Better Friends and Lovers

Chapter 2

(Setting:A Luxury Suite at the Westin Hotel; POV/Daphne)

"This is sooooo fabulous, Cynthia, I cannot believe what Justin and Brian arranged for Daphne's birthday! Girls' night tonight, spa day tomorrow, then dinner and dancing to the wee hours tomorrow, what a birthday treat to arrange! Well, I mean, who are we kidding here, the treat Justin arranged for our favorite little fag hag's birthday...or should that be Dr. Fag Hag?"

Emmett, flamboyant as usual, in shades of spandex only he could carry off, bounced into the large Westin suite that had been reserved for my birthday weekend, followed by Ted, who trod somberly in his friend's chartreuse and hot pink wake, carrying Emmett's overnight bag and a few gaily wrapped packages.

"Happy birthday, Daph! Many more, sweetheart." He pecked me on the cheek and gave me one of the boxes. I gave him a big hug, "thanks, Ted," then I punched Emmett in the shoulder.

"Hey, what was that for? My gift is there too, sweetie!" The lanky Queen laughed at me as he twirled me around, pulling me off my feet, which, of course, got me laughing.

"For assuming Justin had anything to do with this, you ass," I caught Ted's eye, and he ruefully shrugged, saying,

"What can I say, old habits die hard."

"What? Of course it was Justin's idea. Or Cynthia's." Emmett beamed at the blonde, who had met us at the suite, looking gorgeous as usual. "Although I'm sure Brian was happy to pay for it. I'd be the first to say that Brian doesn't begrudge money...." Emmett's voice started to trail off, as he looked from face to face and Cynthia and I started to giggle. Ted just stood there shaking his head at him as though he'd grown a second ass, this one located on top of his neck. Ted pulled Emmett's now red face down to his lips, and stage-whispered in his ear, "shut up, Em. Take a deep breath, and start over with, Happy Birthday, Daphne. And if you see Brian anytime soon, you just might want to say 'thank you, Brian, for thinking of me.'"

Still laughing at Emmett's confused face, Cynthia and I ran to bounce on the thick, white, down comforter on the large four-poster in the master bedroom that was a Westin trademark. I loved the big fluffy bathrobes that were in the closets. Cynthia assured me I could keep one; its cost would just be added to the bill. The hotel was so used to people stealing them, they now just invited people to take them and noted that they would be charged if they did. Cynthia assured me Brian knew I would love the robe and counted on me keeping it. It would come in handy since my apartment was freezing in the winter!

The three-bedroom suite had a fully stocked bar and ample refreshments. In the living room area were two dozen beautifully arranged yellow roses, as well as a few Magnums of champagne, chilling. These were my traditional birthday offerings from Brian: the roses were always yellow to symbolize friendship; a fact that I once explained to him during a drunken discourse on the significance of the color of the roses that one gives. He was fascinated, and his interest caused me to continue to explain that in a by-gone age of romance, men and women could send complex messages just by the flowers they sent and wore, with certain flowers meaning certain things. One could accept or reject a man's advances without a word being spoken if both understood the language of flowers.

Brian, of course, loved the idea of no words having to be said. Any form of non-verbal communication between lovers interesting him greatly! I remember the day I told him how my interest in the subject had been piqued by a passage in my favorite book, Jo's Boys, by Louisa May Alcott. As we made short work of the champagne, I thought back to that afternoon, years earlier, one of many I used to spend with Brian and Justin.

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(Flashback: Three Years Earlier, the Loft; POV/Daphne)

"Don't you mean Little Women? I thought all good little girls loved Little Women? God knows Emmett does." Brian leaned back and put his bare feet up on my lap, smirking his silent request for a foot rub.

I complied, knowing that with Brian, a good foot rub would be reciprocated, and man, could he reciprocate. I squirmed a little just thinking about it. He laughed at me, and I blushed; I swear he could read my mind sometimes, but it was okay, because he was never mean about it. He knew I had a crush on him, and he indulged me just enough to make it fun. It helped to take my mind off Justin. Ever since we had slept together and he had accused me of getting "weird" I had been very careful never to cross any lines, imaginary or otherwise. So I never initiated any hugs, or, God forbid, kisses, and yet, I missed our old closeness, especially the touching that used to be so much a part of our friendship.

Brian helped make up for that. Justin always complained that Brian didn't say enough, but it seemed to me, you didn't have to put things into words with Brian, he always seemed to know when you were feeling a little left out, or awkward, and made it okay. If you were in the way, he told you, so if he didn't tell you, you knew it was okay to stay, like today. If he wanted to be fucking Justin instead of watching movies and hanging out with Justin and me, there would be no doubt about it in anyone's mind. When Justin was with Ethan, I never knew where I stood, so the end result was, I never hung out with them. The same thing with the touching, I knew there was no way Brian would ever be sexually attracted to a woman, but the truth was, a foot massage from Brian Kinney was better than sex with most of the guys I've slept with. For someone who was so closed off emotionally, Brian was very tactile with the people he cared about. Which meant that I was one of those people he cared about, I thought happily as I started his foot rub.

