An Early Thanksgiving

It was the night before Thanksgiving. The guys entered the loft together about nine o'clock. Justin hurried to light the fireplace and plopped himself down on the floor in front of it. Brian took a little longer to get into position. There was no period of quiet contentment before the discussion began.

"Quit laughing, Twink," Brian ordered.

"I'm not laughing," Justin protested, "Does it look like I'm laughing?"

"No, it does not look like you're laughing," Brian admitted, "But I know you're laughing. You always think it's funny when I plan something and it doesn't work out. And you always say I'm the mean one around here. And you also keep accusing me of not being romantic enough, and then when I try to be romantic, you laugh."

"Brian, Honey," Justin insisted, "I was just disappointed as you were, but it's not the end of the world. We can try again."

"It's your fault," Brian groused, "You picked Gino's."

"And just who told me he wanted to take me out for a romantic dinner, just the two of us?" Justin asked, "And told me to pick the place."

"Well you didn't have to pick Gino's," Brian complained.

"Bri," Justin reminded him, "There's a lot of our history at Gino's. That has always been a romantic spot for us. It was the logical place for us to go."

"Well you knew that I wanted it to be just us," Brian reminded him back, "I told you that you always have us running around on holidays seeing everybody so I wanted us to have a Thanksgiving dinner for just the two of us. You knew what I wanted."

"Brian, that's what I wanted too," Justin reasoned. "It's not like I invited anybody to come along. You know I wanted it to be just you."

"Well, you're laughing now," Brian repeated his complaint.

"Damn it, Bri," Justin took a stand, "I am not laughing, but we should both be laughing. The whole thing was hilarious."

"Like a Marx Brothers movie," Brian thought out loud, a slight smile rising on his face.

"Who?" Justin wanted to know.

"Never mind, Baby," Brian was laughing now. "Just having you around makes everything OK, and we'll have to get you up-to-date on the Marx Brothers sometime soon. But you're not off the hook. You definitely did smile when Andrew and Daphne came in. You thought that was funny."

"I smiled because they are our friends, Bri," Justin pointed out. "And I didn't ask them to join us like you did when Michael, Ben, Hunter, and Malcolm came in."

"Well, I didn't exactly invite them to join us," Brian said.

"Well, it seemed like that to me when you asked Gino to get four more chairs," Justin told him.

"Well, Mikey was already sitting down." Brian tried to explain, "What could I do?"

"We only needed three more chairs then, Bri," Justin wondered, "Unless you already knew Abelard was with them and was parking the car."

"Don't try blaming me," Brian protested. "You're lucky I'm not mad at you."

"Cut it out, Bri," Justin demanded. "It was nobody's fault. I only asked Daphne and Andrew to join us after you had the whole crowd at our table. And what could I do when Ethan and Tom walked in? Anyhow I think you enjoyed yourself too."

"Well it wasn't what I planned but I guess I did enjoy myself a little bit," Brian allowed, "But it still wasn't what I had planned."

"Well everything doesn't go the way we plan all the time," Justin reminded him.

"That's good to know," Brian countered, "Because I guess you have every minute planned for tomorrow. You won't be too disappointed then if I won't do some of the stuff because you know that people's plans don't always work out."

"This has been a fun discussion so far," Justin warned him, "And I know you're joking about tomorrow, so the fun can continue."

"Well, I still wanted a romantic evening for just us two," Brian groused.

"Isn't it just us two now," Justin told him, "Or have you invited the gang to come back here too?"

"Maybe I did," Brian teased, "But the guys had to go over to Debbie's and Andrew and Daphne were going to some concert. I don't know where Ethan and Tom were going afterward."

There was a brief respite in the conversation at this point until Justin resumed.

"Where do you think you'd be right now if we had never met?" Justin asked Brian to conjecture.

"Probably at Babylon," Brian told him, "Having fun."

"We can go to Babylon, Bri," Justin offered.

"Baby," Brian told him, "I'm having a lot more fun right here right now than I ever had at Babylon. Even pretending to argue with you is more fun than anything at Babylon."

"That is a really romantic thing to say, Brian." Justin cooed. "See, we're having our romantic evening after all."

"Yeah, we are, Sunshine," Brian admitted. "But we are still going to have our Thanksgiving dinner for just the two of us. It will just have to be some evening next week."

"That sounds good to me," Justin told him. "But I don't want to pick where. I don't want the blame if we run into people we know."

"Nope," Brian insisted. "You're going to pick the place. It just has to be in Cleveland, St. Louis or Chicago."

"You don't have any friends there?" Justin wanted to know.

"Yeah I do," Brian told him, "But we're going to take masks along just to make sure. It is going to be just us two."

"And you are coming along everywhere tomorrow without complaining?" Justin wondered.

"Maybe." Brian replied.

"Brian,' Justin informed him, "I heard it when Abe told you that you were lucky when they showed up or you would have been stuck with the blond cousin all night by yourself. And I heard you tell him you were glad they came in."

"Just being polite," Brian defended himself.

"But you will be coming everywhere with me tomorrow without complaining?" Justin reiterated.

"Guess so," Brian told him.

"I have so much to be thankful for," Justin burrowed himself into Brian's body.

"Me too, Twink," Brian admitted.

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