Breaking Internal Barriers

Chapter 2

Brian sat at his desk on Monday morning thinking about his weekend. He was pleasantly surprised to find the Coliseum everything that Babylon was, and more. The guys were hotter and Brian had no doubt that he would be very happy there. His mind flashed back to the reason he actually went out to begin with. Justin Taylor hadn't been far from his thoughts all weekend. It made him wonder what it was that caused him to think about the blond. His life up to that point had always been about sex and he never remembered having someone invade his mind the way that Justin had. He shook his head to chase away those thoughts. He would just chalk it up to a weak moment, due to the upheaval of moving away and starting a whole new life. He was still Brian Kinney and proved that by the numerous tricks he had throughout the weekend. He was brought back to the present when Cynthia walked through the door.

"Hey, Boss. How was your weekend?" Cynthia asked as she laid a few files Brian had wanted on his desk.

"The usual," Brian replied with his trademark smirk.

"So you spent the weekend fucking anyone you could get your hands on?" Cynthia asked, somewhat disappointed.

"Cynthia…your language! Where did you learn to talk like that?" Brian teased, briefly thinking about the sweet blond that came to work for him years ago.

"I wonder! Come off it, Brian. You are enough to make a nun curse. I thought you moved us down here to start a new life?" she questioned.

"I did. Professionally, we will have a new and more exciting life. As for my personal life, I am still Brian Kinney. Nothing needs changing there," Brian stated, smiling at the look that crossed Cynthia's face.

"Brian, you are almost thirty years old. Don't you think it's time to start settling down?" She knew that Brian didn't believe in love, but she had hoped he would change his mind as he got older. She couldn't help but worry about him.

"Cynthia, I am twenty nine, and settling down is for breeders and lesbians. Now if you excuse me, I have a morning meeting to get to." Brian excused himself and headed out of his office, leaving an exasperated assistant behind in his wake.

"Oh, Peter Pan. Don't you think it's about time you left Neverland?" Cynthia said to herself as she walked back to her desk.

**********************

Justin unlocked the door to his office and went inside.  Looking at his watch, he noticed it was already 8:30.  Cursing himself for being late, he sat his briefcase down on his desk and opened it up to retrieve a few of the boards he had been working on over the weekend.  Knowing they needed some last minute touch ups before they were to be shown at the meeting, he was about to walk out the door when the intercom buzzed.

Sighing, Justin pushed the button down.  “Yes?” he asked.

“Good morning Justin,” Daphne said sweetly.  “I hope you had a wonderful weekend.  I’ll be there in a minute.”

Justin didn’t reply, since he knew Daphne would come regardless of the answer he gave.  Soon enough, Daphne knocked and came into Justin’s office. 

“I brought you your Tazo Chai,” Daphne said, chuckling a little as she said it.  She always laughed at Justin for drinking tea in the morning, since everyone else at the office drank coffee.  Justin always had to be different.

Justin grabbed the cup from her hand and immediately took a sip. "Thanks,” he said.

“No problem,” Daphne replied.  “Is everything alright?  You look a little stressed out.”

“No, but you can help,” Justin said.  Handing her the boards, he asked, “Can you take these down to the art department and have them change the font quickly to Arial, size 28?  I think it will look a lot better.”

“Sure,” Daphne said. 

After she left, Justin laid his head down on his desk.  He really did have an exhausting weekend.  He had gone home with one trick on Friday night and had three on Saturday.  On Sunday night, he had a threesome at his place with some guys he met online, and that had lasted a good part of the night. After they left, he worked on the campaign until four in the morning, until he finally fell asleep at his computer.

The funny thing was that for some reason, he couldn’t get Brian Kinney out of his head.  He had gone to the Coliseum early on Friday night to try to forget about the new partner, but he ended up starting to hallucinate…especially when he thought he saw Brian standing in line at the club. Although he had managed to keep his mind busy most of the time, Brian’s image would just pop into his head at random times. He didn’t understand why this was happening, since he had always prided himself in not letting himself get close to anyone. He didn’t know what it was about this Brian that his mind wouldn’t let go of, but he really needed to get the man out of his system. Right in the middle of almost dozing off, Daphne walked back into his office.       

“Justin, are you really alright?” Daphne asked. 

“I’m just tired,” Justin said.

“You must have had a really good weekend then,” Daphne replied. 

