A-VAIL-ABLE

The guys looked worn out on this particular evening as they settled themselves down quietly in front of their just-lit fake fireplace. And they knew they were tired. And they knew why they were tired too.

“Ya know, Sweetheart,” Brian wondered as he circled the kid with his arm. “Maybe it would be best if we didn’t sit here very long tonight. The flight home from Vail was long and late and….”

“But we haven’t sat in front of this fireplace for almost a week either, Brian,” Justin interrupted. “And I missed doing that – and I thought you did too…”

“Which is why I specified a room with a fireplace for us in Vail,” Brian recalled. “And we sat and watched real flames in that real fireplace every night we were there – so…”

“But that was not our own fireplace, Bri,” Justin reasoned in the way of interruption. “It – like - didn’t know us at all – and real fireplaces have to worry about burning and they don’t have time to worry about us like fake fireplaces…”

“Next time I’ll specify a room with a fake fireplace, Baby,” Brian laughed. “Or maybe we could take this one along with us. I wonder what the extra charge on the plane would be. Bet they don’t get many fake fireplaces at the baggage check-in.”

“OK, Kinney,” Justin complained. “If you’re gonna make a joke about this we can just turn our fireplace off and…”

“Nah,” Brian decided. “I don’t really think that would be such a good idea at all – nope – not a good idea -not if you really want to…”

“So what did you like best about our trip to Vail, Brian?” Justin – feeling he had won his point – wanted to know.

“You first, Honey,” Brian demurred. “What did you like most about the trip?”

“Well your presentation to the convention was really the high point of the trip, Bri,” Justin told him. “You are really getting nationally known among advertisers – like even – famous – and you deserve it too. Maybe you should like – think about opening a New York office where you’d be more – visible…”

“If I had a New York office, Baby,” Brian replied, “I’d have to spend some time in New York and some time here – and we might be separated every once in a while when you couldn’t come to Gotham with me….”

“I’d try to come all the time, Bri,” Justin countered. “But I just think you’re not doing as well as you could be if you had that New York office ….”

“I’m busy enough right here, Baby,” Brian told him. “And I don’t need to be famous either. We don’t need any more money – and if we expanded I’d have to spend more time at work and maybe we wouldn’t have as much time together. I guess we could have a fake fireplace both here and there though – but then maybe the fireplaces wouldn’t like the competition and…”

“Well you’re probably right, BK,” Justin acknowledged. “But you really should be famous and I’d like for you to be famous and I think that….”

“I really don’t need to be famous, Baby,” Brian pointed out. “You’re gonna be the famous one around here. You’re certainly moving up in the art world. You can be famous for the both of us. I’d like that….”

“Well I guess I wouldn’t mind being famous all that much, Bri,” Justin considered. “But….”

“Ricky and Robert and Shawn are famous, Baby,” Brian warned the kid. “And you’ve seen what their life is like. Would you want all those crazy fans chasing you everywhere you went – like they have to put up with?”

“I don’t think I’d like to have to sneak around everywhere like they do, Bri,” Justin said. “But artists don’t get the same kind of crazy fans that performers do. We don’t attract the lunatic fringe. Like – people just walk up to us at our exhibits and tell us how much they like our work – and that kind of high-class stuff….”

“And they don’t hide under your table in restaurants?” Brian laughed, “Or like – snap your picture when you’re blowing your nose – and post it in fan magazines or on the internet? Or maybe even tear your clothes off?”

“Nope,” Justin laughed. “Not usually anyhow – art connoisseurs aren’t like that - but maybe if you yourself wanted to…”

The conversation tailed off at this point – as Brian considered just what exactly he did want – and he did figure it out – but that took considerable time - and strangely enough he didn’t feel all that tired any more either. But - eventually - the discussion did resume – and back where it started too.

“I think my favorite part of the trip was the skiing, JT,” Brian reopened the discussion. “Abe and Malcolm showed me some tricks and…”

“And you behaved yourself better on the slopes than you usually do too, BK,” Justin finished Brian’s sentence in a way Brian had not intended. “That made it easier on me. I don’t think you wanted to break your neck with those guys watching.”

“Oh I don’t know about that, Babe,” Brian squeezed the twink next to him. “They’d be a lot more sympathetic and understanding than you would ever be. They know all about fun….”

“And I don’t know anything about fun, Bri?” Justin grinned. “I’ll remember that when…”

“Like you ever forget anything, Sweetheart,” Brian grinned back at him. “And you know what too – I can live with that. Sorry Kiddo, but you don’t scare me at all. I’ve seen all of your tricks and I guess I know some tricks of my own I can use….”

“You do indeed,” Justin conceded before laughingly changing the subject just a little. “I think you enjoyed the skiing better this time because you weren’t the worst skier around, Kinney. Brandon is pretty bad – and Jason is worse. I heard you tell them that you loved skiing with them so much that you hoped they’d come along every time you went skiing. They didn’t know what you really meant – but I did – and so did Abelard and Malcolm.”

“So I can’t even say something nice to our good friends without you blaming me for being nasty?” Brian posited. “Geez, Sunshine, Brandon and Jason are our friends so why wouldn’t I want to go skiing with them?”

“Like maybe for the same reason that when Jason suggested us getting together with them for dinner tomorrow night,” Justin remembered, “you said we couldn’t because we had something else planned – and we didn’t have anything else planned at all.”

“So maybe there’s such a thing as too much of a good thing, Twink,” Brian defended himself. “I think there just might be.”

“And do you think that there can be too much of a good thing for every single good thing in the world?” Justin teased him.

“Well maybe I had something planned for tomorrow night that you didn’t know about, Taylor,” Brian moved backward in the conversation as he ran his fingers through Justin’s blond tresses. “Maybe you just don’t know everything I have planned for tomorrow night?”

“Well then I guess,” Justin seemed to agree - as he coyly insinuated himself closer to the guy next to him, “I’ll just have to wait patiently till tomorrow night to find out what it is that you have planned…”

“Well maybe you won’t,” Brian predicted – and Justin decided that maybe Brian did know all his tricks - but they still worked anyway – and that was good enough for Justin.
 

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