Anything Goes - Part 12:
Nobody Said It Was Easy
Justin was sitting on the couch, making final changes to his drawing when he heard the door open. Turning around, he was greeted by his roommate walking through the door and another man following him.
“What are you doing home in the middle of the day?” the artist asked, putting his pencil aside.
“Oh, I forgot a CD I need for the presentation,” Nick explained.
Justin eyed the stranger carefully.
“Oh, right,” Nick seemed to remember his manners. “Rob, this is my roommate Justin. Justin, this is Rob. He works at the art department.”
Justin smiled. “Nice to meet you.”
“Yeah, you too,” Rob replied as Nick rummaged through the stack of papers and disks on the desk in the corner of the room.
“Would you like something to drink?” Justin asked, playing the good host.
“No, thank you,” the other man replied.
Feeling good that his mother wouldn’t be disappointed in his manners, Justin picked up the pencil once again, returning his attention to the sketchbook still lying in his lap.
“These are really good.”
The artist looked over at Rob who was admiring the drawings on one of the walls.
“Who’s the artist?” the man asked.
“He’s right behind you,” Nick said, returning to the living room.
Rob turned around, staring at Justin in disbelief. “Really? Wow. They’re very impressive.”
The teen in turn blushed, offering the man a shy smile. “Thank you.”
“You do it professionally?”
“No. Not yet, anyway.”
“Justin’s a sophomore at PIFA,” Nick offered since Justin was obviously humble enough not to blow his own horn.
“PIFA? Really? That’s a great school.”
Justin smiled again. “Yeah. It’s tough, but I like it.”
Rob nodded, lost in his own little world for a moment. “You know, our department is looking for interns. Would you be interested?”
Justin’s eyes grew wide. Now it was his turn to stare at the man in disbelief. “Really?”
“I could show a couple of your works to my boss. I’m sure he’d love to meet with you.”
Justin was speechless. Things were never that easy for him. Never. And this job…would be…perfect. “Yes. That would be great.” He quickly rose from the couch, going to his room to retrieve his portfolio.
~~~***~~~***~~~
His mouth was dry and he could feel his heart pounding in his ears. “I’m nervous. Why am I so nervous?”
Slinging a tie that he chose around Justin’s neck, Brian shrugged. “Fuck if I know. They’d have to be fucking morons not to hire you.”
Justin smiled at his lover who was currently concentrating on tying his tie. He called Brian almost in panic earlier because he couldn’t decide what to wear to the interview. Instead of telling him to fuck off as Justin half-expected him to do, Brian showed up at his doorstep with breakfast, coffee, and a number of ties in less than half an hour. “Students like me are dime a dozen.”
Finishing with the tie, Brian’s eyes moved up Justin’s face. Raising Justin’s chin with his fingers, Brian stared into the teen’s eyes. “No, there aren’t. And stop thinking like that. Interview is just like an ad. You’re selling yourself. Not what you know or how you can do it. No. You. Your personality. And I know for a fact that you can charm the pants off anybody.”
Justin snickered. “I don’t think it’s that kind of interview, Brian.”
Brian gave him a stern look, but the smile creeping up his face gave him away. “Brat.”
Justin smiled wide at him once again, taking a step back. “So, how do I look?” He held his breath as his lover carefully looked him up and down.
“Not bad,” Brian concluded.
With one last deep breath, Justin followed Brian out the door.
~~~***~~~***~~~
Three hours later Justin found himself sitting in a café across the street from the building where he had his interview, willing his cell phone to ring.
“You know, when I had my interview, they didn’t call me back for two days.”
Justin looked up at Nicholas, who was sipping his second cup of coffee, wondering how the other man could intake so much caffeine. If he had even one sip, his head would probably explode from the tension. He thought the interview went well, but then again, it was his first. He had nothing to compare it to. And no matter how much prepping Nick and Brian did, he felt like a complete idiot sitting in the office answering his would-be boss’s questions.
“I don’t think I’ll survive two days of not knowing,” he said somberly, staring down at the phone that still remained quiet.
“Justin, it’s not the end of the world. Even if you don’t get it.”
Justin’s eyes shot up. “You think I won’t get it, don’t you?”
Nick blew out a puff of air. “I said IF you don’t get it. Man, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this tense before.”
Justin knew his friend was right. He was stressing out over something that was out of his control now. He did his best. Now all he could do was sit there and wait. Inhaling deep and then exhaling slowly, he managed a smile. “You wanna get out of here?”
