Thanks god, I survived the hurricane. It was terrible though. The branches were flying around like crazy. My car got a dent and is in the garage now. But I have a week off, so I guess I can live without my car for a while. *sighs* ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brian’s POV A few days later when I felt better again and actually believed that I could survive this flu, I took Brutus with me to the office because I didn’t trust him. If I had left him alone I probably wouldn’t recognize my own loft anymore when I came home. I’m pretty sure that Brutus would have chewed on the furniture and distributed his scent marks in every corner. (I secretly have stolen one of Cynthia’s magazines and read something about dogs marking their territories. I really hoped Brutus didn't regard MY loft as his new territory!!) However, it turned out that bringing him to the office was one of my best ideas. All the clients that saw him were like “Aaaaah is he cute. Such a sweet little boy! Oh, ah. Aw…” Then they stroked him and the ice was broken. I didn’t have to do much. Brutus won their hearts and at the end of the day I had a lot of new accounts - and earache (from all the “Oh” and “Ah“). Still, Brutus, if you continue to act this way I won’t want to give you back to Mikey! I ruffled his head when he started to lick my face again. Buah, I guess I will gladly give him back to my friend though. After office closing time I went to the liquor store and bought some bottles of Beam. (Hey I had to celebrate something!) In the park I sat down on a bench. I had to rest a little bit. Damn, that bag with the bottles was heavy! Too stupid that I didn’t have a car. Well, I still had one, but it stood in front of my house. After my last adventure at Babylon the cops caught me drunk behind the wheel. I had almost lost my driver’s license. And so I decided to go on foot to the office and back from now on. Besides I had to walk through the park and you never knew whom you met here. Nevertheless I should stop drinking so much. Okay, I would stop tomorrow, I thought with an intense look at the whiskey bottle in my hand. I took a long swig - and almost spat it out again at the same moment. There was Justin standing in front of me. (Where did he come from, huh?) And I looked like an alcoholic. Great. When it came to that guy everything seemed to be against me. “Hi!” I blurted out. Gee, now I didn’t only look like an alcoholic, but a rather dumb alcoholic as well. There were so many things I wanted to tell the young man, but now where I had the chance to do so, my brain was numb. And shit, I had the feeling that my flu was coming back too. Justin’s POV I was pretty shocked to see Brian sitting on a bench here. After all the days where I didn’t see him in the park I had given up and didn’t look for him anymore. (Well, my eyes strayed from the way sometimes. But that was only a kind of habit.) I didn’t want to go over to him, I really didn’t want to. But my feet had a mind of their own. And before I knew what was happening, I stood in front of him. He had a deep red face. He must have drunken pretty much already. I was tempted to snatch the bottle from his hand and tell him that drinking wasn’t a solution for everything. But I guess I had no right in doing so. I didn’t even know why I felt so responsible for him and his health. Oh, maybe it was my bad conscience. Yes, that it must be! After all I had hit him pretty hard. “Hi.” Gee, for a guy who wanted to apologize I hadn’t much to say. “I’m sorry. I didn’t meant to hurt you.” Umm, now HE was the one apologizing. I didn’t expect this. But I should learn to expect nothing when it came to that guy. He was pretty unfathomable and confusing, just as confusing as my feelings for him. “Okay.” If I could say more than one word today? Fortunately Jeannie knew more to say. She barked happily. And it almost looked as if Brutus would smile at her. (Yes, I did believe that dogs can show something like a smile) He ran over to her and rubbed his head against her neck. And then the strange little guy made his leash stuck to the pin of Jeannie’s collar. After I laughed I bent forward to free him again. Brian’s POV Oh, damn. Now I had a great view of the world’s most perfect bubble butt. Don’t look at it. DON’T look. Shit, why did I look? I never had problems to get hard. Some men would be happy about that, but for me it was like a curse sometimes. I vaguely noticed Justin taking off Brutus' leash. The young blonde walked backwards and wanted to sit down on the bench next to me. But (un)fortunately he landed in my lap, exactly on my woody. Oh great.