “Horseback riding,” Brian said nonchalantly. “The house has stables, so…” “I see why you want to stay there,” Jason commented. “It really has become home. I can really relax there,” Brian confirmed. “Justin’s studio is there. It’s just home,” he said quietly, leaning down and kissing Justin in the process. Paul and Jason made note of the moment of tenderness between their friends. “Jus, we want to thank you for everything that you did for the party. We couldn’t have done any of this without you,” Jason began. “You know how we feel about Nicky?” Justin reminded them, “I did it for him.” Then he thought for a second. “You realize of course that the little dynamo is going to be up at the crack of dawn. So if we want to get any sleep, we had better turn in now,” he said with a laugh. “It’s been quite a day, hasn’t it?” Brian commented “This is like an normal day plus a night at Babylon combined,” Justin confirmed. “How about if we go back to our room, and I give you one of my blowjobs, will that make the night more bearable?” Justin then suggested. “Maybe…it’s a start,” Brian whispered, “but only a start.” “You have something else in mind,” Justin innocently asked. When Brian didn’t answer, Justin was forced to turn around and come face to face with… “Brian, what are you doing?” “I’m using Rage’s mind control.” “Brian, you can’t keep using Rage’s powers of mind control.” “I don’t know why not.” “Because you did that in Toronto.” “So. I read the comic. Mikey never wrote about any limit.” “You,” Justin said with a laugh, leaning in to give Brian a gentle kiss. Brian allowed the kiss to turn passionate. Paul and Jason were amused by the exchange and couldn’t help smiling at their friends’ antics. “Well, due to circumstances beyond my control…” Justin began and was immediately cut off as Brian pushed him to a standing position. Brian immediately slid his arm around Justin’s waist, being unwilling to relinquish contact even for a minute. “Say Good night,” Brian coached, gently pulling Justin along in the direction of the hall. “Good night,” Justin said in a trance-like manner. Paul and Jason likewise responded with good night as they laughed together once more at their friends as they left.