"No silly, Little Women came first, then Little Men, which tells what happened next, after Jo married the professor, and Laurie married Amy, and Meg married John, and Beth died, which was so sad, I cried of course. In Little Men, John dies, which is another tear stained chapter, and Jo opens a school for boys which Laurie helps fund, and they take in a bad boy, kind of like you, with a heart of gold, and he is misunderstood, again like you. He is handsomer and braver than all the other boys...."

"Oh my God, again like me! Louisa May Alcott wrote about fags?" Brian wiggled his toes at me suggestively, which you wouldn't think someone could do, but trust me, they can. He really does have the sexiest feet.

"No," I giggled, "I don't think so, though now that you mention it, there was another boy that he, Dan, that is, takes under his wings...."

"Is he blond and beautiful?" Brian asked, tongue in cheek, but interested despite himself, I could tell.

I giggled again. "No, he is small and dark and a gifted fiddler." I tickled his feet as he pretended to kick me in the stomach.

"Shush!" Justin turned. "Come on, you two, this is the good part."

"Shush, Daphne, this is the good part, I always wondered what was the fucking good part of this movie and after watching it a million times and never seeing it, I sure as hell don't want to miss it now!" Brian mockingly chided me. We laughed and Justin threw a pillow at us. Brian pulled me around so that he had my feet in his lap for my turn. From a side table, he pulled out this awesome smelling lotion to use, which, of course, made me realize that I forgot to use any lotion since I was so into his feet. His feet never smelled bad ... I wondered if that was a benefit of always wearing expensive shoes? There's one more reason to buy Ferragamo or Prada when I can afford them, I decided.

I whispered to him, "so then, in the third book, my favorite, Jo's Boys, the boys are all grown up and it tells what happens to them. The tomboy girl becomes a doctor and never marries, "

"Like our little Daphne," Brian interjected again, with a smile.

"Well, yeah, this was really radical for a children's book in those days, not as much when I was growing up, but it was done so much better by Alcott because she was so real about it. And she herself never married and had a career so she was believable in writing that a woman could be happy without a man. That girl always had a kind of crush on the bad boy, but the bad boy, Dan, falls desperately in love with Laurie and Amy's daughter Beth, who is depicted as a beautiful blonde angel, who just happened to be a gifted artist."

Brian cocked an eyebrow skeptically at my description of this plot point but didn't say anything. I insisted, "no really, she is, I'm not making this up, her mother, the youngest Little Woman, Amy, had been an artist too, but the daughter was much more gifted. I didn't even think of all of these coincidences until I started telling you. Anyway, even though Dan is smart and talented and making something of himself, as a naturalist out West, because he is not from a rich family, and," I couldn't help giggling at this next point, "he is much older, about twelve years older, I think...."

Brian hit me with a pillow, but let me continue while he went back to massaging my feet.

"He believes he will never be good enough for her. He believes he is tainted by his bad blood. This is a feeling her family shares, by the way, when they learn of his love by accident, so even though he deeply loves her and there are hints that she could love him, he leaves without ever declaring his love, which is the saddest thing, because you just know that if he did declare himself, she would probably go against her family for him and be the making of him."

"The making of him?" Brian asked.

"Well, he had a really bad temper that he still had trouble controlling. In fact, he did time in jail for manslaughter; it was justified because he was defending someone weaker but he didn't have a good lawyer. And if he had not had a bad temper he probably wouldn't have killed the man. So, there was always that fear in his heart that he would be like his father, an evil man, and not like the good people who had loved him and raised him. So, he is told to let the unrequited love of Beth be the 'making of him,' by inspiring him to be a better man, even Jo tells him this, and she loves him like a mother." Debbie, I was thinking to myself.

"What happens?" Brian asked quietly.

"He dies a hero, saving a mine full of family men, using his incredible strength to hold up the mine shaft just long enough for the men to escape. But it collapsed before he could get out. Beth's picture was found on his body when it was recovered."

"And she marries a rich man and lives happily ever after." By this point, Brian was just lying there with his eyes closed, holding my feet tightly.

"No, Beth never married, either. She had a successful career as an artist, but never married." I really couldn't remember whether Beth married, but I decided to tell him that she didn't. He looked so sad.

"So no happy endings from Miss Alcott? No wonder the sequel was never made into a movie, let alone three times like Little Women was."

"Well, there is a happy love story too," I babbled on, trying to cheer him up. "Demi Brooks, Meg's son, who lost his father young, that was John, who died in the second book, remember? Well, Demi struggles to become a writer, while helping to support his mother and sisters. He loves a girl, who also is struggling to take care of her family. Think Mikey and Ben. And he's afraid to tell her he loves her because it will be years before he can ask her to marry and he doesn't think it fair to ask her to wait that long for him. And he doesn't even know if she loves him because women can't let a man know they're interested, because that would be too bold. But his younger sister tells him about the language of flowers as a way to tell him he loves her, and for her to answer without either one having to say anything."