“It was alright,” Justin said, sitting up. “It was the usual.”

“Well, you have all of five minutes until the meeting,” Daphne said, coming over to Justin to fix his hair. After she smoothed it out, she said, “Are you ready?”

“Yeah, I should be,” Justin said.  “I could use some more sleep, but I’ll be alright.”

“Maybe you should think of that the next time you stay up all night fucking on a Sunday,” Daphne said.

“Show’s how much you know,” Justin said.  “I didn’t fuck anyone on Sunday.”

“No?” Daphne question, surprise evident in her voice.

“Nope,” Justin answered, “but I did get one hell of a blow job.  Well…make that a few.”

Daphne smirked and shook her head. As Justin got up, Daphne took his jacket from the back of the chair and helped him put it on. 

“Now,” Daphne said, “you go out there and be brilliant.”

“I always am,” Justin said cockily. Self assuredness never seemed to be a problem for him.

“I’m coming in after to see how it went,” Daphne called out as Justin walked off to the meeting.

Justin looked back and waved at his assistant. Getting into the elevator, he tried to recompose himself and push away any thoughts that weren’t work related for now, including all thoughts of Brian Kinney.

**********************

When Brian walked into the conference room, he looked around at the people who were already there, his eyes landing on a certain blond sitting near the head of the table. Before he had a chance to look away, he saw Justin look up and meet his gaze, causing a jolt to run through him. He nodded a greeting and attempted to walk to the other end of the table, but was stopped as Alexandra walked in.

"Brian! How was your weekend? Did you get out and do some exploring?" Alex asked as she put down the files she was carrying.

"My weekend was good. I did do some exploring, and found a few of the local hang outs," Brian replied, making sure he remained aloof as to where he had gone. He had no intention of being in the closet, but felt it was nobody's business as to where his private life took him.

"Oh good. I'm glad you are learning the area. Why don't you sit down here by me? You are a partner here, and I think we need to make sure everyone knows that," Alex explained as she led Brian to the end of the table, placing him directly across from Justin.

Before Brian had a chance to say anything else, Alexandra addressed the room and began the meeting with talk of what she had planned for the week. He found it hard to concentrate on what she was saying, his eyes constantly finding the man sitting across from him. He noticed once again the deep blue of his eyes, and chastised himself for allowing his thoughts to drift off of the business at hand. The meeting passed by in a blur, and Brian was brought out of his thoughts when he realized that Alexandra had addressed him.

"Yes?" he asked, hoping that he hadn't missed anything important.

"I was just wondering if you would like to say a few words," she offered, noticing that Brian was preoccupied.

"Sure, I was just trying to absorb all that you were discussing," Brian explained, feeling somewhat guilty. He rose from his seat and looked around the table, his eyes avoiding the blond sitting across from him. "I just wanted to say that I am really excited to be here, and I am looking forward to working closely with everyone to make BTI the top advertising agency in the country."  When he looked around the room afterwards, he saw the looks of admiration and was glad to know he had made a well worded statement.

"Thank you, Brian. I'm sure we are all looking forward to having you here with us,” Alex said. Taking a slight pause, she then said, “Well… I guess that's it, then. Let's get back to work and see what we can accomplish." Alex then gathered her files and headed out the door without a backwards glance.

Brian stood up and nodded to a few of the men before walking out of the conference room and heading back to his office. He needed a few minutes to himself to try to figure out what was going on with him. He was very happy with his life up until this point, and he wasn't about to turn soft for anyone, especially someone who probably had a girlfriend and thoughts of a happy hetero life.

**********************

Justin watched Brian walk out of the conference room and couldn't help but breath a sigh of relief. He had spent the whole meeting preoccupied with thoughts of the man sitting across from him. He was barely able to listen to what Alex was saying, instead finding himself stealing glancing at the man on the other side of the table. There were even a few times that he thought he felt Brian staring back at him, but just chalked those moments up to his over active imagination.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts and got up to leave, blaming Daphne on his inability to put the man out of his head. If she hadn't obsessed about Brian after their first meeting, he wouldn't have given him a second thought. It was going to be a long day.