Nick nodded, reaching in his pocket for the wallet.
Just then the phone rang, making both men jump. Justin felt all the tension he released just moments before rushing back. His hands shaking, he answered the phone.
~~~***~~~***~~~
“I got it!”
Brian pulled the phone away from his ear, wondering how much loud high-pitch sounds added to hearing loss. “Justin?”
“Yes. I got it!”
“What did you get?”
“The job, asshole. What else?”
Brian put the report he was going over down and leaned back in his chair. “You sound surprised.”
“And you’re not?”
Brian smiled. He never knew it was possible to be this proud of another person’s achievements. “Of course not. I told you they’d be morons not to hire you, remember?”
He heard Justin chuckle on the other end. “I guess you were right.”
“Aren’t I usually?” he smirked.
There was a pause and it only made Brian smile wider.
“Well, how about you help me celebrate just how right you were?” Justin asked.
“What do you have in mind?”
“I don’t know. Go out? Go dancing?”
Even though Justin’s proposition did have its good points, this occasion called for something a little less ordinary. “I’ve got a better idea. How about we have dinner at some ridiculously expensive restaurant and then I fuck your brains out?”
He could clearly imagine the grin on his lover’s face. “That sounds like a plan,” Justin agreed.
“Good. Be ready at eight. And wear something…nice.”
“By nice you mean…”
“Something that didn’t come from GAP or Old Navy,” he clarified, sure that at this very moment the teen was rolling his eyes at the phone. “See you later, Sunshine,” he said in a mocking voice before ending the call.
~~~***~~~***~~~
At seven o’clock sharp Brian showed up at Justin’s doorstep. Ignoring the obvious likeness of this outing to a date, Brian rang the doorbell. He was greeted by his very cheery, very beautifully dressed lover.
“Hey,” Justin smiled at him, kissing him hello. “I’m almost ready.”
While Justin hurried off to put finishing touches on his outfit, Brian let himself in. After he closed the door, he walked over to the living room.
“So, big date tonight, huh?” Nick teased when Brian made himself comfortable on the couch next to him.
“Nick,” came a warming from the other side of the room.
Ignoring Nick’s mischievous grin and his boyfriend’s attempt at pretending it wasn’t what they both knew it was, Brian looked over his shoulder, watching his lover put on his shoes, noticing how the material of Justin’s pants fell freely, covering the blonde’s gorgeous ass. Brian wanted nothing more than to rip those pants off his lover right there and then and forget all the foolishness that came along with going on a “date”. Which they were NOT doing tonight. No, it was a celebration. Justin deserved to celebrate. And Brian’s dick would just have to wait until they were done “celebrating”.
“Ok, I’m ready,” Justin said, walking up to them. “Where are we going?”
“This Italian place that just opened up about a block away from work. I heard it’s pretty good,” Brian replied, rising from the couch.
“I love Italian,” Justin grinned.
Brian bit his lower lip in order not to smile. He knew it, of course, but he wasn’t about to give out that information to anybody, especially not Justin. It could come back and bite him in the ass. No. He needed to keep some secrets to himself. “Living with Deb certainly rubbed off on you,” he said instead, pushing the teen toward the door.
“See you later, Nick,” Justin threw over his shoulder as he made his way through the door.
“Have fun on your date,” Nick called out before Brian slammed the door shut.
~~~***~~~***~~~
An hour later he found himself watching Justin inhale a slice of Tiramisu, still amazed at how much food his lover could ingest in one sitting.
“This place is great,” Justin concluded. “We should come here some time.”
“We just did,” Brian replied with a smirk.
Sticking out his tongue, Justin rolled his eyes.
“Very mature,” the exec chuckled. “You know, you should learn some manners now that you’re one of us.”
“One of us?” Justin asked, amused.
“The corporate America,” Brian explained.
“Ahhh, yes. Well, who better to learn from than you?”
“Twat.”
He was greeted by another bright smile, before Justin stuffed the last piece of Tiramisu in his mouth.
“You ready to get out of here?” Brian asked. Getting a nod in a form of response, Brian waved for the check.
After paying the bill, the two men headed out with one objective in mind – getting to Brian’s loft and spending the rest of the night in bed, celebrating. Walking out the door, Brian wrapped his arms around the younger man from behind, leaning in to kiss his earlobe. The action caused Justin to giggle as he dropped his head back to capture Brian’s lips. Neither of them were watching where they were going and in the next moment they found themselves bumping into someone.