"What the fuck is the language of flowers?" Brian asked, earning another shush from his blond, who was still enraptured with his movie.

So I went on to tell him about how not only the type of flower, but the color and stage the blossom was in, all meant something when a gentleman sent them to his romantic interest. A lady could signify her interest or lack thereof in a particular gentleman by wearing his floral offering over a competitor's. If the lady were very popular, there would be many offerings and only the man in question would know that his were chosen. In the book, it was subtler. Demi, with much prodding from his little sister, sent three roses, all of them red, which meant love, with a note telling her to let him know by which one she wore, whether her heart was his. The roses were a bud, a rose that had half blossomed, and one that was in full bloom. As I mentioned, it had been years since I had last read the book, so I wasn't sure of the finer points of the plot, but in essence, I explained that if his true love wore none of his offerings, he had no hope, if she wore the bud, it meant that he had a little hope, the half blossoming rose was that much more hopeful, and of course, the last one meant that her love was in full bloom as well. After much heart burning angst, the girl in the story wore all three and Demi had his happy ending. I decided not to tell Brian that Demi's twin sister Daisy ended up with the Fiddler. Some things were better left unsaid.

Of course, Justin missed the whole significance when Brian sent him flowers the next time he had to wear a formal suit to a gallery opening. He thought they were just flowers. But they weren't. They were three red roses, one closed bud, one half open, and one beautiful, fully opened one. He put them in a vase, complaining that the florist should have made sure that they were all ready to be vased. He even teased Brian for not springing for a full dozen. Brian should have known that when "Yellow Submarine" is on, Justin doesn't pay attention to anything else. Luckily, I was there, so I grabbed the full one out of the vase, and stuck it in Justin's buttonhole before the boys left for the art show. Brian saw me do it, and gave me that tongue in cheek smirk of his. But the next day, I received a dozen yellow roses at my apartment. With no card, of course. None was needed. Ever since then, Brian has sent me yellow roses on my birthday, and on every special occasion of my life, without fail. Yellow roses, for friendship.

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(Setting: Present: Westin Hotel: POV/ Daphne)

The four of us were sprawled on the floor in various degrees of disarray, amidst the remains of the bottles of bubbly as well as various room service delicacies that Emmett had personally selected. I related the story of the flowers to the guys.

"I can't believe that Brian then went out and bought the complete works of Louisa May Alcott!" Emmett exclaimed.

"He didn't!" Cynthia laughed, "He had me buy them in my name over the Internet! It isn't easy finding Jo's Boys, I'll have you know! You have to special order it, plus he wanted a matching set. After he read them, he had me give them my nephew. He said they were excellent reading for a gay boy. And yes, Em, before you ask, he is. By the way, Daph, Bri said liked Eight Cousins the best. He said at least three of the eight were gay."

"Really? I have to re-read it! I counted only two! No wonder Rose had such a hard time choosing one to marry, and the one she did pick was questionable." We both started giggling again.

"Not only that, he came up with a brilliant ad campaign based on Little Women for one of our clients who was marketing a line of products for young teens. It won a Clio! It was called 'What's Your Style?' and had ads featuring models based on Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy."

"I know," I nodded. "He insisted on giving me a bonus from it, saying I gave him the idea. It's paying for two years of medical school, plus my car. He also had the client give me a complete set of the Jo products, clothes and all, saying I was beyond question the quintessential Jo."

"I took the test and I was an Amy," Cynthia grinned.

"I always wanted to be an Amy, but nothing came in my size," Emmett pouted. Cynthia and I fell to the floor, giggling again.

Ted poured the last of the champagne around, then looked at us.

"Okay, now that the giggling has recommenced, I think it is my time to depart, as I try to get the image of Brian reading children's fiction, and female children's fiction, at that, out of my head. But, before I leave you ladies to your pampering, a toast, to the lovely Daphne, and to her benefactor, and quite frankly, ours, if we all were ever to admit it, which we won't, at least not in front of him because it would probably give him hives ... to Brian"

"To Daphne and Brian." Cynthia and Emmett chimed in enthusiastically, as I beamed happily.

"Why Daphne dear, did we get engaged and I missed the part where you knocked me up?"

Turning to the doorway suddenly, we all sort of stumbled and stared stupidly, as people do who have drunk a large amount of alcohol in a short time. There was the immaculate Mr. Kinney staring at us from the doorway of the suite, smirk in place, one eyebrow raised up halfway to the ceiling. He came into the room, continuing in a bored tone.

"I do hope the beauty treatments haven't started yet, because if they have, Emmett, we must get a refund on yours. Daphne and Cynthia, you two look lovely as always, if a bit rumpled, never a bad look for a lovely woman, or fuckable man, which leaves you out, Ted. Frankly, you are getting a little long in the tooth to carry it off at all, so if you are still going to Woody's with me tonight, I suggest you head home to freshen up first." He tossed a rolled up newspaper down onto a side table.

The handsome Prince had arrived, looking as though someone had ground the glass slipper up in his Jim Beam.

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