Endeavor
Chapter Three: March

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. - Aristotle

Brian walked over to the bar and wedged himself in between Justin and his potential trick. “Well if it isn’t the ubiquitous Justin Taylor.”

“Fancy meeting you here, Mr. Kinney.” Justin looked over Brian’s shoulder and held up his pointer finger, indicating to the man that had been hitting on him that he’d only be a moment.

“Again.” Brian scowled. “Shouldn’t you be at home resting? We have an 8 a.m. meeting with Liberty Air tomorrow, or have you forgotten?”

Justin rolled his eyes. “It’s only eleven o’clock. Besides, who are you to talk?”

“I’m your boss,” Brian told him. “I can be out as late as I want because I don’t have anyone to impress but myself.”

“And Cynthia,” Justin said.

Brian raised his beer. “I don’t have to report to you or her, but you can sleep soundly tonight knowing that this is my last drink and I only stopped by to check up on the new sound system I had installed.”

“You definitely keep good tabs on the things you own,” Justin quipped. “But you don’t own me so I’ll bid you goodnight.” Justin sidestepped Brian, grabbed the lanky redhead waiting on him, and pulled him toward the backroom.

Brian signaled the bartender for a shot of whiskey and grinned while he drank it. As he placed the glass on the bar, his eyes caught a new treat that had just become his next trick. Normally, Brian would take the man upstairs to the V.I.P. room but it had been some time since he’d been in the backroom and he figured it was a fine place for a quick fuck.

The knowledge of that morning and waking up from an erotic dream in which he’d been fucking Justin had nothing to do with his decision. He didn’t need to see if Justin’s naked ass looked just as good as it had in his dream, as good as it did in the tight-fitting black jeans Brian noticed he’d been wearing. He definitely didn’t need to see what Justin’s ass looked like with the jeans pushed down just below his butt cheeks as he plowed into the red-headed trick who’s eyes were rolling back into his head.

As Brian forced his trick to his knees instead of fucking him, he definitely wasn’t choosing a blowjob over fucking because it allowed him to watch Justin fuck much more easily. He didn’t stare at Justin’s pursed lips, imagining what they’d feel like wrapped around his cock. Brian didn’t trade glances between Justin’s face and the shadowed place between Justin’s groin and the trick’s ass. The few glimpses he got at Justin’s thick, latex covered cock didn't not turn him on more than the hot mouth sucking his dick.

He didn’t, because he had his own trick and he was in the mood for an easy, quick orgasm. He wanted to be completely alert tomorrow if he was going to bitch at Justin for coming to work hung over and fucked out. He even allowed himself to come quickly and could care less that his come coincidentally coincided with Justin Taylor’s orgasm.

*****

Justin jumped as the alert for a new instant message rang through his computer’s speakers. He wasn’t sure why exactly he jumped, considering the fact that Brian had been instant messaging him approximately every six minutes.

BKExhibitionCEO: Nix the last color change. I’ll pm you when I decide what I like best.

JTExhibitionAD : I figured.

Justin was through with allowing Brian to harass him. It had pissed Brian off when Justin showed up to work happy and ready to go into the Liberty Air meeting, showing no signs of the hours he spent at Babylon. Justin wasn’t sure why Brian was pissed at him for being a good employee, but he was and the constant instant messaging over the last four hours was only one way that Brian was being a dick to him.

Normally, Justin didn’t sit in on pitches for clients. However, last week Brian had asked him to attend the pitch meeting for Liberty Air. Justin had come up with the new slogan specifically tied to the graphics in all of the television spots. Brian had told Justin that he’d begin the pitch and field it to him once it got down to discussing the details of the commercials. However, Brian never engineered the meeting to go in that direction.

All morning, Brian ordered Justin around the room, fixing up boards and even going after coffee for one of the Liberty Air clients. Once returning to the conference room, he sat in his chair, watching as Brian conducted the meeting, waiting and waiting for Brian to pass the pitch onto him.

When Brian explained everything that Justin thought he was supposed to give details on, Justin nearly lost it but knew that it would be the end of his job if he said a word in front of the clients. Brian did give Justin full credit where it was due, but beyond that he was the only person who talked besides the clients. Even when the CEO of Liberty Air directly asked Justin a question regarding the color of one of the plane’s wings in the ad, Brian took over and explained word for word what he and Justin had previously discussed. As Liberty Air signed the contracts, Brian dismissed Justin from the meeting.

At first, Justin hadn’t been too pissed because he forced himself to give Brian the benefit of the doubt. He was disappointed, but he’d figured that there might have been a reason why Brian deviated from their plan on short notice. He figured that Brian had a very good explanation for it and would explain and give him some kind of apology. It never came.