Justin walked back into his office, glad to be back in a place without Brian Kinney. He sat down at his desk, deciding he needed to think about what was going on in his life. He was really beginning to believe that he was going insane. He was Justin Taylor…he didn’t do all this pining away over hot guys, especially ones who were straight. He didn’t believe in relationships or love…at least not anymore. He was the director of the art department in one of the most prestigious advertising companies in the nation. He was intelligent, successful, and handsome enough to have anyone he wanted to fuck. He didn’t need anything else in his life. He had it all.

A knock on his door shook him out of his thoughts. “Come in,” he shouted.

“Hello,” Daphne said as she came waltzing into the room.  “So…how was the first meeting with the new, gorgeous, hot in everyway possible…”

“It went fine,” Justin said in a no nonsense tone. “And would you please stop referring to him using adjectives? The man has a name for Christ sakes.”

“Whoa…who stuck a pole up your ass?” Daphne questioned, noticing Justin’s changed attitude. “Did something happen that I should know about?”

“No, nothing happened,” Justin said. “It was like every other meeting. We discussed upcoming potential clients, current campaigns, and then Brian got up to say a few words. That’s all.”

“So now you’re on a first name basis with him,” Daphne said, smiling.

“He told me to call him Brian,” Justin said. “Anyway…I’m on a first name basis with practically everyone at this company.”

“Of course,” Daphne said. “You’re Justin Taylor.”

“That’s right,” Justin said. As he began to shuffle some papers around on his desk, another person knocked on the door.

“Come in,” Justin said agitatedly. He wished people would stop bothering him so he could get back to work. 

“Justin, just the man I wanted to see,” Alex said, coming in and closing the door. “Hello Daphne.”

“Hi, Ms. Turner,” Daphne said. Looking over at Justin, she said, “I guess I’ll be going.”

“You don’t have to leave on my account Daphne,” Alex said.  “I just wanted to know what Justin thought about the meeting.”

“Well, I already tried to get an answer out of him, but he wouldn’t talk,” Daphne said. 

“Really?” Alex said. Folding her arms, she and Daphne looked towards Justin for an answer.

“I don’t know what you women want from me,” Justin said, getting up from his desk. “This meeting was no different then the one we had last week.”

Alex smiled. “I just wanted to know what you thought about Brian. Now that you’ve gotten a chance to see how he is professionally, I wanted your professional opinion.”

Sitting on the edge of his desk, Justin replied, “He seems to have some good ideas and his expectations for the agency are admirable. Besides that, I’m not sure. I have yet to see him in action.”

“Oh…I’m sure you’ll get to see him in action plenty,” Daphne said, smiling away. “If I know you well enough.”

Justin frowned. “Daph, would you cut it out?”

“What’s going on?” Alex asked. “Do I sense some assistant/director tension?”

“It’s more like my best friend not knowing when to keep her mouth shut,” Justin said.

Daphne rolled her eyes. “I’m just kidding around with Justin and he’s getting pretty annoyed with me. Ever since I found out that Mr. Kinney wasn’t married, I’ve been taunting Justin about the prospect that he might be gay and therefore available.”

“See Alex?” Justin said. “She is completely ridiculous.”

Alex laughed and placed her arm around Daphne’s shoulder.  “She isn’t ridiculous Justin…she’s just worried about you.  She’s afraid of you dying as a lonely old man without anyone.”

Justin rolled his eyes.

“However, as far as Mr. Kinney being single, that doesn’t mean that he is a homosexual,” Alex said. “I’m not sure of course, but being single at his age doesn’t mean he is gay.  He could be waiting for the right women to come along.”

“Which is exactly what I told her,” Justin said. “But she refuses to listen.”

“But,” Alex interjected, deciding to add in her professional input. “Even if he was a gay, I don’t know how good of an idea it would be for you two to date. I mean, I like you both, and I feel that both of you have extraordinary talents in your respective areas. But the bottom line is, he is a partner and you are the art director. You and he are going to be spending a lot of time together here, working out your ideas and strategizing. There is a lot riding on the professional relationship you have with each other. The three of us are this company’s backbone. If two of the people don’t get along, the company will go down.

Daphne and Justin remained silent as Alex continued.

“Now, I’ve worked hard to bring this company to where it is and I want to bring it even farther. I feel we have the potential to do that, and I know that’s what all of us want.  I brought Brian in to help us accomplish that. The three of us together can bring this company out even more into the national arena…we can be number one. But we all have to get along in order to do that.”

