Mismatched

Things were a little different in the loft on this particular evening as the guys settled themselves down in front of their fake fireplace. The flames flickered as usual and Brian had his arms around the kid but there was a scowl on each of their faces.

"Sometimes you really get odd things into your mind, Baby," Brian was telling Justin. "And this is definitely one of them. I'd actually laugh at you but it would just make you mad and I don't need to do that."

"No you don't" Justin grudgingly agreed. "But I don't know why you had to take that crazy account in the first place."

"That's what I do, Honey," Brian explained with a smile. "I'm in advertising. My job is to help people sell their products - even if the products don't always work."

"Well your darn publicity acts like this particular product always works," Justin complained.

"Sunshine, you know damn well that's what I'm supposed to do," Brian tried to reason. "You don't sell a product by saying it doesn't work. You know the problem here might just be that you don't always mind your own business."

"That's not fair, Brian," Justin defended himself. "I was not nebbing into anybody's business. Actually I thought I was kind of helping. And it wouldn't have happened at all if you hadn't kept me waiting around your office for two hours."

"Baby," Brian pointed out. "I was out at a meeting. I did not know you were going to stop by so I can't see how I kept you waiting. And actually, Cynthia and I had decided, for some reason or other, not to tell you about this account, but you had to spend the two hours with Rodney, who is the worst intern we have ever had at Kinnetics. Big mouth Rodney, who, we think, makes eyes at you whenever you come into the office, Justin my dear."

"Don't try to change the subject, Kinney," Justin complained. "Rodney is a kind of dolt but Rodney is not the problem. The problem is True Love by Computer, which is a half-ass company if I ever heard of one."

"True Love by Computer is a business," Brian reminded him. "They have an advertising budget and they want to spend it with us. That's our business, Kiddo. I'm trying to help them sell their product. That's my job."

"And that's why you filled out their screening questionnaire, I guess," Justin griped.

"Yep," Brian told him. "That's why I filled out their screening questionnaire. Everybody in the office filled out the questionnaire so we would get a feel for what we were trying to sell. We did not submit those questionnaires to the computer though. Nobody was looking for a love match, Baby. Nobody in the office was looking for anybody. Some of us thought we had found the right person all by ourselves. That's what I thought. We just did the questionnaires for the experience of doing it. And it was helpful in developing the campaign, which also by the way has definitely improved sales for TLBC."

"Well I don't see how filling out the questionnaire would be such a help," Justin insisted.

"Then Baby," Brian came back at him, "I wonder just why you convinced stupid Rodney to let you fill out the questionnaire?"

"Maybe just to see what you were up to?" Justin posited. "And maybe to pass the time while I was patiently waiting for you."

"That could be. Then maybe you'd like to go on and explain why you convinced moony Rodney to submit your questionnaire to the computer?" Brian argued. "And then got him to submit my questionnaire too so you could see what came out."

"Well I didn't think the computer would say we were incompatible," Justin groused. "It said we were a mismatch."

Brian had to laugh. "I guess it's a good thing we found out in time, Sweetheart," Brian inferred. "We might have lived together very happily for sixty years or more and never even suspected that we were incompatible."

"Cut it out, Kinney," Justin insisted. "I have no intention of giving you up just because we're mismatched. I love you even if we are incompatible."

"Then what the hell are you grouching about, Taylor?" Brian asked. "What do you want me to do?"

"I want you to tell me you love me," Justin told him.

"I love you," Brian told him back.

"I want you to mean it," Justin continued with a bit of impatience in his voice.

"I mean it," Brian said.

"Well act like it," Justin insisted.

Brian squeezed the kid and Justin's head fell onto Brian's shoulder.

It was a few minutes before Brian resumed the discussion only because he thought he had to. "Baby, there's another little thing you probably should know," Brian admitted. "There's a TV commercial coming out next month and I make a short appearance in it. I just flash onto the screen and say 'I found my true love on True Love by Computer.' Then I fade out. TLBC wanted me in the commercial. It was not my idea."

Brian was relieved when Justin began to laugh. "You liar," he told Brian. "You big liar. How could you say that? You found your true love under a lamp post outside of Babylon."

"Lamp posts outside of Babylon are not paying Kinnetics a nice fee," Brian explained. "Sometimes we advertisers have to stretch the truth a little."

"Well then, how do I know you really love me when you say that you do?" Justin wanted to know.

Brian smiled at him. "There's an old song called 'How can you believe me when I say I love you when you know I've been a liar all my life?'" he told the kid. "But I think you do know I love you whether I tell you I do or not."

"Yeah, I know," Justin admitted. "Even if we are incompatible and mismatched."

"Baby," Brian told the kid. "Us advertisers are born liars but I got to tell you the truth this once. There's an envelope over by your computer for you to look at. I had Cynthia run your TLBC profile through the computer with Rodney's. You guys are perfectly suited to each other. So …."

"Cut it out Brian," Justin commanded as he silenced Brian by kissing him, all of which led to a prolonged halt in the conversation.

It was a while before Justin concluded the conversation for the night. "Bri," he said. "From now on, I think I'll call ahead every time I'm going to stop by your office."

"Good idea," Brian agreed. "And if you do just stop by and I'm not there, please don't wait for me."

And the evening's discussion must have worked out well enough for the guys. Afterwards, Brian and Justin seemed more compatible than True Love by Computer would have expected, and they didn't seem mismatched at all.

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