Improbable

"Sorry, I wouldn't have come by but Gus cannot function without Beanie," Lindsay attempted to explain.

Brian responded with a dismissive motion of his hand. "I can't function without some of my favourite toys, either," he told her with a provocative smirk. "Where do you think Sonny Boy's beloved Beanie is?" He kicked at the toys that scattered the floor, and studied them all with evident repulsion.

"I don't know," Lindsay admitted. She knelt on the floor, and started to pick at the toys. "I'll just look about, and if I can't find Beanie then I'll buy him a new one and present it as the old Beanie."

"Devious," Brian complimented her with admiration.

Brian abandoned Lindsay on the floor, and went into his bedroom to remove his towel and to dress into clothes whilst she searched his apartment for their son's soft-stuffed rabbit.

"Brian, did you use all the toothpaste?" a voice came from the bathroom. Lindsay was halted in her search by the familiarity of the voice; she took a moment to identify the voice.

"Yeah," Brian answered in an unrepentant voice.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier? I could have put it on the list for the shop," the voice said. Lindsay almost cried with surprise when she realised that the voice was Justin's.

Lindsay turned around to watch as Justin entered the bedroom from the bathroom with a towel draped around his waist. She immediately refocused her stare to the floor because she did not want her astonishment to be too obvious to Brian or Justin; she busied herself with the toys that surrounded her.

"Guess it slipped my mind," Brian justified himself. Lindsay envisioned his hand make another dismissive motion.

"I'll pick some up from the corner later," Justin said. "We're out of milk, anyway."

"Could you pick some more lube up, too?" Brian asked. "The two bottles I have won't last out the week." Despite the content of their conversation, Brian and Justin's relationship sounded to have a dreadfully normal domestic aspect. The fact amused and pleased Lindsay simultaneously.

"Sure," Justin promised him.

"Thanks," Brian said.

"I could do with more lube, too," Justin assured him.

Lindsay could hear Justin re-enter the bathroom, and Brian descend the stairs and cross the room to her. "Any luck with Beanie?" he asked her.

"Oh . . . No, not yet," she answered him.

Lindsay stood from the floor, and met Brian's stare with embarrassment. She refocused her stare upon her feet, and shoved her hands into the pockets of her trousers. "So . . ." she said in a tentative tone. "Are you and Justin . . ?"

"Are we what?" Brian asked with sincere uncertainty; he raised an eyebrow at her in question.

"I don't know . . . back to normal?" she attempted.

Brian's forehead became lined with confusion. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"I don't know how you'd say it," Lindsay admitted. "Boyfriend and boyfriend? Non-boyfriend and non-boyfriend? I don't know the terms for two people in a non-relationship."

Brian's expression became one of distress and frustration. "We're not boyfriend and boyfriend, and we're not non-boyfriend and non-boyfriend," he assured her with conviction. "I'm the same promiscuous Archduke of Anal Intercourse, and he's still with that . . . that . . ." Brian surrendered to his own lack of information, and shouted: "Justin, what's your boyfriend's name?"

"Simon," Justin's answer came with an exacerbated shout.

Brian refocused his attention to Lindsay. "Simon," he repeated to her. "He's still with Simon."

"Then, why is he here?" Lindsay asked due to her own lack of information.

"His lover lives with his Mommy," Brian answered her. A slow smile of amusement came upon his mouth.

"So, you let Justin stay with you?" Lindsay asked in admiration.

"I already pay for his school and his bus fare and his medical bills," Brian reminded her. "He doesn't cause me any trouble, and he cleans and he cooks and he buys me lube, so it's not a problem for either of us. . . Is it a problem for you?"

"Oh, no," Lindsay assured him. "I'm just surprised, that's all."

"You and Mel had an in-house separation," Justin reminded her as he descended the stairs and made towards the kitchen.

"I suppose we did," Lindsay conceded.

"And we had an amicable separation," Justin informed her. "And it's not like we can avoid each-other, so we may as well." He came from the kitchen with a bottle of water, and as he passed them on his return journey to the bedroom, Brian ruffled his hair affectionately.

"Okay," Lindsay said after a moment. "I think I'll come back later for Beanie." She started to walk backwards from the scene that had presented itself before her, because it seemed too unconventional to be true and functional.

"I won't be here later," Brian informed her. "It's the Cock-off Contest at Babylon."

"And I'm off to the theatre with Simon," Justin informed her from the bedroom.

"Tomorrow, then," she said. "Whatever." Lindsay then escaped from the apartment with a lessened hold on reality.

Lindsay could not comprehend their situation. Perhaps, since their relationship had been structured to such eccentric standards, their separations could have similar structures.

It all seemed too improbable, but if anyone could operate with improbable it was Brian and Justin.