“Well Alex, you have absolutely nothing to worry about,” Justin said confidently. Going back to sit in his desk chair, he said, “I have no intentions of dating anyone, let alone Brian Kinney. I always give 110% to my work and it’s not going to be any different now that we have a new partner in the agency. I’m sure Brian and I will get along just fine in our working relationship and BTI will continue to climb to the top.”

“Good,” Alex said. “That’s just what I wanted to hear.  However, if there is ever a change or problem, you let me know.”

Justin nodded. “Consider it done,” he said.

“Excellent,” Alex said. “I’ll let you get back to your work.  Bye.”

“Bye Ms. Turner,” Daphne said softly as Justin acknowledged her with a glance.

“Now,” Justin said, glad that Alex had stopped by after all, “will you please stop harassing me about Brian?”

Defeated for now, Daphne said, “Yes.”

“Good,” Justin said. “Now if you don’t mind, I really need you to stop by the deli today and get me some lunch. I have a shit load of work to do and I don’t have time to take a lunch break.”

Pulling out a little notebook she always kept with her to jot down things Justin told her, she said, “What do you want?”

Thinking a minute, he said, “Just get me a chicken breast sub with a small salad. That should work.”

“What time would you like it?” Daphne asked. 

“I guess 11:30 would be fine,” Justin replied.

“Anything else?” Daphne asked.

“No,” Justin said, feeling slightly bad for talking to Daphne so harshly. “Look Daph, I know you mean well, but this is work. I don’t have time to fawn over pretty boys here. I have a reputation to live up to and I don’t like to let people down. Besides, you know my lifestyle and I don’t want anything to change. I like things just as they are.”

“It’s fine Justin,” Daphne said. “You’ll have your lunch here by 11:30.”

“Thank you,” Justin said.

“Bye,” Daphne said, closing the door behind her.

“Bye,” Justin said softly. After she left, Justin sighed. He didn’t know why life was getting so complicated. For the past ten years, his way of life had worked for him and he wanted to keep it that way. Now that Daphne was off his case, he began to tell himself that things would go back to normal. For the first time in his life though, he couldn’t say he knew it would.  

********************** 

Brian was sitting in his office, looking over the files he had requested from Cynthia earlier. He wanted to read up on some of their biggest clients and familiarize himself with the accounts. He looked up as Cynthia walked through the door with a cup of coffee in her hand.

"Just thought you could use this," she explained as she placed the cup in front of him. "How was the meeting?"

"It was a meeting, Cyn, just like the ones I've had with Vance and Ryder. Alexandra went over the agenda for the week, what she wants to get accomplished, all the same bullshit," Brian replied abruptly, still upset by his reaction to Justin through the meeting.

"I see. You care to tell me what's bothering you?" she asked, wondering what had brought on his foul mood.

"Nothing's bothering me," Brian insisted, moving the files around his desk trying to avoid the conversation he knew Cynthia wanted to have.

"Brian, this is me you are talking to. It's been a long time since I was just your assistant. Wouldn't it just be easier to tell me what's bothering you now, instead of making me pry it out of you?" Cynthia asked with a smile.

"Really Cynthia, nothing is wrong. I just haven't been sleeping well lately. It's probably just all the stress of the move." Brian hoped she took that as a suitable response, because that was all she was getting.

Cynthia looked at Brian and knew he wasn't being completely honest with her, but figured she would change the subject, since he obviously wasn't ready to discuss the real problem with her. She had been working for him for five years, and in that time, their relationship had bloomed into a very close friendship. She knew that when the time came, he would open up to her as much as he was able to, and tell her what was bothering him. "So, I had some time to talk to Daphne this morning while everyone was in the meeting."

"Daphne?" Brian asked, barely recognizing the name.

"She's Justin Taylor's assistant. I think she and I are going to become good friends. Did you know that she is Justin's best friend? They went to school together, and when he was hired here, Justin had asked Ms. Turner if he could bring her on board as his assistant," she explained.

"Good for them," Brian replied, not wanting to bring Justin into the conversation.

"She also told me that he is a very talented artist, but decided to go into advertising because he wanted a stable career," Cynthia said, continuing to relay the story she had heard earlier.

"That was a good idea," Brian replied casually, trying to lose himself in his work.

"He's pretty cute, too, don't you think?" she asked, watching for his reaction.

