Secrets

~ Six ~

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At eight thirty the next morning the Liberty Diner came to a complete and silent stop when Brian, Justin and Jamie walked in the door, found a booth and answered Deb's loud, "And who is this sweet thing you're giving a meal?" with a simple, "This is my daughter, Jamie."

For once Debbie said nothing, just stared, her eyes shifting from Brian to Jamie and back again with an occasional detour to Justin's face.

You could have heard a paper napkin drop.

Brian affected nonchalance, Jamie read the menu and Justin just looked at the reactions they were getting.

Finally Deb broke the silence with, "I'd say you were shitting me, but if you were going to have a sex change this is what you'd look like. I guess she must be yours-Holy fuck." She then bitch slapped him upside the head. "And why the fuck am I just finding out now? Asshole." Holding her arms wide she looked at Jamie-"Let me give this sweetheart a hug!"

Brian nudged his daughter who grudgingly stood up. "Jamie, this is Debbie Novatny-Michael's mother. She raised me." Jamie gave Brian a look of 'what the fuck are you talking about' but allowed herself to be smothered by the woman, breaking off the contact as soon as she could.

"Jesus, you're a looker-Brian, how the fuck did you end up with…" She saw his look. Well, she'd get the story out of him. If he brought the girl into the diner then he was outing her to everyone and the story would be known soon enough.

"Has Jamie met everyone?"

Justin answered for them. "You're the first to know, Deb. They just showed up yesterday together. Jamie said that she'd like to meet his friends." Deb caught the edge to his voice and the look on his face, but passed on a comment.

"God, after listening to you two go at it all night, meeting anyone would be better. Don't you ever stop?"

Brian glared her into silence. He continued the glare, adding to the ones coming from both Justin and Debbie. It was too much for her. She caved.

"…Sorry."

It took a couple of beats, but Debbie took up the gauntlet. "Well then what do you say to dinner at my house with everyone? Tonight? Around six-thirty? You be there." Brian nodded after a quick reassuring look to the girl. "Good-and you can bring the wine-and the dessert. Don't be late." The bell was ringing-she had orders up.

A little while later, their omelets half eaten and with Jamie just talking to Brian and no one else, Justin excused himself to hit the bathroom. Deb intercepted him in the back.

"What the fuck's going on? How the hell did Brian end up with a teenaged daughter and when the fuck did you find out about it?-Oh, shit, he didn't tell you, did he? That asshole. I'll take his head off-and he didn't tell me or Michael-I swear, this time he's gone too fucking far even for him."

"Deb, please. We're all just trying to deal with it right now, OK? Give it some time-please?"

She paused in her tirade. "This girl, Jamie? What's she like?"

"I only met her yesterday, but she seems smart and nervous meeting us. I think she's pretty pissed that he's kept her a secret and I know she hasn't met Gus yet, either."

"How old is she?"

"Just turned sixteen."

"Fucking Brian-that means he was screwing some girl when he was about the same age. Christ."

"Go easy, will you?-the whole thing is weird."

"Yeah, well, we'll find out what's going on tonight."

"Deb, honest to shit-go easy, OK?"

"Light as a feather, that's me."

Back at the booth Jamie was muttering under her breath, finally voicing her complaint. "Why are we in this crappy diner?"

"You said you wanted to see how I live when you're not around. I usually have breakfast here before going to work. I often meet friends here. Anything else?"

She looked at Deb giving some people their food. "Who the fuck is she and what's that shit about her raising you?"

"First of all, cut back on the fucking swearing." She gave him a Kinney-worthy glare. "Debbie's son, Michael is my best friend."

"I thought Justin was."

"Justin is who I live with. Mikey and I have been friends since I was fourteen."

"So he and Mom know each other, then?"

Brian sipped his coffee. "No. I met Mikey after we moved. Your mother and I knew each other before that. They've never met."

"Jesus, you've been doing this all your life, haven't you?"

He just looked at her. "When my parents were unbearable I'd go over to Mikey's, Deb always let me in. She's give me food and a place to sleep and she told me where she kept the key so I could always get in."

Jamie hadn't known about that. She'd always just assumed her dad never needed help, that he could always take care of himself. "Was it really that bad?"