“Oh, sorry,” Justin quickly said as he and Brian tried to maneuver themselves around another couple.
“Justin?”
The two men froze at the familiar voice. Brian looked at Justin as the blonde pulled away from his embrace and turned around.
“Dad.”
Preparing himself for what was to come next, Brian turned around as well, moving to stand closer to Justin. He doubted that Craig Taylor would try to do anything in a crowded restaurant, but if he learned anything from previous encounters with the man was that he had a tendency to attack when you least expected.
Brian briefly glanced at the blonde woman who had her arm around Craig before fixing his eyes on his lover’s father. The four stared off for a moment.
Craig’s eyes darted from Justin to Brian to Justin again, noticeably becoming more and more agitated. “What are you doing with him?” he growled, breaking the silence, as he glared at Brian.
“Dad,” Justin moved forward.
“You said…you said you weren’t with him…you promised…you…”
Unable to meet his father’s eyes, Justin looked away.
“Everything you said…out of your life…what a joke…it was all a ploy to get the money, wasn’t it?” He looked at Brian. “He’s probably the one who came up with the plan to begin with. To get the money from your stupid, dimwitted father.”
“Dad, no,” Justin tried to explain, but his father was not paying attention.
“You’re a goddamn liar,” Craig spit out before bolting out of the restaurant, pulling his blonde companion after him.
They stood, almost frozen, staring off in the direction that Craig stormed off in for what seemed like hours. But it was mere minutes. Finally, Justin turned around, daring to look up at Brian.
Brian searched the teen’s face for a sign that what he heard Craig say wasn’t true, that what he had suspected for a few months now was just his paranoia. But the guilty look on his lover’s face only proved further that it wasn’t.
“No catch, huh?” Brian grit his teeth, trying to keep from lashing out on the teen. Instead he turned around, heading toward the jeep. Without looking back, he knew that Justin was following closely behind.
“Brian,” he heard Justin finally call him. “Please.”
Brian spun around, glaring at the young artist. “Please, what? Are you going to apologize? Going to tell me how sorry you are?”
Justin held his stare. “No,” he shook his head. “There’s no point.”
“You lied to me.”
Justin blinked, and Brian could see the tears that were threatening to burst out of the blue eyes. “I did.”
Brian was taken aback. He wasn’t sure how to deal with this Justin. He expected Justin to start apologizing, making up excuses for why he lied about his father until he found the one that would make Brian to forgive him this time. But Justin wasn’t doing that. He wasn’t begging and groveling. He knew he fucked up and he was admitting it, not looking for excuses.
Brian sighed, nervously running his hand through his hair. He didn’t know what to do. They didn’t have a manual for this. Was he supposed to just forgive and forget? He wasn’t sure he could do that. Not after everything they’d gone through the first time.
“How am I supposed to be with you if I can’t believe a word you say?”
Justin’s eyes glistened with the unshed tears as he searched Brian’s face for any sign that the ad exec could forgive him. He didn’t find any. Once again he was the one to mess things up. And this time he wasn’t sure it could be salvaged. “I don’t know,” he said, defeated, trying to keep his voice from breaking, to keep the last trace of dignity left in him.
Brian nodded, swallowing hard. “I don’t know either,” he said, his voice barely audible. He wanted to scream, he wanted to throw things around, he wanted to do something…anything except standing there watching Justin cast one last glance at him before taking a step backwards, then another, and another. He couldn’t believe this. How could this be happening? Less than ten minutes ago they were happy and everything was great, everything was perfect.
And now…now he had to watch Justin walk away from him once again.
Come up to meet you, tell you I'm sorry
You don't know how lovely you are
I had to find you
Tell you I need you
Tell you I set you apart
Tell me your secrets
And ask me your questions
Oh let's go back to the start
Running in circles
Coming in tales
Heads are a science apart
Nobody said it was easy
It's such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be this hard
Oh take me back to the start
I was just guessing
At numbers and figures
Pulling your puzzles apart
Questions of science
Science and progress
Do not speak as loud as my heart
Tell me you love me
Come back and hold me
Oh and I rush to the start
Running in circles
Chasing tails
And coming back as we are
Nobody said it was easy
Oh it's such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be so hard
I'm going back to the start
The Scientist by Coldplay
Go To Part 13