"I didn't notice, Cynthia." He was beginning to see where Cynthia was headed with the conversation and didn't want to go there.

Cynthia listened to his reply and immediately knew that there was more to the story than what Brian was owning up to. There was no way he hadn't noticed someone who looked like Justin Taylor did. Even if he wasn't interested, he still would have been able to see the man for what he was. A hot young stud. "You didn't notice?"

"Cynthia, I am a new partner here. I have more important things on my mind than what the employees look like. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a lot of work to do." Brian hated being short with her, but he was definitely not in the mood to discuss Justin with her.

"Okay, I'm going, but when you decide to tell me what's really bothering you, I'll be at my desk," Cynthia assured him before walking out of the office, closing the door behind her.

Brian pushed aside the thoughts that Cynthia had managed to stir in his mind and continued to look through his files. The last thing he needed to do was spend his day thinking about Justin Taylor.

**********************

Justin leaned back in his chair to admire his work. For the past hour, he had been putting the final touches on the layout for the Santa Maria account. Deciding he couldn’t wait any longer to show Alex, he buzzed his assistant.

“Daphne,” he said.

“Yes Justin?” Daphne asked.

“Could you buzz Ms. Turner’s assistant and ask if Alex is busy right now. I would like to see her,” he said.

“No problem,” Daphne said.

As he cleaned up his desk, Daphne buzzed him back. “He says she’s free,” she said.

“Excellent,” Justin said, standing up. “Let them know that I’m on my way.”

“Yes sir,” Daphne said.

For the first time all day, Justin felt almost normal. For the past hour, he hadn’t had any more thoughts about Brian.  Taking in a deep breath, he confidently walked out of the office and headed into the elevator. Going up two floors, he walked out of the elevator. As he walked down the hall to Alex’s office, he said hello to all the exec’s and assistants.

“Good morning Mr. Taylor,” an unfamiliar blond woman said.

“Good morning,” he said, noticing that the woman’s desk was adjacent to Steve’s. He decided that she must be Brian’s assistant; the one Daphne had been telling him about…Cindy or something. Smiling at the woman, he knocked on Alex’s door and waited for a reply.

“Come in,” Alex said.

“Hi Alex,” Justin said, walking into her spacious office. She had the best view of the city by far.

“Justin,” Alex said, putting down the documents she was reading. “I heard you wanted to see me.”

Justin smiled and handed her the boards. “I just finished the Santa Maria account,” he said proudly. “I got it back from my team this morning and wanted to place the last touches on it right away. I knew it wasn’t due until tomorrow, but you know how I get when I’m really into something.”

Alex smiled. “You’re a tiger. That’s what makes you the best.”

Justin stood back to watch Alex’s reaction.

“Justin, these are amazing!” Alex said. "They look perfect.  Your mother is going to be thrilled.”

Justin smiled more. It was because of him that BTI had gotten the Santa Maria real estate account three years ago.  He had found out from his mother, who worked for the company, that they were looking to improve their image. At one of their weekly meetings, Justin brought it up and convinced Alex to make a go for it. After helping to win the multi million dollar account, Justin’s career had been forever changed. Only a short time later did Alex ask him to become the new art director.

“Thanks,” Justin said. Feeling a little guilty, he said, “My team had a lot to do with it though. They really are awesome."

“That’s true,” Alex said. “However, they wouldn’t nearly be as good if they didn’t have such an extraordinary leader."

Justin blushed.

“I’ll have to show these to Jennifer personally,” Alex said.  “Unless of course you want to do it.”

“No thanks,” Justin said. “Well, I better get back to work.  I’ve got a lot more to do.”

“Aren’t you going to lunch soon?” Alex asked. “It’s almost 11:00.”

“I’m having Daphne go and get me take out,” Justin said. “I have no time to eat.”

Alex smiled. “Don’t overwork yourself,” she said.

“I won’t,” Justin said, walking over to the door.

Opening the door, he came face to face with the man he had been able to forget for the past hour. Crashing into him, Brian’s papers flew all over the floor.

“Justin,” Brian said, beginning to feel like a kid with a crush again.

“I’m sorry,” Justin said, bending down beside Brian to help him pick up his papers.

“It’s no problem,” Brian said. “I didn’t realize you two were having a meeting.

