Humanitarian of the Year

There was an air of anticipation in the loft as the guys settled in on the floor in front of the already blazing fireplace. Both of them knew what was coming but not a word on the particular anticipated subject had been uttered throughout an elaborate evening meal - just now completed. This was fireplace business if ever there was any.

Brian opened the awaited discussion with a warning. “You have a winning streak going, Sweetheart,” he told the blond twink sitting on his right. “So maybe you should change your plans for tonight. You might just be backing a loser this time ….”

“This is not about winning or losing, Mr. Kinney,” Justin replied. “It’s about doing the right thing – and you know I’m gonna do the right thing – in the hope that you will do the right thing too.”

“I’ve already told Cynthia what I’m going to do, Baby,” Brian pointed out. “I’ve already told Ted what I’m going to do. I’ve already told Brandon what I’m going to do….”

“But you have not told me what you’re going to do, Brian,” Justin pointed out back to him. “You haven’t even told me that there was even anything to do or not do. You didn’t tell me anything about it at all – me – who should have been the first to know.”

“Wait a minute, JT,” Brian clarified the point. “I didn’t tell any of them anything at all about the damn thing either. That was all their doing – they told me - and I wouldn’t be surprised if you were in on it too – though I’m not making any accusations. All I told them was what I was gonna do about it ….”

“Same thing, Honey,” Justin decided. “You should have talked with me about it before you decided what you think you want to do – and I didn’t have anything to do with it either – nothing at all - but I would have if I had a chance. Them guys thought I should be held in reserve so they didn’t tell me.”

“Until now that is,” Brian grinned. “The reserves have been called out – a last ditch effort, Sweetheart – so go ahead – do what you have to do - no way I can stop you ,,,,”

“Thank you, Mr. Kinney,” Justin grinned back. “Now as I understand it, you have been nominated for the Humanitarian of the Year Award by the JBEP ….”

“Right on, Baby,” Brian interrupted. “The Junior Business Executives of Pittsburgh have decided to embarrass me by nominating me for a crazy award I don’t want….”

“Brian Kinney,” Justin came back. “You were nominated for the JBEP Humanitarian of the Year Award by Fred Rucker, your chief competition in Pittsburgh advertising – even if he did the nominating as a member of the Board of Children’s Hospital. And there were other co-nominators too. So you’ve been doing a lot of good stuff – some of it behind my back too – but that’s another discussion for another night – probably after you get this award ….”

“But I’m not gonna get any old award, Honey, since I’m planning to decline the nomination,” Brian told him, “Which is why, I think, we’re having this discussion now ….”

“Yeah it is, Bri,” Justin agreed. “You’re doing all this good stuff – you deserve the award. What’s so bad about getting an award for the stuff you’re doing – and you love doing – and you wouldn’t ever quit doing ….”

“But I’m Brian Kinney, Sweetheart,” Brian explained. “Big bad Brian Kinney. I kinda like that reputation. It took me a long time to earn it. Like – Brian Kinney, the Humanitarian of the Year, could ever show his face in Babylon? Oswaldo and those guys would have a field day….”

“So you’d rather have a bad reputation you don’t deserve than a good reputation you do deserve, Kinney,” Justin concluded. “You’d be living a lie, Brian. That’s what Joan Crawford would have told you – like in that movie we watched last week – and Joan knows all about that stuff too. And like – do we ever go to Babylon, BK? Anyhow – if we ever did decide to go to Babylon, I’d take care of those wise guys over there ….”

“You just might indeed, Baby,” Brian laughed. “I don’t know how you’d do it but I wouldn’t bet against you either. Might be fun to watch.”

“And Gus would be so proud of you,” Justin continued. “And your mother would be proud of you – and Deb – and Mikey and Ben ….”

“And you…” Brian interrupted. “You’d be proud of me too, I guess?”

“Yeah – me most of all – but I’m already proud of you, Brian Kinney,” Justin admitted - snuggling closer to the guy on his left. “And I love you and I’ll still love you even if you don’t ….”

‘But you do think you’re winning this one, don’t you, Baby?” Brian interrupted again.

“I told you it’s not about winning, Kinney,” Justin remembered. “It’s about doing the right thing. You really gotta accept the award. You know what – it could inspire other guys to do some good stuff too. You do a lot, Bri – but even you can’t do it all. The more people we get interested in this kind of stuff, the more good stuff gets done. You’re in advertising. You know what it means to get the word out ….”

”I bet you got that argument from Fred Rucker, Sweetheart,” Brian laughed. “That sounds just like Fred. You won’t deny you talked to Fred, will you – being as truthful as you always are?”

“Nope,” Justin admitted. “Can’t deny it. I talked to Brandon on the phone and Fred was over there with Brandon. They really want you to take this nomination and they were hoping I could talk some sense into you ….”

“And what if you haven’t, Baby?” Brian conjectured. “What if your very cogent arguments haven’t worked? Are you ready to give up then?”

“Not quite, BK,” Justin told him. “I haven’t resorted to threats or any of that stuff yet – like I could say that if you don’t accept the nomination maybe a lot of us would quit going with you on your missions – like you could be at Children’s Hospital without your elves - and Rudolph – and ….”

“And you think I’d believe that you’d do anything like that, Sweetheart,” Brian smiled. “You wouldn’t. I could take this nomination and win the award and become the Humanitarian of the Year for the JBEP – and I wouldn’t even be the Humanitarian of the Year in this loft, Baby. That’s you, hands down. OK, though - you win. You can call whoever you want to and report your victory. I’ll accept the damn nomination.”

“Thanks Bri,” Justin ran his hand through Brian’s hair. “I was hoping you’d listen to reason. You’ll be doing a lot of good just by getting the award. A lot of people will hear about it and decide to ….”

“So do I get any award for listening to reason, Baby,” Brian wondered. “Seems to me I should get some kind of award for listening to reason.”

“Well you know what, Sweetheart,” Justin replied. “I think I’ll just forget about complaining that you didn’t tell me all the good stuff you were doing – the stuff that’s in the nomination that I didn’t even know about. Of course my feelings are hurt and I could complain but I guess I’ll just forget about it after you promise not to keep any such secrets from me ever again ….”

“That was not what I had in mind, JT,” Brian advised him “I was thinking that ….”

“Well maybe we should write your acceptance speech right now, Brian,” Justin suggested. “Then you wouldn’t have to worry about that. And I’ll be glad to help ….”

“Dammit, Taylor,” Brian laughed. “You are something else. You know what. I’m accepting this crazy nomination but I hope somebody else wins the award. There are other nominees you know. It’ll serve you right …”

“Actually, Brian – Honey – Sweetheart,” Justin cozied himself even closer to Brian –rubbing his hair against Brian’s cheek. “There aren’t gonna be any other nominees. After the nominating committee looked at your record, they decided not to embarrass anybody else by nominating them – so you are like – the only nominee ….”

“Justin Taylor,” Brian clamped his arm around the grinning twink. “You might be living in this loft with the JBEP Humanitarian of the year – but you are about to find out that big bad Brian Kinney still lives here too ….”

“You’re scaring me, Brian,” Justin whimpered without losing his victorious smile.

But Brian figured he had been conned once that evening - and it was not about to happen twice. So the acceptance speech was not written right then. Nor did any of the other interested co-conspirators learn of Brian’s change of heart till well into the next morning.
 

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