"His fucking father used him for a punching bag more times than I can count, that son of a bitch." Debbie was standing at the end of the table. "I went through more bandages and painkillers for him than I ever thought any one person could use."

"Dad?"

"When I got big enough to hit back it stopped."

Jamie just looked at him. How could anyone have the balls, be stupid enough to hit him? To hit her father? The old bastard deserved to be dead. She laid her head on his shoulder and hugged his arm.

"It's OK, Jame, it stopped a long time ago." It was soft enough that only she heard it.

"So, you three will be there tonight?" Brian nodded, Jamie looked hesitant. "Don't worry, sweetie, we don't bite."

They dropped Justin at PIFA and went downtown to Vanguard. When they got up to Brian's office Cynthia had the usual stack of memos and phone calls on his desk along with his schedule.

She gave Jamie a quick glance and smile before dismissing her. "Vance wants to see you as soon as you get here and there's a pitch meeting at eleven for Eyetonics. Lunch at one with the people from Mellon Bank then another pitch at three-thirty for Lipton. Would you like me to take this young lady down to the studio?"

"Could I stay here, Dad?"

Cynthia almost swallowed her teeth. She stared a hole through Brian. "I'm sorry, aren't you the model for the Donna Karan shoot today?"

The expression on her face was a cross between amusement and awe. "God, no."

Brian mentally shrugged. Fuck it. "Cynthia, this is my daughter Jamie. Jamie, Cynthia is my assistant."

They briefly shoot hands, murmured hellos. "I thought you have a son."

"I have one of each, a matched set."

One thing about Cynthia, she recouped fast. "Could I get you anything, Jamie? Coffee? Soda?"

"No, I'm good, thanks."

Vance walked in the open door. "Ah, Brian, you're here. I'd like to go over today's…Excuse me, am I interrupting?"

One more time. "Gardner, I'd like to introduce my daughter, Jamie. Jamie, this is my partner, Mr. Vance."

"You're as lovely as I'd expect offspring from your father to be." He could really lay it on when he wanted. Jamie chose not to say anything, just smiled and had the courtesy to blush.

In a couple of seconds the pleasantries were over and the two men were involved in a technical discussion about the day's presentations and what was at stake. Jamie was quickly bored.

"Jamie, would you like a tour? I know your dad is tied up, but I'd be happy to show you around." Cynthia deserved another raise. With relief for all concerned they were walking over to the elevators.

"So what's my dad like to work for? He's pretty sweet, isn't he?"

Cynthia checked to see if she was being hosed. She wasn't so she went for tactful. "He's the best." Jamie actually beamed. She knew that.

They went from department to department, stopping to look at the ad mock-ups, the composing rooms, the various meeting rooms, and the film library. Cynthia showed the girl some of Brian's work and told her stories about the advertising trenches. It was obvious that Jamie adored him, that he was her idol and that she hero-worshipped him. Finally they made their way down to the photography studio where the Karan shoot was evidently running into problems. The model who had been hired had neglected to mention that she was almost five months pregnant and there was no way in hell she could wear the bias cut silk jersey without looking like she had a watermelon strapped to her stomach.

"Who the fuck told you to get fucking pregnant?"

"You fire me and I'll sue for discrimination."

"Bullshit, bitch. You have a clause in your contract about disclosure and you didn't fucking disclose. Get the fuck out of my studio."

Doors slammed.

"Shit." The photographer looked at Jamie. "You the other model?"

Well, she was Brian's daughter and she and her mother were thinking about the modeling offer from the Ford Agency. She was born with balls-figurative ones, at least. "No, but I can be."

Charles looked at his watch, there was no choice other than to call and get someone else here and that would take at least two hours, besides, he was fucking desperate. It was the kid or no one and he'd rather shoot himself in the foot than have to reschedule this thing. This girl looked right, they had nothing to lose. "You know how to move?" She didn't answer. "Don't worry, Love, I'll talk you through it. Geoff, Pamela, hair and make up and quickly, please. You just go with them, darling."

"I should talk to my dad about this." She turned to Cynthia, she was nervous-this was really happening and it had come from nowhere.

"Do you want to? I'll call your father and get him down here if you'd like-or keep him away if you'd prefer."

"Is this guy, you know, is he OK?"