“We just finished,” Justin said, as he reached for the last paper. As he went to grab it, Brian had the same idea, causing their hands to collide. Justin felt a jolt run throughout his body.

Brian gave a little smile to Justin, having felt the same feeling rush through him. His hand began to tingle as he placed the paper Justin gave him on top of the stack.

“Thanks,” Brian said.

“Everything alright down there?” Alex asked, noticing that the boys were still kneeling on the floor.

“Yes,” Brian and Justin said in unison. Justin quickly left and walked back to the elevator. Retreating back to his office as soon as possible, he closed the door and decided to go back to work. There was no way he was going to let Brian invade his thoughts again.

After working for another fifteen minutes, Justin realized he needed to send out a memo to his staff, thanking them for the hard work they did on the Santa Maria account and letting them know about upcoming projects. He usually informed them every Monday, right after the conference meeting. Bringing out his laptop, he typed up the memo and printed it out. Needing many copies of it, he decided to buzz his assistant. When she didn’t answer, Justin looked at the time and realized Daphne was out getting his lunch. Since he hated to wait, he decided to go and make the copies himself. 

The copy room was on the same floor as the art department, so Justin walked down the hall and turned to his right. Opening the door, he came face to face once again with Brian Kinney.

Brian looked up and saw the blond man once again. He tried to keep his focus on the task at hand, but found it difficult with Justin in the room. The man had a strange affect on him.

“Brian,” Justin said, coming over to the copy machine. “What are you doing here?”

Brian realized he must look like an idiot. He was 29 years old and didn’t know how to use a damn copy machine. He had always had an assistant do these menial tasks for him, but he really needed some documents copied and Cynthia had taken an early lunch. Deciding to act as professional as possible, he said, “Just making a few copies…or trying to at least. My assistant went out to lunch.”

“I’m glad everyone else has so much time to take a lunch break,” Justin said.

Brian smiled slightly. “I know. How can I think about eating when I have a presentation at 2:00 that isn’t nearly refined enough?”

Justin laughed, feeling butterflies in his stomach. “I know what you mean.”

“Shit,” Brian said under his breath, realizing he wasn’t going to be able to get the machine to work.

“Here,” Justin said, putting his memo down. “Let me try.”

“Be my guest,” Brian said, stepping back a little so Justin could take a stab at it.

Justin went over to the copier and looked at it carefully.  Before he had become the art director, he had to make copies all the time. Noticing that there was a switch that was off, he quickly reached over to turn it on, again brushing against Brian. This time though, his arm accidentally touched the older man’s chest. As soon as he felt the stronger man’s body, his professionalism started to wear off. His cock was beginning to stir and he began to feel some heat between them. His heart raced and he began to feel very uncomfortable.

Brian couldn’t move away as he felt Justin’s arm touch his chest. Sparks began to fly, and now he didn’t know what to do. He needed to get away from this man right away, before he made a mistake.

Justin finally willed himself to move and walked away from the copier. Needing to leave the room, he said, “These memos aren’t that important. I can have Daphne do these when she gets back. I need to get back to my work.

Brian nodded, grateful that Justin was the one who suggested leaving. He didn’t want the art director to have any suspicions.

Justin headed to the door as Alex popped her head in, destroying the men’s plans. “Brian…and Justin.  What a surprise to find you two here. I need to speak with you both right away.”

“What’s up,” Brian said.

“Yes…what’s going on?” Justin asked.

"Justin, remember when we discussed Givenchy?" she asked, waiting for him to remember.

"That's the cologne company you've been trying to get a meeting with, isn't it? The one with a no solicitation policy?" Justin asked, wondering where Alex was going with the conversation.

"Well, I just got off the phone with the head of marketing over there and they have agreed to meet with us and listen to our ideas. The problem is that they want to see us tomorrow. I need you both to get together and come up with a top notch campaign, even if it takes all night," Alex insisted, knowing that she could count on them to win the account.

"Alexandra, I have a presentation in a couple of hours," Brian pointed out.

"Forget about the presentation. I'll take care of it. If we can land this account, it will almost double our annual income. You two are the best I have and I need you to really pull this off. Do you think you can do it?" she asked.

Brian looked over at Justin and thought about how uncomfortable he would feel spending the day locked in an office with the blond, but he knew he had no choice. This was business, and business always came first. "I'm in."

