I’m in the process of helping this hopeless queen squeeze into a shirt two sizes too small, biting my tongue to keep myself from laughing at his horrible sense of style. I once told this old fart that he looked like…well, an old fart…and I nearly got fired for that. I learned my lesson well, so I keep quiet now. Why should I care if this poor soul wants to make a fool of himself. Anyway, I’m three seconds away from throwing my career in fashion away when I hear the door open. I turn around and see a beautiful blonde head pop in.
“Hey, Em.” Justin greets me with one of his smiles. Sunshine, as Debbie calls him. It is so appropriate for him.
“Sweetie!” I hop over to him and give him a big hug. “I haven’t seen you in forever.” Ok, ten days, but I wouldn’t be a drama queen if I didn’t exaggerate a little, now would I?
“Yeah, the last couple of weeks have been crazy,” he says as he pulls away from me. “I had three final projects that I had to do.”
“Oh, you look tired.” I ruffle his pretty blonde hair a little. “Why aren’t you at home getting some beauty sleep, since it’s a long weekend?”
“Thought I’d get some Christmas shopping done before the stores close today,” he responds as he starts looking through one of the racks.
“You have another month for that, honey. Go home, get some rest.”
“Actually, I only have two weeks.”
Excuse me? “Why is that?”
He turns around, his cheeks a little flushed. “I’m going away for a couple of weeks.” He just says it a matter-of-factly as he rummages through the hanging shirts.
“Where?” And why was I not aware of this.
He looks away. “Uhm…the Bahamas.”
“Ooh-la-la,” I singsong.
He turns to me and smiles again. That shy but bright smile that makes him look like he’s twelve years old.
“Did you inherit a trust fund or something?”
He snorts. “Yeah, right.”
“So, then how can you afford such an extravagant trip?” I still feel bad that I had to take those tickets to Italy back from him. I really wanted him to go there. To see all the famous artists. And, of course, the Italian men. Can’t forget that. The boy deserved it after everything he’s been through.
“I had some money saved up. And mom thought it’d be a good idea for me to get away, so it’s her early Christmas gift.”
“Wow, an expensive gift.”
“That’s what I said, so we agreed that it will also be my very early birthday present,” he adds.
Well, how can you not love this kid? He just won’t take handouts, no matter what. I must admit, I did not like him shaking his gorgeous bubble butt on the bar in Babylon back then, but I was proud of him for being a man. Just like Brian was, I’m sure. Oh, I know it killed Brian to let Justin do that. I mean, hello, we’re talking about Justin here. It couldn’t have been more obvious that he belonged to Brian if he had ‘Property of Brian Kinney’ tattooed on the aforementioned butt. But Brian let him do what he needed to do. And when he was ready, he asked for help. Thankfully. I don’t think I could have handled watching Justin up there for much longer.
Now, getting back to the more pressing matters at hand, “Who are you going with?”
He looks at me, then looks away quickly. Ah-ha.
“With a friend,” he says.
“A friend? Daphne?”
He shakes his head.
“Who?”
“Just a friend,” he blushes again, and I know that the guy is definitely not ‘just’ a friend.
“Oh, come on, tell me. Please,” I whine. I’ll beg and grovel if I have to. This is the juiciest gossip aside from Michael’s ‘Brian’s got a boyfriend’ idea that I’ve come across in a long time.
“Emmett, there’s nothing to tell.”
He’s good at the whole hiding-your-emotions thing. Brian taught him well. Neither of them showed any emotion whenever the other one was with somebody else. In fact, they never showed any emotion where the other one was concerned. No fights, no yelling, no tears. Nothing for the gossip queens like yours truly to get their hands on. Except this one time last fall. Justin’s tuition was due again and he stressed out for weeks, poor baby, about how he was going to pay for school. When once again his knight-in-shining-armor shows up at the diner waiving a check in front of him. We were all in awe that Brian would still be willing to pay for Justin’s education while Justin played house with the little fiddler. Ok, so Ethan wasn’t a favorite person of mine, so what? Anyway, Brian shows up and hands Justin the check. And everything goes on as usual. Right? Riiiight. Later that night I’m at Woody’s waiting for Teddy to finish up with the Tuesday Night special at the office when Justin shows up all red in the face. Turns out he went over to the loft to tell Brian to shove that check up his you know what. But somehow Mr. I-can-sell-anything was able to make Justin take the check. The poor boy was so upset then, afraid that everybody would think that he was using Brian for money or other stupid ideas like that. I did my best to calm him down, of course. And that was it. The next day they both acted as if nothing out of the ordinary happened. The only glimpse into their relationship. Or the lack there of.
They both seemed to move on. Or at least pretended to for our sake. Brian went back to what Brian does best. Fucking and sucking. Justin, on the other hand began a search for his prince. After the thing with Ethan went to hell, he jumped back into the scene right away. I can’t even count how many guys he’s ‘dated’ in the last year or so.
“Oh, come on, we always got to meet your boyfriends before. Why not this one?”
“Because he’s not my boyfriend,” he replies while pulling out a black shirt with a little red devil in the middle of it. “Anyway, I should go.”
He puts the shirt back and walks over to me, giving me a peck on the cheek while I still pout.
“Why don’t you bring him tonight?” I say.
“Bring who?”
We both turn around and stare at Mr. Label Queen himself.
“Hey,” Justin says. His face void of any emotion at all.
“Justin’s new boyfriend,” I reply to Brian’s question, since Justin is obviously not planning on doing so.
Brian’s eyebrow arches as he stares at the boy. Is that an emotion I’m seeing? From Brian? “That’s a good idea,” he says finally, so fucking nonchalantly I want to slap him a few times to knock some sense into his pretty little head.
Justin walks through the door that Brian’s holding open. I watch those two intently. I can’t see Justin’s expression very well since his back is turned to me, but I’m sure that there’s something going on there. I always noticed that they could have a whole conversation with each other without saying a word, which is not very helpful when you’re trying to figure out what they’re ‘talking’ about. But that’s exactly what’s going on right now.
“Bye, Em,” Justin says, turning to me briefly.
“See you tonight, baby,” I say back to him.
I notice a shirt that needs to be folded and am about to move from my spot when something interesting catches my eye. As Justin walks through the door his hand brushes against Brian’s. Nothing major. Just a slight touch. Almost unnoticeable to anybody else. Anybody else who isn’t me, of course.
No, that can’t be it. Can it? I mean, why wouldn’t they tell us if it was? Besides, I’m sure Justin wouldn’t be able to hide it from us. Or at least from Debbie. I mean, he lives with the woman. She’d know what was going on in his life. And if Debbie knows, everybody knows. That woman is almost as bad as I am. No. It definitely can’t be. I’m just looking for a little romance anywhere I can find. I shake my head and get back to folding the shirt.
“Hey, Versace, get over here.”
Brian’s standing by the same rack Justin was at a few minutes earlier.
I walk over there slowly. “Looking for something in particular, Bri?”
“Actually,” he pulls out the same shirt Justin was looking at and holds it out in front of him. But something else catches his eye as he looks up and he smiles. I mean, really smiles, like he forgot that I’m even here. He puts the shirt in his hand back and pulls out a white one with a gold semi-circle in the middle of it. “Here,” he hands it to me.
I look at the shirt. Definitely NOT something Brian Kinney would wear. “Gift receipt?”
He stares at me for a moment. The smile’s long gone by now. And just nods.
I guess Michael might be onto something.
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