Twenty minutes after Brian sent Justin back to his office; he received an instant message detailing four things that Brian wanted changed on a board he’d already approved. The board was for a Simmons Spa pitch, scheduled for the next day. Justin immediately called down to the Art Department to have the changes made and Jackie was on her way back to his office with the new board when Brian instant messaged him about more changes to the changes they’d made with the bubbly text.

The things Brian wanted changed were trivial little things that were easily altered on the computer. But after the third change, more kept coming, all without Brian ever giving Justin enough time to show him the finished product. Sometimes Justin was sure that they had gone back to the original idea but he couldn’t be sure. Any suggestions he dared to give Brian, the man ignored.

After the seventh change, Justin knew his employees were getting more than a little agitated. All the changes were making Justin look as though he was indecisive and his eye for Art was inept. Brian was wasting the Art Department’s resources and time but they didn’t know that it was Brian; they thought it was Justin’s doing. When the eighth change came, Justin pretended as if he cared and wrote it down in his notes. He could hardly get any other work done as Brian continued to instant message him and by now, Justin had lost count of the changes and was wishing that Cynthia hadn’t called in sick because he really needed someone to talk some sense into Brian.

A couple of weeks ago Justin had flipped out in Brian’s office about a personal matter. Justin didn’t want Brian to force him to do the same thing with a work matter; he didn’t need anyone thinking he was unprofessional. But he couldn’t stand it any longer. He had to go see Brian and find out what the fuck had happened to make the man be such a bastard to him.

The perfect opportunity arose when a minute after sending his response to Brian he received one in return with the expected response.

BKExhibitionCEO: My office now.

JTExhibitionAD: Right away, sir. :)

Justin took his time gathering what he would be taking with him to lunch first and slowly walked down to Brian’s office. He didn’t bother knocking or having Karen alert Brian and tell him that he was on his way. He walked right into Brian’s office with a carefree expression on his face. “I’m headed out for my lunch break,” Justin stated as he walked over to Brian’s desk. “What do you need from me before I go?”

“Go?” Brian asked, wondering if he’d actually annoyed Justin to the point at which he’d quit.

Justin looked at his watch and then back at Brian. “I’m going to lunch.”

“Oh.” Brian straightened his tie and was about to have more fun when his office phone rang. He held up one of his fingers indicating that Justin should wait and picked up the receiver of the phone. “Yes, Karen?”

“Dr. Conway’s office is holding to confirm your appointment for tomorrow afternoon at two o’clock. Your schedule is clear, should I confirm?”

“Yes, Karen, confirm it for two o’clock,” Brian replied and hung up the phone. He suddenly felt sick and the prospect of fucking with Justin had lost his amusement for the day. “I don’t need anything else,” Brian told Justin. “Please come see me after lunch.” By then, Brian was sure he would have his drive back.

Justin nodded solemnly and left Brian’s office, feeling more than a little confused. He’d seen the fight he expected in Brian’s eyes when he first walked into the man’s office. Whatever the subject of the phone call, it had to have been something big to cause Brian’s color to drain from his face and his mood to shift so drastically. Justin felt disappointed because he really planned to give Brian what he deserved, in a calm, cool and collected way of course.

When the elevator doors dinged and Justin stepped inside, a light-bulb response in Justin’s brain triggered. Brian had been confirming something and he was sure it was a doctor’s appointment. He knew the schedule of clients for the next day and there was nothing scheduled after lunch. Justin had been thinking a lot about Brian’s health, even if it weren’t his place, he couldn’t help it. Maybe that was the reason for Brian’s games, maybe he needed the distraction? Justin couldn’t be sure, but it would definitely explain things. It didn’t excuse them, he was still pissed, but he figured he could force himself to handle it.

*****

“I think Brian’s depressed,” Michael commented to Lindsay.

Lindsay laughed. “What are you talking about?”

“He hasn’t been himself all night. Normally he’d be ribbing on us and…”

“Stop worrying,” Ben told his partner. “Brian is fine, he’s happy.” Ben pointed into the living room at Brian who was laughing as Gus wrestled with him.

“Something is weird with Brian,” Michael defended quietly. “He’s been ignoring us and hanging out with Gus all night.”

“So something has to be wrong with him to spend time with Gus?” Lindsay asked. “He’s his father and he’s been spending a lot of time with him lately.”

“You know I didn’t mean it like that,” Michael said. “I’m worried. Something with him is off. I can feel it.”

“Of course something is off with Brian,” Melanie put in. “Instead of spending his night at Babylon he actually kept his promise and came to dinner.”

Lindsay walked into the living room to join Brian and her son. She wasn’t going to sit around and listen to them gossiping. So what if Brian had finally gotten over his daddy issues and was finally acting like a responsible father? She was glad that it seemed like over the last couple of years he was actually growing up.

