Square Deal

The fire was lit. The guys were already in place - watching it flicker away. Things in the loft were absolutely normal - absolutely, absolutely normal.

“And just when were you planning to tell me about this?” Brian was complaining perhaps.

“Gee whiz, Brian,” Justin seemed to be explaining. “I guess I was planning to tell you tonight. That’s why I told you tonight. I don’t think I’d have told you tonight if I was planning to tell you tomorrow. And it’s like three weeks away so it’s not like I was keeping something from you. You know I wouldn’t ever do a thing like that.”

“What I mean is how long have you known about it and didn’t tell me till now?” Brian rephrased, non-grammatically. “And you knew exactly what I was asking too, Twink. How long?”

“Well I guess I first heard about it maybe two weeks ago,” Justin admitted, “But I didn’t know all the details and I knew you’d want to know all the details so I didn’t want to tell you till I did know all the details.”

“And both Ted and Melanie are on the committee for this debacle,” Brian demanded. “And you didn’t know all the details till now?”

“Well neither did they, Bri,” Justin defended himself. “There’s a lot of things to plan, Brian, and the committee had some decisions to make. That stuff was only all done a couple of days ago.”

“So you only kept this a secret from me for a couple of days then?” Brian surmised. “Why any delay at all?”

“Maybe I was hoping that Ted or Melanie would tell you first,” Justin offered a possibility. “You see Ted like every day at the office. I thought maybe he’d want to tell you.”

“Hey, Baby,” Brian had to laugh. “Did you really think anybody was about to tell Brian Kinney about this – anybody but you, I mean? That’s pretty funny. You should have known none of them would. It’s you who always gets stuck with delivering any bad news.”

“Well funny things sometimes happen, Bri,” Justin laughed too. “And a guy can always hope, can’t he?”

“And I guess you hope I’m going to go to this affair too?” Brian was still laughing. “I bet you do.”

“Darn it, Brian Kinney,” Justin quit laughing. “You know I never want you to do anything you don’t want to do. And I don’t think you should do anything you don’t want to do either. I’d like to go for at least a little while though – so if you decide you don’t want to go, I guess I’ll ask your permission to go by myself. But please let me finish telling you all the stuff you need to know before you decide not to go with me.”

Brian didn’t answer right away. He was sitting there with a bemused look on his face, gazing at the flickering flames in the fireplace. Somehow or other the pause got extended for a time – which seemed satisfactory to both of the discussants. But the discussion itself was certainly not over.

“OK, Sweetheart,” Brian eventually broke the silence. “There’s gonna be a square dance at the Gay and Lesbian Center. A damn square dance – who the hell ever thought that up? And Ted and Melanie are on the committee. Now what details do I need to know before I decide I don’t want to go to a square dance?”

“Well it’s for charity, Bri,” Justin told him. “For kids with AIDS. The Center is just trying to help the kids who need help.”

“And you think it’s a good idea to have a charity event that nobody will come to?” Brian wondered. “And you think that will help those kids?”

“The planners figure they can sell 500 tickets, Bri,” Justin informed him. “There is a large square dancing community in town, and there aren’t all that many square dances scheduled either.”

“Geez,” Brian was astonished. “If they can draw 500 crazy square dancers, nobody’ll miss me.”

“I will,” Justin pointed out. “And other people will too. Gus will.”

“Gus?” Brian was even more astonished. “What’s going on with Gus? What will he be doing at a square dance?”

“Playing a little hoe-down fiddle music,” Justin replied. “If it’s OK with you, that is. It’s really all up to you – like it always is. If you say ‘no’ then….”

“Cut it out, Twink,” Brian grinned at him. “Nothing is ever up to me and you know it too. You’re a planning committee of one whose only purpose is to see that nothing is ever up to me.”

“Now that’s really unfair, Brian,” Justin protested only mildly. “You know that’s not true – and I didn’t have anything at all to do with them asking Gus to play the fiddle. But he really wants to do it, Bri – and I think he wants to do it to impress you. That’s really why he wants to do it.”

“Baby,” Brian was smiling. “When you set a trap you really set a trap. But before I say I’ll go, is this shindig gonna be fancy dress – I hope not?”

“Well maybe you could wear a flannel shirt with jeans, Bri,” Justin suggested. “You’ve already got the jeans and maybe we could go to the mall and get you a nice flannel shirt….”

“There are no nice flannel shirts, Sweetheart, and I am not going to any mall to get any flannel shirt either,” Brian stated emphatically. “You go and get it. Just don’t take Emmett with you. And don’t take Jason with you either – or me and Brandon will be wearing the same damn shirt, I bet.”

“Gee whiz, Kinney,” Justin smiled back. “Ever the clothes horse – worried that somebody else will have the same flannel shirt. I’ll take Malcolm with me and we’ll try to get you a designer label, one-of-a-kind flannel shirt. Only the very best for Brian Kinney.”

“I know I can depend on you,” Brian told him with a trace of irony. “I wonder if you already have the shirt bought. Wouldn’t be surprised at all if you did. But what the hell are we gonna do at the dance except to hear Gus on his fiddle? We can’t square dance. We don’t know a do-si-do from a fa-si-do. And we don’t know anybody to teach us either – not that I want to learn. I come from the big city, you know.”

“You know what, Bri,” Justin spoke slowly. “Actually I did a little bit of square dancing at St. James. There was this square dance club….”

“And you were the damn president and the top dancer too,” Brian grinned as he posited an end to Justin’s sentence. “And you won several prizes for square dancing and you could have been a professional square dancer – if there were any such thing….”

“Cut it out, Brian,” Justin laughed at him. “I wasn’t the president but I guess I might have been the best square dancer in the club…. I could teach you the basic steps if you wanted to learn….”

“Well I don’t want to learn,” Brian was seeing the humor of the situation. “But if you want me to learn those steps, something tells me I just might change my mind – regardless of what I want. One more case where something is completely up to me, I don’t think.”

And the discussion fell into hiatus again - for an even longer time than previously – but the subject did come up again some time later.

“Is there anything else I need to know about this stellar evening, Baby?” Brian asked. “I sure hope not. It’s bad enough already”

“Just one more little thing, Bri,” Justin admitted cautiously. “They hired a professional caller but that’s a hard job and he’ll need a few breaks during the evening – so I’m gonna fill in for him a couple of times while he gets a little rest – just like about fifteen minutes a couple of times during the dance….”

“But didn’t you say you were going to ask my permission to go yourself if I didn’t go?” Brian asked him. “What if I had denied said permission?”

“Well I guess I wouldn’t have gone then, Honey,” Justin told him. “You’re the boss around here…. And Brian, you know I do appreciate your coming. I know you’re just doing it for me. I’m sorry if you don’t really want to go. I shouldn’t….”

“Baby,” Brian squeezed the kid. “You know what – I’ve decided I do want to go. I wouldn’t miss this thing for the world – but I’m not sure about doing any dancing….”

“Well, I guess that would be up to you, Sir,” Justin replied, snuggling himself closer to the other occupant. “But we could talk about it more tomorrow maybe.”

The fireplace blazed away for a considerable time after that final exchange – but this time the discussion did not resume. The guys had an unerring sense of what was important – and what wasn’t.

 

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