"If Charles likes you he'll make you look like you were born to this."

She grinned. Now Jamie wasn't the kind of kid to do that. You'd get a smile out of her and a laugh, but you'd never get what you'd call an out and out grin. This was it. "Don't tell Dad. I want to surprise him." She was gone to the make up area.

Cynthia moved over to Charles. "Just a word of caution. Dad is Brian Kinney."

"Point taken. Fuck me, I knew she looked like someone I knew." He was checking his light meter. "Did she inherit the Kinney attitude along with the bone structure?"

"To be on the safe side, I'd assume she has."

"Dear God." He moved a light. "Of course that could work." He adjusted a reflector. "You know, I get a finders fee for this one if she photographs as well as I think she will."

"Just remember who she calls 'Daddy'."

Ninety minutes later it was done. The film was shot, the Polaroid's were fabulous and the contact sheets were looking good. Charles had handed over every roll as it came out of the camera and they had been rushed through development. Jamie was back in her denim mini and one of Brian's old dress shirts looking them over with Charles.

"Sweetie, you said Ford was interested? You show them a couple of these-I show them a couple of these-and you're started on the climb up, darlin."

Jamie threw her arms around his neck, kissed his cheek. "You're wonderful!"

"Charles, I believe we have a policy in place prohibiting manhandling young women or men on the premises." His first meeting over, he'd gone looking.

"Daddy!" She hadn't called him that since she was about ten. "You won't believe it-they let me model! They did my hair and make up and I got to wear these amazing clothes and the pictures-you have to look at them!"

"Jame, you're talking in exclamation marks. You're scaring me. What's going on?" He looked like if he didn't like the answer the pink slips would fly, and not just the silk ones.

Cynthia gave the quick explanation. "Annie showed up too pregnant to fit into the clothes and Jamie filled in." A glance at Jamie. "So she gets Annie's fee, right?"

Brian gave it no thought. "Of course." He was already seated at a table, looking at the contacts through a loop. "These are fucking good."

Jamie was all business, matching Brian's demeanor. "Do you mean that or are you just saying it because you're my father?"

"I never bullshit when it comes to business." He was circling a couple of the shots. "What do you think, Charles? These?"

The photographer looked over his shoulder. "For Donna or for her?"

"For her."

They looked again. "Yes…and this one with red scarf. The ones for Donna are marked in green-you agree?"

Brian looked them over. "Blow them up and let her make up her own mind, you know how Donna is about choosing her own pictures. And make up the ones of Jamie that we marked and get them to me by the end of the day."

Jamie had been holding back, letting the pros do their jobs and not wanting to get in the way. Charles went off to the dark room to do his own blow ups, a thing he enjoyed and insisted on doing. Brian told Cynthia that while she was playing with the talent he had been working and had moved his lunch meeting and his afternoon meeting to the next day. He would be spending the day catching up on some work he'd put off when he'd left for New York and Jamie could help him if she wanted, but first he wanted to go over to legal to make sure they'd been told to draw up the contract for Jamie's shoot and that everything was in order.

Around four-thirty Brian and Jamie left Vanguard for the day. They headed back to the loft, met up with Justin and changed for dinner at Debs.

Jamie cringed slightly when her father kissed his lover hello, but managed to restrain herself from saying anything. She even kept her mouth shut when they disappeared into the shower for almost forty minutes and managed to turn the music up loud enough to block out what the water didn't.

Listening to her father having shower sex with that, that-snotty fucking kid. Gross, disgusting and it was beyond her why he would want to keep the little turd around. Well, beyond the obvious and that was-God, her father doing it with-ewww.

He was short. He should drop ten pounds and he was-God, he was almost the same age as she was. Dad could do better, so much better.

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On the way over to Deb's they stopped for the requested wine and pies. Jamie said almost nothing and neither of the others pushed her.

Walking into the old house almost fifteen minutes early-a first for Brian, he put their things down in the kitchen while Justin looked in a few pots.

'What are we having?"

"I decided to splurge-it's not everyday we welcome a new arrival!" She gave Jamie yet another smothering hug. "Shrimp scampi and shrimp alfredo. I used my Grandmother's special recipes!"

"Oh, Christ, Deb-not again."

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