At 3pm, Justin walked into his apartment with a silly grin on his face. He shut the door and leaned against it for a moment, sighing in contentment, before shaking his head and moving to sit on the couch. Daphne bounded out of her room when she heard the door, and, in her excitement, she nearly jumped onto her best friend's lap. Justin chuckled. Then he complained, but with no edge to his voice, as he pushed her over a bit, "Daph! Give a guy some breathing room!"

Daphne giggled. She kept poking Justin in the chest and belly as she urged him to spill. "So…how'd it go with G.Q. Super Hottie last night?"

Justin smiled. "His name is Brian."

Daphne sighed heavily. She huffed, "Keeping such juicy details from one's best friend should be against the law. In fact, I think it is, and it's punishable by tickle torture!"

Justin's eyes widened. He gestured frantically. "No. No! Daph!" Then Daphne was on top of him tickling his arm pits and, after she'd peeled his shoes and socks off, the bottoms of his feet, eliciting gales of laughter from her best friend. Two minutes later, red faced and out of breath, he begged, "Please, Daph…no…more. I'll talk! I'll talk!"

She sat back up and waited, arms crossed and eyes narrowed.

Justin sat up and rearranged his clothes. He didn't know how he was going to explain to Daphne something he did not fully understand himself. He looked down and confessed, "We didn't fuck."

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"We didn't fuck."

Cynthia's eyes nearly popped out of her head, and her jaw dropped. She exclaimed incredulously, "What?!! You two were so hot for each other that I thought you were gonna fuck right there in the gallery!"

Brian shrugged and tried to move past Cynthia. When that didn't work, he snapped, "Why are you here anyway? And don't fucking try to bullshit me!" He tossed her pretext back at her, that is, the contract she'd claimed needed to be signed immediately.

"So I was curious. Did you successfully steal Justin from Johnson? I have a right to know. I was the one who put you on his trail."

Brian sighed. He turned away from the prying woman, grabbed a bottle of Jim Beam from his minibar, and poured himself a tumbler full. He took a long drink before admitting softly, "I haven't offered him the internship yet."

Cynthia's heels clicked loudly on his hardwood floor as she approached him. When he turned back to look at her, he saw her tight face and crossed arms. "So let me get this straight. You didn't fuck him, and you didn't offer him a job?"

Brian just nodded.

"Then what the fuck did you do?"

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"Then what the fuck did you do?"

Justin smiled again, but this time his eyes lost focus as he remembered.

Daphne snapped her fingers in front of his face a few times. "Stay with me, Justin."

Justin laughed a little and blushed. "Sorry."

"Well!"

"It started out the way you probably imagined. The ride to his loft was crazy. He had a limo and a driver. The driver even opened the door for us." Justin smiled brightly. "I sat next to Brian, but the second the door was shut, he had me on his lap, straddling him. His hands were everywhere, it seemed, all at the same time. In my hair, on my ass, on my neck. He kissed me (sigh) so deeply. I haven't been kissed like that, well, since the first time. I just melted into his arms. At first. Then I was so dizzy, but it was like I was on fire. I rubbed up against him and started touching him everywhere. I even slipped my hands under his clothes. His skin felt so soft, but I could feel the hard muscles beneath. It was fucking surreal. I thought we were gonna fuck right in the car."

When Justin fell silent, Daphne prodded impatiently, "Well! Why didn't you?"

Justin looked down at his hands and started fidgeting with his pants. "We probably would have, but then…"

Daphne cried out (nearly screaming she was so impatient), "What?"

Justin laughed, but the laughter didn't reach his eyes.

He stammered, "He felt the scar."

Daphne suddenly fell silent. She was strangely at a loss for words. She just stared at Justin with wide, concerned eyes.

His voice barely rising above a whisper, he continued, "He waited until we were upstairs, but then he started asking me all these questions."

Daphne just gaped. "You answered them?"

Justin nodded. He actually smiled. It wasn't a sunshine-y smile, but one of wonder. He was surprised at how much he'd shared with the man, too. He hadn't been able to talk about the bashing with anyone, not in detail. Not with Daphne, his mom, or the slew of therapists his mom had taken him to see. But somehow, he wasn't just able to talk about it with Brian. He had really wanted to share. He still couldn't understand why. "We talked all night. We were lying in his bed, fully dressed, in the dark. If not for the moonlight filtering through the window and onto his face, I wouldn't have been able to see anything. I can't even remember falling asleep, but I woke up in his arms."

Justin smiled and shook his head again. "In the morning, we talked some more. He told me about his son, Gus. He's three now."

Astonished, Daphne parroted, "He has a son?"

Justin nodded. "A lesbian friend of his wanted to have a child with her partner. He acted like it was no big deal, you know, saying that he was just the sperm donor. But I could see it in his eyes. He loves his son. Then he asked if was hungry."

Daphne laughed. "And you said, 'Yes' cause you're a fucking garbage disposal."

Justin glared at Daphne. "Hey!"

"What? I just call them as I see em."

Justin stuck out his tongue, but then continued, his voice filled with awe, "He took me to this little fish market. I swear it's so tiny that you'd never see it from the street if you didn't know it was there. We ordered some fresh shrimp and tilapia, and they steamed it with green beans and sweet potatoes. We walked to the river bank and sat on the grass."

"He actually sat on the grass in his Armani suit?"

Justin shook his head. "No way he would have done that. By then, he had changed into jeans and a wife beater."

"So you ate lunch on the grass…"

"Yeah. We shared it out of the Styrofoam container." Justin chuckled. "We forgot to grab plastic forks, so we ate with our hands. Good thing we remembered napkins. Toward the end, he let me feed him some shrimp, and, then, I licked the sauce off of his lips. I don't know what was in it, but it was delicious…"

Daphne giggled. "I'm guessing the sauce had a little help from G.Q. Super Hottie's lips."

Justin blushed. "Brian tossed what was left of our lunch and pulled me onto his lap."

"(shuddery sigh) God, Daphne, he kisses like no one else…"

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After Brian threatened Cynthia with a pink slip and even bodily harm, she left, though begrudgingly. Finally alone, Brian took his mug of coffee and sat down at the computer. Then he Googled "Justin Taylor Chris Hobbs."