Worth Waiting For

The new guy in town was named Chuck. He was maximally good looking and he had made a pass at Brian when they first met. He seemed like a nice enough guy to Justin, and he backed off any pursuit of Brian after he found out what the situation was. Brian and Justin had seen Chuck a few times, and while Justin liked Chuck all right, he still harbored some reservations about him. Just a little bit too good looking for Justin's taste. Justin had invited Chuck to the loft to have dinner and had prepared a splendiferous meal. He actually wondered to himself if he had done that to show Chuck what having Brian Kinney entailed. He smiled to himself as he decided that he would never do anything like that. Neither Brian nor Chuck had arrived yet but both were due. It did not bolster Justin's confidence when they arrived together.

"Met Chuck at the door," Brian explained as they took off their coats.

"What door?" Justin wanted to know.

"See what I have to put up with?" Brian pointed out to Chuck, "I don't have an easy life."

"Looks good to me," Chuck told him. "Thanks for inviting me over, Justin," he continued. "Looks like you did most of the work for this evening."

"Oh, Brian pulls his weight around here," Justin jokingly replied, "It's just that he's so skinny."

"Maybe from your cooking?" Brian volunteered.

They all enjoyed the meal and they talked about a lot of things. Justin liked Chuck despite his reservations and thought that Brian did too. After dinner, the conversation turned a bit more serious.

"I'm really glad I got to know you two," Chuck told them. "I know it might have been a rocky start but I'm really glad we can be friends. I've never seen you at Babylon but I guess you're pretty well known over there. A couple of guys have told me that I'm going to be the new Brian Kinney. I don't see anything wrong with the old Brian Kinney."

"He's retired," Justin cut in.

"Cut off in his prime," Brian added, "But the position is vacant and I'll bet you could have it if you wanted it."

"That's what this one guy especially keeps telling me," Chuck responded.

"Ted Schmitt?" Brian asked.

"I think that's his name," Chuck thought. "So do I want the job of being the next Brian Kinney, though? Just what does it entail? From what I gather, there were a lot of wild oats involved in being Brian Kinney, at least according to Ted."

"I guess it depends on what you want," Brian told him, "Ted can give you the details."

"I don't mind a little tricking," Chuck admitted, "Or even a lot of tricking, I guess. But I think what I really want is a lot like what you guys have here. Ted can tell me the other part, but I'd like to hear from you about how you got from there to here. You must have known what you really wanted, Brian?"

"Nope," Brian admitted. "I was the tricking king of Liberty Avenue. That's what I thought I wanted and I thought it made me happy. You're already a step ahead of me if you know that's not what you really want."

"Well what happened to change your mind?" Chuck asked, "If I'm not getting too personal."

"I came out of Babylon one night," Brian recounted, "I thought I had had it for the evening and I saw this dopey looking kid under the street lamp across the street. I thought 'What the hell? That looks like an evening's diversion.'"

"It was Justin?" Chick guessed correctly.

"It sounds like it was me but this is the first time I ever heard that version, I think," Justin chimed in. "I saw this beautiful guy come out of Babylon and I said to myself 'That's him. He's mine for tonight and he's mine forever.' Brian didn't have a chance from that moment on."

"And that's the first time I ever heard that version," Brian allowed, "Maybe it's a good thing you came, Chuck."

"Hey, guys," Chuck defended himself, "I don't want to get in the middle of anything here. Maybe I've heard enough."

"No, it's OK, Chuck. There isn't a lot more to the story," Brian spoke up. "That dopey little kid just chased me until I got winded and here we are."

"Actually," Justin revised, "I just, on several occasions, demonstrated the emptiness and futility of his life without me. Finally I got it through his thick skull, and here we are."

"You guys are making me uncomfortable," Chuck protested, "I don't want to be the cause of some big fight between you after I leave."

"What would ever make you think that?" Justin asked as he moved over, plopped himself onto Brian's lap, and kissed his guy passionately. "There's no chance of that."

"No chance of that at all," Brian agreed when he came up for air.

Chuck had to laugh. "You know your pal, Mike." he told them, "When I told him I was having dinner over here tonight, Mike told me I'd be dizzy when I left. I thought he was talking about Justin's cooking but now I think I know what he meant."

"If he were talking about my cooking, then you might see a fight," Justin allowed, "I sometimes fight with Mikey but I never fight with Brian."

"He would though," Brian told Chuck, "If I'd let him.'

"Probably," Justin agreed, "But Brian is the boss around here and he won't let me."

"Now just supposing I want something like you guys have," Chuck asked, while acting like he might be having second thoughts, "What do I do?"

"Nothing, really," Justin told him, "You just wait. He'll be worth waiting for. When he comes along you'll both know."

"Sooner or later," Brian added.

Chuck left shortly thereafter and called Mikey on his cell phone to thank him for the warning, which hadn't really helped very much.

.

The guys lit the fireplace. They just sat there for a good while, smiling at each other.

"Brian," Justin asked, "Was it just dumb luck that we met under that lamp post? I was not dopey looking, by the way. Where would we be if we hadn't met that night?"

"I don't know," Brian replied, "Maybe I would still be tricking down at Babylon. I don't know."

"There wouldn't have been anybody else, would there?" Justin probed.

"Baby, I was with thousands of guys before you. I had chances," Brian told him, "I didn't want any of them. I didn't want anybody. I think maybe I really was waiting for you."

"That is so romantic, Bri," Justin gushed, "No wonder I love you as much as I do. It couldn't have been just luck that we met. Something made me come down to Liberty Avenue that night. It was the first time I ever had the nerve to do that. Something made me stand under that lamp post."

"You think?" Brian asked.

"Yeah," Justin told him, "I was tired of waiting for you.

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