Chapter 30:  If You Can Draw It… Then You Can Live It!”

“Excuse me,” The V.P. of Kinnetic Publishing, Inc. (one of Kinnetic’s many subsidiaries) walked into the commix book division and spotted Michael standing at a printing machine and walked up to him. 

The V.P. was a handsome, blond man with blue eyes, tall, great body but extremely intellectual looking.  He extended his hand to Michael and was about to welcome him to his new job. “Hi, you must be the new employee – Michael Novotny, I assume?  Please, let me introduced myself.  I’m…”

“Sorry, I have to go to the toilet,” Michael tactlessly brushed off the Vice President.  He did not even shake the man’s hand but scurried off in a rush.  However, he bypassed the men’s restroom and got on the elevator and pushed the button that would deliver him to the floor where all the executive offices were.

“What the…?”

“Yeah,” said Michael’s direct supervisor as he came out of his office and stood next to the V.P.  “That’s Michael Novotny; and he’s a REAL piece of work; but he’s in pretty chummy with the CEO though.  He’s only been here for a week and already he thinks he owns the place.  He’s late every day, take very long coffee and lunch breaks; and leaves early; and already he’s taken a day and a half off work, and he had the nerve to give me slack when his paycheck came up short of the hours he missed.  He said as soon as Mr. Kinney returns from his honeymoon, he going to pay the CEO a visit and complain about how everyone around here is mistreating him, and we will all be sorry when our jobs are instantaneously terminated.”

“Are you serious?”  The Vice President asked.

“He certainly seems so,” the supervisor answered.

“Why don’t you send him into my office when he returns and I’ll have a talk with him?”

“Sure, but don’t you expect for a second that it’s going to be a civilized conversation.  I certainly couldn’t reason with him.  He seems like such a… umm, umm… five-year-old or something!”

*

“Hi, Michael,” Cynthia, Brian’s adminstrative assistant, greeted him on his way off the elevator.  “Can I help you with something?”  She was surprised to see him there considering Brian was still away on his honeymoon.

“Is Ted Schmidt around?”  He asked.

“Yes, he’s in; but he’s acting as CEO while Brian is away; so he’s working  out of Brian’s office until he returns.  I can buzz him, and let him know that you would like to see him, if you like?”

“Please?”

Cynthia then got on the intercom announced to Ted that Michael was there to see him.

“Send him right on in, Cynthia.”

Michael heard Ted answered her back and then he went trotting over to Brian’s office.  He opened the door and stepped inside.  However, the phone rang the moment he entered the office and Ted excused himself while he took the call.  He then made a hand gesture motioning Michael to take a seat. 

Michael acknowledged his invitation with a nod but he didn’t sit down right away instead his eyes scanned all over Brian’s office.  And he noticed a few things he hadn’t noticed that night when Brian, Ted and he were all meeting in there together.  He especially noticed a different painting, one of a house, covering an area of the wall where there used to be another painting.  If he recall correctly it was a painting of a horse or something; and then Michael had to grimace because it just dawned on him that the painting of the horse was a painting he had given Brian.  Now something else hung in its place and Michael looked around the room and there were other paintings on the wall but none of them was the picture of the horse that he had given Brian. 

While Ted was still conversing on the phone, Michael got up and went and scrutinized the picture of the house closely; and he nearly wanted to shit on himself when he read the artist’s emblem and discovered that it was Justin Taylor’s work.

“Fuck!”  He yelled.  And, Ted looked at him rather stunned.  “Sorry,” Michael apologized for his abrupt outburst during Ted’s business call.  And then he went around the entire room and began to feel angry and angrier when he discovered that all the paintings in the office bore Justin’s attribute.

He then rushed out of there without even saying ‘goodbye’ to Ted.

“Is everything okay?”  Cynthia asked when Michael came rushing out of her boss's office and stood pouting whiile waiting for the elevator.

Michael grunted and virtually ignored Cynthia as he waited for the elevator to come up.  “I’m just fine,” he finally answered her but only because he wanted to ask her a question.  “But by the way do you know what happened to the painting of the horse that used to hang in Mr. Kinney’s office… where that picture of that dreadfully ugly house hangs now?”

“It’s still around here somewhere,” she had to think for a moment, “Oh,” she then said the moment she remembered.  “It’s hanging inside the Board of Directors' conference room.”

“Oh,” Michael felt kind of relieved and then he sarcastically blurted out, “Well, at least it wasn’t thrown into the trash.”

Cynthia thought that was a rather strange reaction.  However, she had no idea that Michael had given Brian the painting and why it would upset him some much that Brian no longer kept it inside his office.

The elevator came and Michael started to get on it but the V.P. of Kinnetic Publishing was about to get off, accosted Michael and invited him to come to his office with him. 

“Sure… why not?”  Michael grouched.  However, he was rather despondent for he was still quite angry with the world, but more specifically a particular person inside his world – Justin Taylor!

*

“Justin!  Wake up!”  Brian shook him awake moment their plane landed.  “We’re here.”

“Oh,” Justin stretched and yawned and assumed ‘we’re here’ was referring to no other than Pittsburgh.   However, he realized that that was hardly the case when they exited the plane.

“Huh?  Where is here?  This is not Liberty Airport.”

“It most certainly isn’t,” Brian second that notion.  “It’s West Virginia.”

“West Virginia… and so why are we here?   What’s in West Virginia?”