Justin heard Brian accept the challenge that was being thrown at them and knew there was no way he would be able to refuse, despite the circumstances surrounding their working together. "Me, too."

"Great! I knew I could count on you two. Now get to work. You don't have much time to come up with something brilliant. I'll be by to check on you two later," Alexandra assured them before leaving them standing in the room, speechless.

"I guess we better get busy," Justin stated.

"I guess so. Let me just put these copies on Cynthia's desk so she can finish up for me and I'll meet you in your office in fifteen minutes," Brian replied.

"Sounds good. I'll see you in a few." Justin walked out of the room, mentally preparing himself for the afternoon ahead of him.

Brian watched Justin walk away, and for the first time in his life, he wished he wasn't so driven to succeed. It was going to be a long day.

By seven o'clock, Brian and Justin were both exhausted from their brainstorming session, but were very happy with the finished product. Once Brian familiarized himself with the product line, the ideas started flowing, and Justin had no trouble putting the ideas down on the boards. They made a great team, and Alexandra made sure she informed them of that fact when she finished looking over the proposal.

"These are great! I'm sure that contract is as good as ours. I knew you two would work well together. Thank you for making this a priority. I really appreciate you staying late to finish this up. Now, why don't you both head home and get some sleep? I'll see you in the morning." Alexandra dismissed them and headed out, wanting to get home herself.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow," Justin said, happy with the way he and Brian had worked together and gotten the job at hand done.

"Yeah, see you tomorrow," Brian replied, happy with their work and smiling with the knowledge that he was going to have a bright future at BTI.

**********************

It had been a very long week. Justin realized now that Brian was going to be the perfect addition to the BTI team. His ideas were brilliant, and his drive to be the best and succeed matched his own. They had worked closely together for most of the week and seemed to be forming a fast friendship. The only problem was the thoughts that kept invading his mind. He tried to stop thinking about the hot executive, but day by day, he found himself thinking about him more and more.

Brian Kinney was even beginning to invade his dreams, and Justin needed to do something to put an end to it all. He found himself standing in the doorway of the Coliseum on Friday night, feeling as if he was finally free of his tortured thoughts. This was where he belonged. This was where he could throw away his professional persona and just be himself.

He made his way to the bar and ordered a drink, needing to down a few before he hit the dance floor. His main objective for the evening was to get drunk, find some nice tight ass, and fuck away his problems. As he downed his first shot and ordered another, he heard a familiar voice behind him.

"Hey Justin, what's happening?" Kevin asked, his voiced somewhat slurred.

"Kevin! I see you're not working tonight." Justin could tell that Kevin already had a few drinks of his own.

"Nope. I'm off tonight and came to have some fun. I'm actually hoping the hot new stud shows his gorgeous face tonight," Kevin explained, taking a seat next to Justin.

"Hot, new stud? Did I miss something?" Justin asked, curious as to who Kevin was talking about.

"I guess you did, if you don't know who I'm talking about. Where the hell have you been? Everyone knows the new stud. He appeared out of the blue last week and he's all anybody has been able to talk about," Kevin explained, searching the club to see if the man in question had made an appearance yet.

"Really? I've been pretty busy at work this week. So, what's this new guy look like?" Justin asked, following Kevin's line of vision. If there was a newcomer, Justin was anxious to break him in.

"Tall, dark, and gorgeous! He is the ultimate in hot. You better watch it, King. He's just the person to knock you off your throne," Kevin teased, still searching the room.

Justin sat back and thought about what Kevin was saying. He had been so wrapped up in work that he had somehow missed a new piece of meat. Was it possible that he might actually have some competition? He had always been the talk of the club. Everyone always vied for his attention, even Kevin. Now, everyone seemed to be looking for someone else to share their night with. This was the last thing that Justin needed right now. First, his professional life was becoming a joke, due to Brian Kinney distracting him at every turn. Now, his private life was changing too, and he was really beginning to wonder what the hell happened in the last couple of weeks to make his world begin to crumble.

Shaking off those thoughts, Justin downed his drink and walked away from the bar. He grabbed the nearest guy and pulled him towards the back room, anxious to forget everything but the feeling that the tricks mouth was going to create once it was wrapped around his cock. At least he still had sex to make him forget that his life was slowly changing for the worse.

End of part 2

12/08/03

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