“I win!” Gus yelled, rolling off Brian’s chest and pumping his fists in the air.

Brian pulled Gus back down on the floor and began to tickle him. “Who wins?” he asked.

“I do. I do!” Gus giggled.

“What?” Brian asked. “I didn’t hear you.”

“I’m gonna pee!” Gus warned.

Brian gave up and let Gus go. Gus stumbled up and ran for the bathroom. Brian sat down on the couch beside Lindsay. “I’m getting too old to wrestle.”

Okay, Lindsay thought. Maybe there was something wrong with Brian. “You what?” she asked.

Brian threw a throw pillow in Lindsay’s face. “It’s your entire fault, of course,” he told her, standing up.

“I’ve got to go check on Babylon,” Brian told Michael walking back into the dining room.

Lindsay grinned to herself as she heard that. Brian was just fine, he definitely was not depressed.

*****

“Ahh!” Eric winced as Justin pulled out of him.

Justin tied off the condom and threw it in the trash as he climbed out of Eric’s bed. “That was hot.”

“Are you all right?” Eric asked, reaching out to pull Justin toward him.

Justin backed away from Eric and started to dress. “I’m fine.”

“You don’t seem fine,” Eric commented. “The way you just fucked me was…”

“You got off, didn’t you?” Justin snapped, pulling his shirt on.

“Of course I got off, Justin. You know I like it when we get rough, if I didn’t I would’ve stopped you.”

“Then what’s the problem?” Justin asked, sighing deeply.

“You’re angry and I want to know why so that I can...”

“You actually don’t know why I’m angry?” Justin asked. He and Eric rarely fought. They kept things casual enough so that there usually wasn’t anything major to argue about. “Maybe I should give you an award for being dense.”

“Oh,” Eric groaned, “this is about the award ceremony.”

“Julia is homophobic. She doesn’t support who you really are so why would you want her there instead of me?”

“Come here.” Eric grabbed for Justin’s arm and this time Justin sat back down on the bed beside him. “I want you there. I thought you understood that.”

“You never want me around when your sister is around, Eric. Why would I think that you want me there when the first thing you said after telling me about the award was that she was going to be at the ceremony?”

“You didn’t seem that pissed when we talked this morning, I thought you realized that I wanted you both there. However, if it bothers you that much I’ll tell her she can’t come, Justin. She was having lunch with me when I got the phone call about it…”

“I don’t want you to tell your sister she can’t come,” Justin interrupted, feeling foolish. “I don’t expect you to hold my hand while we’re there or introduce me as more than a friend to everyone else. I get why you can’t do that. But I won’t put up with her comments about me.”

“Neither will I,” Eric promised, kissing along Justin’s cheek. “Are you really leaving now?” he asked, running his hands under Justin’s shirt.

Justin shivered and felt his cock swelling back to life. He pushed Eric back down on the bed and replied, “No, I’m not leaving.”

*****

“Would you stop?”

Justin looked up from his laptop, clueless as to what he was doing that was bothering Brian. “What?”

“You keep sighing, deeply, every fucking time your stomach makes those weird noises.”

Justin balled up a sticky note and tossed it at Brian, hitting him in the nose. “Those noises are hunger, Brian. Surely you’ve been hungry before.”

Brian loudly closed his own laptop and stood up. “Come on. Pack up.”

“You want me to go home? Brian, you can’t get all this done alone.”

“I’m not going to do it alone. We’re going back to my place to work. I need to get out of this suit and relax or I won’t be able to think anymore.”

“There’s no way I’m going to your place. That’d be like totally weird.”

“Why?” Brian asked, packing up his briefcase.

“Cause you’re my boss. I’d feel weird going to your place.”

“You come to my club, where you’ve seen me get my cock sucked and where you have seen me fuck, but coming to my house is crossing some invisible barrier?”

“Yeah,” Justin said lamely.

Brian dialed a number on his cell. “I’m ordering Thai to pick up. What do you want?”

“Just get me whatever you’re having,” Justin replied, resigning himself to his fate.

*****

“Your loft it….” Justin struggled for the right word.

Brian waited for the praise.

“It looks designer,” Justin finished, turning to face Brian.

Brian gave a snort. “You say designer like that’s a bad thing.”

“It’s not,” Justin replied, walking over to the bar in the kitchen. “You just… you need a little color, some art. A painting.”

“I have a painting,” Brian said, pointing to it over his shoulder while he dished out the food.

“I saw. It’s not like I could miss a horrible painting of an ugly naked guy.”

“If you paint me something I might consider replacing it,” Brian offered. “Lindsay’s been after me to sell it to the gallery for a while now.”

