Lois, thank you for the beta...you are the greatest!
Chapter 5 – Morning At Debbie’s
The Next Morning…Day (16)
The next morning at Debbie’s, Michael and Ben arrived as everyone was having breakfast.
“Ma,” Michael called out, walking through the front door.
Just as Michael and Ben stepped through the door, there was a sound of a horn blowing outside. And, Emmett bounded down the stairs and headed for the door.
“Emmett, are you sure you don’t want coffee or breakfast before you leave,” Debbie asked.
“No thanks, I have a lot to do for my client. My ride is outside, so I need to get going. Hopefully, I’ll be back in time for dinner, and then we can all chat. I’ll see everyone later. Sorry, got to run. Bye!” Emmett said, and with that he hurried out the door.
“I wonder what that’s all about. Emmett doesn’t usually leave this early. This must really be something special. That’s two days in a row, that he has left really early,” Debbie commented. “Hopefully, we’ll get the details at dinner.”
By this point, Michael and Ben reached the kitchen, and Debbie poured them each a cup of coffee.
“How was your drive down?” Ben asked Melanie.
“It was a fairly easy drive. There wasn’t too much traffic. I hope the drive back goes as smoothly,” Melanie remarked.
With the niceties dispensed with, Michael turned his attention to the real purpose of his visit.
“Well, there’s my little snuggle bug,” Michael said, seeing his daughter and tickling her under her chin.
Michael then took the spoon and cereal from Melanie, and proceeded to finish helping Jenny Rebecca eat her breakfast. Although the toast and finger foods were easy for the 2 year old to handle, steadying the spoon, milk, and cereal required a father’s touch.
“So how are things?” Melanie asked. “How are you and that painting getting along?”
“Things are good. Justin and I worked everything out. I saw him and Brian at dinner on Sunday. Justin and I had a good talk,” Michael explained. “You know Mel, I was wrong about Brian and Justin.”
“How so?” Melanie asked, patiently waiting for the explanation.
“I was wrong because Justin wasn’t lost, and he didn’t need to be rescued. Everything was ok with him in New York. But, Brian brought Justin home to work on a project for him, and I’m really glad he did. I got a chance to see and talk to him. Now I know that Justin’s ok. In fact, everything is ok. Now I know that they’re definitely together. They are definitely a couple. Brian has tried to tell me that just because they happen to live in two different cities didn’t mean they weren’t together. I didn’t want to believe it before, but I understand it now. You can just see it when you see them together. Brian has changed…he’s so different now. I don’t know why I didn’t see it before. But I sure as hell get it now,” Michael explained with a laugh.
Everyone looked at each other in stunned silence, after hearing what Michael had just said.
“Wow Michael! That’s quite an admission coming from you,” Melanie remarked. “Are you sure that you’re feeling alright?”
“And that was a loving thing for you to say,” Ben commented, kissing the top of Michael’s head.
“My baby’s finally growing up,” Debbie remarked, wiping a tear from her eye, then swiping Michael on the back of the head for good measure.
“Ma!” Michael squealed in protest.
Michael then turned to talk to Melanie. “Ben and I would like to spend the day with JR, is it ok if we take her?”
“Sure that would be great, we have lots of errands to run today, so that would be perfect,” Melanie remarked. “I was even thinking that she could even spend a few days with you and Ben, if you wanted, while we take care of things here in town for the next few days.”
“Really?” Michael said in disbelief, as he and Ben couldn’t help glancing at each other.
“How long are you planning to be in town,” Ben finally asked.
“We thought we would stay until the weekend. If we leave on Saturday or Sunday, it will get us home in time because Gus has school on Monday.”
“So, my little snuggle bug will be here for a few days, and that should give me lots of time to completely spoil her,” Michael commented. “Have you talked to Brian and Justin?”
“Not since we got here. We couldn’t reach them last night because Emmett said they were camping somewhere,” Lindsay explained. “Somehow I can’t picture Brian camping.”
“Me either! Brian hates the country and the out of doors,” Michael added.
“I would love to see the image of Brian Kinney trying to pitch a tent. That must be a sight indeed. He couldn’t even assemble the swing set for Gus’s first birthday, if you will remember,” Melanie teased.
“Well Gus is coming over this morning to make cookies, so I expect to get all the gory details,” Debbie teased. “But you have to admit, Brian is a good father, who really loves his son. So anything is possible.”
“Why don’t you gather whatever you’re going to need for the day, and I’ll give you and JR a lift over the store on my way to work,” Carl suggested, after kissing Debbie and proceeding toward the door.
Michael, Ben and Carl left with JR and her various belongings. So now Melanie and Lindsay could finally settle down and enjoy their breakfast.
***
About an hour later, Brian opened the door to Deb’s to allow Gus to run in.
Everyone was still sitting around the breakfast table having coffee. Brian knew that this was Debbie’s day off, and she and Gus had plans, which included making cookies, but he was surprised to see Lindsay and Melanie still at the breakfast table.
