"A few of our boxes got stuck on another truck coming out of the warehouse..." Michael sighed. "But I have a waiting list that my customers... Novotny... No, Novotny... N-O-V-O-T-N-Y... No, no, no, don't put me on hold again. Hello? Hello?" Michael fell back in his chair with a sigh as the bell above the door jingled. "Whatever you want, we probably don't have it." He sighed.

"Well is that any way to drum up business, Mikey?" Brian said, picking up an issue of Superman, flipping through the pages pointlessly. "You're going to scare all the little kids away with an attitude like that."

Michael raised his eyebrows. "I've been put on hold five times already..."

"Really?" Brian pretended interest. "Let me give it a try." He coaxed Michael into handing over the phone. Brian listened for a moment to the musak playing over the line, rolling his eyes and clicking to end the call. "Oopps," he said tossing the phone down on the counter.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Michael exclaimed. "I've been on the phone for an hour."

"I just got shit... from your fucking mother," he said "Plus, I'm starving. Let's go eat."

"I can't" Michael said. "I have work to finish before I meet Ben for..."

"Christ, Mikey," Brian said. "You live with the guy. Let's go out and have some fun."

"I'm having dinner with my mother." Michael said picking up the phone again, dialing back.

"You call that fun?" Brian said "I call that a slow and painful death." He grabbed the phone from Michael's hand.

"And what exactly did you have in mind?" he said. "Some kind of sex party? Hitting the baths or the backroom at Babylon? I am in a re-la-tion-ship, Brian. Meaning I don't fuck around behind Ben's back."

"I'm not asking you to, Mikey." Brian said. "Shit, what the hell happened to just going out and having a good time?"

"Because 'having a good time' usually means we go out and you disappear somewhere to get your dick sucked... or you pick up some guy for a quick fuck. I don't want to spend tonight standing alone at a bar again while you disappear. Christ only knows how many of those guys actually have something."

"Coming from someone who lives with a positive guy" Brian got defensive.

"That's different!" Michael said. "Shit, Brian, that's different and you know it. Ben and I... have a very open relationship. We have since day one. He's not just some nameless trick you pick up to suck you off."

"Spare me the bullshit story," Brian said.

"It's not bullshit!" Michael said. "It's not bullshit that I worry about you. That I worry you could pick up the wrong guy. It's not bullshit that I don't want you to end up sick like Ben." Brian shook his head, running his fingers through his hair as he moved away from Michael, back facing him. "You don't believe me?" Michael asked.

Brian remained silent for a moment, turning back to face Michael. "It doesn't make one Goddamn bit of difference."

"Of course it does," Michael said. "Of course it does. What the hell's wrong with you?"

Brian looked directly at Michael with a look on his face which was so dreadfully similar to the one Brian used to wear as a child when he would climb through Michael's window at night to escape his father.

"I'm fucking positive, Michael."