Justin considered it. “If I have the time.” He grabbed his plate of food and one of the beers Brian had placed on the counter and walked back toward the living area.

Brian had seen Justin’s artwork and he wondered why he hadn’t pursued a career as a full-time artist, he definitely had the talent to make it as one. “Why did you choose to get into graphic art instead of…”

“Chasing a silly dream that would most likely not come true?” Justin asked, sitting down on the sickeningly soft white sofa.

“You have the talent,” Brian voiced his earlier thought. “You could be conquering the art world.”

Justin barely swallowed his drink of beer before bursting out laughing at Brian. “You’ve known me for like three months, you’ve never seen any of my pieces in person, you love the graphic art I do for your agency yet you think I should just quit and move to New York or something?”

“Maybe not exactly that,” Brian said. “I saw samples of your paintings; they should be hanging in a gallery somewhere.”

“They are,” Justin said, grinning smugly. “Well a few of the ones in my portfolio are now hanging in people’s homes or offices or wherever it is they put them after buying them. The others are in my apartment.”

“So why, if your art was selling, didn’t you get an agent and pursue it?”

“I’ve always wanted to be an animator,” Justin confessed. He was sure that Brian would laugh at him but was surprised when he didn’t.

“Why aren’t you?”

“The first assignment I had at CMU was to design a fake advertisement graphic for deodorant.”

Brian chuckled. “How inspiring.”

“I think you mean, perspiring,” Justin corrected. “Anyway, I actually had a lot of fun with it and probably went over the top researching the demographics and well I don’t have to tell you how to develop a campaign.”

“So you designed a whole campaign?” Brian asked, impressed. “You didn’t just do the art?”

“No, because I really felt like I had to know everything about what I was designing for first. I got so into it that my professor encouraged me to present it to the class. I got such a thrill from pitching it to them. I made it so appealing and so sexy that everyone really loved it. I actually got a hard on afterwards and had to go to the bathroom to jerk off. From that day on I knew that I wanted to work in advertising.”

Brian immediately forced his imagination away from thinking about Justin jerking off in a bathroom stall. “Then let’s get to work,” he said, placing his empty plate on the coffee table and grabbing his briefcase.

*****

While Brian was taking a shower, Justin was making the dinner he’d insisted on picking up the makings for when they left the office. He was burnt out on take-out this week since he’d spent the last three nights working at Brian’s loft. He knew a quick recipe for a Chicken Soup that would taste as though it’d been simmering all day. Justin put the lid on the chicken soup he’d made and turned the heat down on the burner. He then glanced at the sweet rolls in the oven to be sure they weren’t burning and started to search through Brian’s cabinets for bowls, spoons and wine glasses.

Justin was startled when he heard the home phone ringing, cutting through the silence of the loft. He didn’t even think about answering it as he walked beside it and began placing two small plates and bowls on the table.

He heard the shower shut off in the bathroom at the same time as the answering machine picked up.

“Brian Kinney, this is Dr. Conway. I know you are anxious about the test results and wanted to call you as soon as I received them. There is nothing that gives any indication that the testicular cancer spread; you are still in remission. Your blood work all came out normal and unless you find you are having problems with the prosthetic….”

Brian turned the machine down and Justin, who had been standing completely still, whipped around to face him. He stared at Justin, silently daring him to say or do something stupid.

“I’m not going to tell anyone,” Justin said quickly.

Brian released a deep breath.

“I’m guessing that you haven’t told anyone.”

Brian set the answering machine down and stepped backwards, slowly making his way up toward the bedroom steps. “I haven’t… Cynthia, Ted and Karen know, that’s it. If I find out you ran your mouth off you’re…”

“I wouldn’t fucking do that to you, Brian,” Justin reassured. “I wouldn’t. And you don’t have to worry; I’m not going to start treating you with kid gloves or whatever the fuck you’re afraid I’ll do.”

“I’m not afraid of anything.”

Justin put his hands on his hips and huffed. “Right. That’s why you don’t want to tell anyone who loves you?”

“It’s not any of your fucking business.”

Justin nodded. “I know. That’s why you don’t have to worry about me pitying you or whatever. You’re still an asshole boss who works my ass off during the day and picks up guys with me at night.”

Brian relaxed and smiled.

Justin walked over to Brian and gave him a hug. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“I thought it wasn’t any of your business,” Brian said, stepping out of Justin’s arms.

Justin laughed. “Right, well that was for like the split second where it was my business because shit, everyone who beats cancer should have someone be glad for them when they’ve done it.”

Brian shrugged his shoulders and walked back up into his bedroom to get dressed. “Dinner actually smells good,” he said, surprised.

“I can cook,” Justin told him. “But this isn’t anything special; it’s just fucking chicken soup.”
 

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