“Look what the evil wind blew in!” Brian began, starring straight at Melanie.
“Hello Lindsay, you on the other hand, I’m glad to see,” Brian said, kissing Lindsay on the cheek.
“Don’t start Brian, it’s too early!” Melanie responded. “Where’s Justin?
“Justin is getting ready for an out of town trip,” Brian relayed. “Plus he has a lot of things to do today.”
Gus was clearly clinging to Brian’s leg. He hadn’t made any movement in the direction of his mothers.
“What did you do to my son?” Melanie demanded to know.
Brian reached down and picked up Gus, who immediately started to giggle.
“As you can see Gus is fine! What’s your problem Melanie?” Brian asked.
“So Gus, what have you been doing? Are you having a good time with you Dad and Justin?” Lindsay asked.
“We went camping last night. It was really dark. We had tents and bags and everything,” Gus tried to explain. “Didn’t we Dad?”
“Bags?” Melanie asked.
“He means sleeping bags. Damn Melanie, he’s six years old. Give the kid a break!” Brian remarked.
“We had hot dogs and hamburgers. We ate on these big rocks. We even fired marshmallows. Justin and I love marshmallows. Dad said he wasn’t eating any, but Justin and I made Dad eat marshmallows. Dad and Jus read me stories. We all slept in a big tent. We had a campfire. It was great. Dad said maybe we could do this again sometime. I had fun. I’m going to tell Auntie Em.” Gus recounted without taking a breath, and then started to run upstairs to look for Emmett.
“Whoa Gus! Auntie Em isn’t here,” Debbie informed Gus mid-stride.
“Oh,” said Gus, returning to the kitchen to once again stand by his father.
“Don’t we even get a hug?” Lindsay asked, opening her arms, fully expecting Gus to immediately run to her.
“But you said I could stay with Dad longer,” Gus said with his hands on his hips. “I don’t want to go home now.”
“Gus, you can stay with your Dad and Justin for a few more days. We’re here because we have some things to do.” Lindsay assured him, and then she waited a moment before asking again, “So now do we get our hugs?”
Gus seemed satisfied with this explanation, and he ran over to give hugs to each of his mothers.
“Whew, that’s a relief,” Melanie commented with a grin. “I thought we had lost him to the dark side.” Melanie said, looking straight at Brian. Brian rolled his eyes.
Gus remained in the kitchen talking to Debbie, while Melanie and Lindsay and Brian moved into the living room so they could talk. That’s when it all started.
“What’s the idea of camping with Gus in the middle of winter, are you insane?” Melanie started, her anger evident.
“Excuse me?” Brian remarked in complete shock.
“How dare you expose Gus to cold weather. Sleeping on the ground. Eating on rocks. What were you and Justin thinking?” Lindsay interrupted.
“Justin was thinking that a six year old might like the camping experience. What’s so wrong with that?” Brian answered, quite perplexed by their reactions.
“How could you endanger Gus that way? How could you endanger Justin that way? You know Justin has allergies. Is he ok?” Lindsay continued, with a worried look on her face.
“Hold it! Hold it!” Brian interrupted, holding up his hands. “My partner, who I may severely punish the first chance I get, decided to rent camping gear yesterday. Justin set everything up in the living room. He even rented these huge artificial boulders for us to eat on. We slept in a tent. We slept in sleeping bags. He torched marshmallows. But I promise you everything was inside our living room. Justin is an artist, Lindsay; surely you of all people understand that he has quite an imagination. So you can image what he created. Justin covered every detail. He even bought a book of campfire stories, so we could read to Gus. I assure you Gus had a ball. I assure you Gus was safe and warm and toasty the entire time.”
“What do you mean campfire?” Melanie inquired, sounding a bit calmer.
“Well when you’re six years old, a fireplace easily doubles as a campfire. Stop worrying about Gus and Justin for a minute and think about me! Look, Justin and Gus held me down and force-fed me marshmallows, and you know how I feel about carbs after 7PM. I’m completely traumatized, isn’t anybody concerned about that?” Brian asked, trying to evoke a little sympathy.
“Brian, your loft doesn’t have a fireplace. Where exactly were you camping?” Melanie asked, paying no attention to his most recent attempt to elicit sympathy.
“The house is empty right now. Of course after today it won’t be. So before it got cluttered up with furniture and stuff, Justin decided we should camp out in the living room last night,” Brian casually explained.
“You and Justin are moving into THAT house?” Lindsay asked. “How could you do that?”
“Justin is in town working on a project. He has to paint somewhere. He decided he wanted to paint at the house. That’s probably where Emmett is now, helping him get everything set up. As I said, Justin has to fly out of town tomorrow, he wanted the house pretty much set up before he left,” Brian explained with a sigh. “What’s the problem?”
“Why are you moving into the house? I thought Justin was only in town for a long weekend,” Lindsay reminded him.
“Not that it’s any of your business…Justin had originally only planned to be here for the weekend or maybe a few days longer. But he changed his mind and decided to stay and paint here for a while. He has a show in three months; so he’ll probably be in town at least that long,” Brian declared, thinking that everything had now been laid out, and the matter should be closed.