“Our next honeymoon spot, and it's only about thirty minutes from the Pitts,” Brian informed him.  “You didn’t think I would let some island thugs just cut our honeymoon short like that… did you?”

Justin smiled heavenly just then.  “But where do you honeymoon inside West Virginia?  I don’t know anything about West Virginia, Brian.”

“Plenty of places I guess.  However, boy DO I got the place for you.  Just wait until you see it.  And, it’s right here on American soil so we don’t have to worry about any lynch mob coming by threatening to run us away.  In fact, if you can draw it… you can very well live it!”

“Draw it!  Live it!  What the Hell are you talking about Brian?”

“You’ll see, and here comes our limo now.”  And, the driver drove Brian and Justin quickly to their next honeymoon spot.

“Wow!” Justin’s eyes nearly jumped out their sockets when he saw it and he immediately realized what Brian had meant by the expression ‘If you can draw it… you can very well live it!’  He echoed what Brian said to him earlier.

“Excuse me, Justin,” Brian said as he started conversing with the chauffeur, “Tony,” he addressed him.  “Was my car delivered?”

“Yes, Mr. Kinney, it was delivered and put inside the garage as you requested, sir.  And, for your convenience it has a full tank of gas.  Also, the horses are in the stables and ranch hands were sent to tend to them.”

“Horses?”  Justin mumbled.

“Thank you, Tony.  That would be all.  Thank you for all your services,” Brian then got his wallet out and gave the man a hefty tip and then the driver drove off.

 “Brian, this place is just like the sketch of my dream house I once drew for you.  The one I gave you as a present on our first Christmas together.  Whatever happened to that picture?”

“It hangs in my office Justin hiding the safe in there.”

“I thought there was a picture of a horse hanging in that spot?”

“It used to be.  But I liked your picture better.  So, the horse came down and the house went up.  Come on inside.  I can’t wait for you to see the inside, and then I’ll take you on a tour of the grounds.”

“But, Brian.  Why did you buy this place knowing you and I are only going to be married and living together for just a year?”

“Calm down, Justin!  Don’t get your blond curls twisted into a dreadlock.  Whoever said I bought the place?  Places like these are rented out all the time… I thought of it, and arranged for us to spend the last week of our honeymoon here.”

Brian then lifted him off his feet to carry him over the threshold, and Justin looked at his husband pleasingly but yet bizarrely… for he was not expecting Brian to go all out like that.  Especially when you consider that a newlywed couple only does that when entering their permanent resident the first time as a married couple.  ‘If this place is just temporary, why is my husband carrying me over the threshold?’  Justin pondered.

Brian noted his bewildered look.  “It’s part of the agreement,” he whispered.  “Isn’t this what you always fantasized about, Justin?”

“Sure it is,” Justin sweetly moaned.

“And, besides,” Brian suggested.  “This place is almost as much a paradise as the other place.  So, that’s why I thought of it and decided we should finish out the other week of our honeymoon here, and we don’t have to worry about anyone arresting or lynching us while we do.  In fact, we can have even more fun here than on the island.  Wait until you see the horse stables, tennis, basketball and golf courts, pools, etc., etc., etc., and anything else your heart desires!   What do you say, Justin?”  Brian licked his lips.

“I say… thank you so much, Brian; and do you mind if we christen this place ourselves by naming it?”

“Huh?  Naming it?  Are you kidding?  We are only going to be here for a week, and what would we possibly name it anyway?”

“Britin,” Justin appeared to come up with a name just that quickly.  However, that name’s been inside his head since the day he drew the sketch.

“Who?  What?  Brighten… why that?  Is there some underlying meaning there… or something?”

“Not, Brighten, Brian, but B-r-i-t-i-n,” Justin spelled it out for him.

“Huh?”  Brian shook his head, “Now that is even more puzzling?”

“Oh, don’t you get it, Brian?  It’s the first three letters of your name and the last three letters of my name.”

“Yeah, you would come up with something like that… just like right out of the blue you named my empire Kinnetic.  But let me get you inside; you’re becoming quite heavy against my bosom.”  However, Brian wasn’t necessarily referring to Justin’s physical weight.

“Well?”  Justin asked again.

“Well… what?”

“The name, Brian… Britin?  Do you like it?”

“Sure, whatever you wish, Justin.  It is still your honeymoon, but like I said we only have the place for such a short moment, so why even bother naming it?”

“Because one year in itself it such a short time, Brian.  And, I don’t want to waste an even second of it.”

“Well, in that case, Justin… suit yourself… Britin it is.”  Brian then carried Justin over the threshold and settled his feet down on the floor, and then he looked around the place and stretched his arms out to the sides.  “Hi, Britin,” he then delightfully teased.

“Fuck!  It’s all furnished!  How did you manage this in such a short time, Brian?  You have to have done this even before you knew our honeymoon inside the Caribbean would be cut short.  I can’t believe you arrange all this during that short period I slept on your jet.”

“Oh, why can't you believe it… why not, Justin?  I have plenty of money, and by now you should know how quickly money gets things done.”

“Yeah, right,” Justin said and decided not to press the issue any further.  However, he noticed that Brian didn’t exactly answer his question, but rather talked around it instead.  He made up his mind that he would snoop around later and look for the lease.  However, Justin would never find it.  So, he might never know where, how or how long ago Brian had acquired his dream house.  

However, Justin thought Brian was as SWEET as he was right – IT WAS THE PERFECT SPOT TO LIVE OUT THE REST OF THEIR HONEYMOON!