“He can’t stay there,” Lindsay insisted. “What about his art? What about his career in New York?” Lindsay demanded to know.
“Did you not hear me? Justin is going to be painting HERE. He’s going to be painting at OUR house,” Brian repeated again. “What is your fucking problem Lindsay?”
“No…No…No…No! If you and Justin are together, Justin won’t be able to paint. You will constantly distract him. His career will be over, and his career had so much promise. Justin has a wonderful future in front of him, if you don’t mess it up. You can’t do this to him Brian,” Lindsay protested with nonstop rambling. “I thought you understood that.”
“Lindsay!” Melanie interrupted, trying to keep everyone’s temper under wrap…for clearly she could see that Brian was justifiably pissed.
Brian tried to reign in his temper. He took a deep breath, counted to ten, and then coldly replied, “Lindsay, I appreciate your concern. I know that you have always been very supportive of Justin’s art. But I assure you, Justin is most capable of managing his own career,” Brian insisted, somewhat sternly. “So if MY partner tells me he wants to paint at OUR house in West Virginia, that is precisely where he’ll paint. And, I don’t intend to discuss it further with you. Neither Justin or I need to seek your permission or obtain your approval for the choices that we make!”
“I’m sorry, Brian. I didn’t mean…” Lindsay said, starting to apologize profusely.
“Yes you did, but we won’t get into that right now. I’m going to say goodbye to my son, and then I’m going to the office. I‘ll talk to YOU later,” Brian finally stated emphatically. As far as Brian was concerned, all discussion was now over.
“Goodbye Sonny Boy. I’ll see you later this afternoon,” Brian said, while hugging Gus tightly.
Brian also hugged Debbie again before he left. Brian and Debbie shared a look of understanding between them.
“You did good, kiddo,” Debbie said softly. “I’m really proud of you.”
“Thanks Deb, that means a lot to me,” Brian responded, before kissing her again and walking out the door.
“Now what was that all about?” Debbie asked, storming into the living and confronting Melanie and Lindsay.
“It’s nothing, Deb.” Melanie said, trying to cover for her partner’s behavior.
“Nothing, huh? Well if you ask me, you’re suffering from a little green eyed monster, and it’s time both of you got over it,” Debbie said adamantly, directing her gaze primarily at Lindsay, but also including Melanie in her wrath.
Lindsay said remorsefully, “I’m sorry Deb.”
“Me too Deb,” Melanie added.
“I’m not the one you two need to apologize to,” Debbie reminded them. “Now are you two going to tell me what’s really going on?”
“What do you mean?” Melanie asked innocently.
“I can’t put my finger on it but something isn’t right. So again I ask, are you going to tell me what’s going on?” Debbie demanded quietly. “Because I’m going to find out sooner or later.”
Before anyone could answer, Gus called out that he was ready to make cookies.
“I’ll talk to you two later,” Debbie announced, shaking her finger at them, before she turned to return to the kitchen to see about Gus.
Melanie and Lindsay just nodded their acceptance.
***
Debbie started cleaning up the breakfast dishes, while she and Gus chatted. Gus recounted the whole evening of camping again to Debbie, trying not to leave out any details. Debbie listened to a child’s perspective and realized that Gus must have had a great adventure.
Gus told Debbie about his new room that Justin let him pick out. Gus couldn’t remember what the room actually looked like, but he remembered that Justin had a sketch, and he told her that Justin was doing a new painting just for him.
Debbie thought to herself, ‘So Brian kept the house. He’s actually going to move in there with Sunshine. Good for you kiddo.’ Debbie then let out a quiet laugh.
“Ok Gus, what kind of cookies do you want to make?” Debbie said as she tickled Gus.
***
A few minutes later, Melanie and Lindsay entered the guest room.
“Things look a lot different up close than they did when we were sitting in Toronto don’t they?” Melanie commented, trying to offer some support to her partner. “Maybe relocating to Toronto was a good idea after all.”
“It DOES look a lot different from here. Brian and Justin are moving into THAT house. It really doesn’t matter that they didn’t get married. They are totally committed to each other. And if I want Brian to be a part of our lives, a part of Gus’s life, I have to change how I see things. Because if I had any doubts before, I just had everything confirmed this morning. Did you see him? Emmett was right. Brian is in full protection mode. Brian is no longer willing to put up with a lot of bullshit. He is prepared to cut anyone or anything from his life that tries to interfere with his relationship with Justin,” Lindsay said mournfully. “I could see it. That has never happened before. I’ve never seen him like this.”
“Yes, I noticed.” Melanie commented. “Look Lindsay, I think we should get out of here, before there’re more confrontations with Deb. We should plan on visiting some people and just getting away. We have a lot of things to do before our 3PM counseling session with Elizabeth.”
And with that Lindsay and Melanie prepared to leave, assuring Debbie they would be back in time for dinner.