Before that familiar face swam into view, Justin and Brian were sharing a slice of tiramisu. Of course Brian wouldn't have phrased it that way. Justin knew that because he'd asked if Brian wanted to share something, and Brian had replied with an 'are you crazy' look and a shake of the head. "I'll just have coffee."

So Justin had ordered the tiramisu. But, to Justin's great delight, Brian had taken up one of the two forks the waiter had brought and had already eaten a couple of bites. What had not caused Justin great delight was the fact that the waiter seemed to know Brian, to know that he would end up wanting some of Justin's dessert. But Justin had felt that something was off with the waiter all evening. He was just a little too attentive. To Brian anyway. And, at one point, Justin thought the waiter had glanced at Brian suggestively. Maybe it was innocent. Maybe. The waiter had dropped Justin's napkin. Sure he could have squatted to get it, rather than bending all the way over so that his ass was practically in Brian's face. But that alone wasn't terrible. It was the waiter's looking back at Brian while still bending over. Maybe it was innocent. But that coupled with the extra fork had Justin thinking the waiter had serviced Brian before, in every sense of the word.

All this would have bothered Justin much more than it did if Brian hadn't been completely ignoring the waiter. In fact, perhaps the waiter wouldn't have tried so hard to get Brian's attention if it had been more forthcoming. And, of course, whatever the waiter's motivation…however the waiter knew…he had brought the extra fork…the fork allowing Justin to live out a fantasy, that is, sharing a dessert with someone he loved, someone he desired beyond all reason (Justin was almost absolutely certain he'd let Brian fuck him anywhere…in the street…in front of his mother…anywhere).

Once the waiter was gone, gone, gone (out of sight, out of mind), Justin asked, "So whose party are we going to?"

Brian finished swallowing his third teeny tiny bite of tiramisu and took a sip of his coffee. Then he replied, "Mikey's."

"Your best friend Mikey?"

"Yeah."

Justin thought back to their conversation a couple of weeks ago. "He's the one who likes comic books and idolizes you, right?"

Brian nodded. Then he put another spoonful of sugar in his coffee. It was bitterer than he remembered.

"So tell me more about him."

"What do you want to know?"

"Um, when and where did you meet him?"

"We were both 13. Outside his school."

Justin gestured with his hand that Brian should elaborate. Brian sighed. But it was all pretence. He wanted it to seem like a chore, but he loved telling this story. "I happened to be walking by his school after skipping at mine. A few older guys (they looked like seniors) were fucking with him. They'd taken his action figure…Superboy or Doctor Strange…can't remember. The guys were tossing it back and forth between them. Mikey kept jumping for it and saying, 'Come on. Give it back. That's a collector's item!' He was kinda short back then. Course, compared to me, most people are. Anyway…I walked up to the guy who'd just caught the action figure, grabbed it, and handed it to Mikey. The tallest of them, who was actually an inch or two shorter than me, yelled, 'What the fuck, man?' I stepped in front of him and said, "You wanna take me on?" Then I saw it…just a flicker…But it was there."

"What was?"

"He wanted me."

Justin's eyes grew to the size of saucers. "Oh God! You didn't!"

Brian laughed. "I did." Brian's eyes were positively twinkling, and a smile crept across his lips. "The bell rang. Everyone else scurried away, but this guy, he just stood there glaring at me. When we were alone, I dragged him off to an empty doorway…one with a solid door, no windows, so no one could see us…then I pushed him up against it, face first. A minute later, I was balls deep, fucking him hard. He just kept grunting and begging me to fuck him harder."

"Oh my God! I can't believe you fucked the bully!"

"What?" Brian shrugged, but his eyes were…intense. "I got Mikey his doll back." Justin had seen (or heard) Brian defend himself to Cynthia, Mr. Ryan, and Mr. York. But not to him. And there was something different about it. In not only the intensity of his eyes…but also the timbre of his voice. Justin knew then that he was special to Brian. Brian really cared what Justin thought of him, at least in comparison to everyone at work.

Suddenly, Justin found it hard to breathe. He tried to change the subject (well, to move the conversation along). "So when did you see Mikey again?"

"Right after I finished. Apparently, he'd watched us go off together and followed."

Justin giggled. "How pervy!"

"Yeah, a little. Then when I was leaving he emerged from behind something…a dumpster maybe. He said, 'Hi! I'm Mikey, what's your name?' I just stared at him for a minute. Then I mumbled, 'Brian' and started walking away. He ran after me, talking a mile a minute. He told me how cool he thought it was that I gotten his action figure back and rambled on about the guy's superpowers and origin story. He rambled all the way to Liberty Avenue. I was about to shake him off when he mentioned that his mom worked at the Liberty Diner. He said, 'I can't wait to tell Ma how you saved me! A real live hero! Maybe even a superhero. With the power of seduction or something.' So we went in and had burgers. We started hanging out after that. He just kept following me around, and he was alright."

"This is someone you've been friends with a bit more than half your life."

"Yeah."

"And he's just alright?"

Brian stared at Justin blankly.

"That's all you have to say about him?"

"He's my best friend."

"That makes it even worse! You should have tons of things to say about your best friend."

"What am I supposed to say? How would you describe Daphne?"

"Daphne? She's awesome!"

Brian deadpanned, "Oh that's so much better. Really insightful commentary on her likes/dislikes…her character…I feel like I've known her my whole life."

Justin rolled his eyes. "Alright, alright. Let's see. Um…I've known her since kindergarten. I can't even remember how we became friends. I think she gave me half of her candy bar or something."

"Figures it would be food with you."

"Figures it would be your ego with you."

Brian raised an eyebrow.

"Mikey's first words to you were 'It was so cool how you," and ten minutes in, he was calling you a hero, maybe a superhero…in fact, from what you said, the hero stuff was probably what clinched it for you."

Brian inclined his head, as if to say, "Maybe."

Justin smiled triumphantly. "So…back to Daphne…we make each other laugh. We always have…first making fun of teachers and then jocks and cheerleaders, but even now. We bust up just reading the personals. And she'll go with me anywhere. The stranger, the better. And…(voice breaking a little) she's the only person who stayed friends with me after the bashing."

Brian suddenly had the urge to touch Justin. Of course, he was all the way across the table, so Brian settled for tugging on Justin's sleeve, but then slid a few fingers underneath and began caressing his wrist. Justin flushed and then smiled softly.

"She had a crush on me for a while…the summer before she started college."

Brian's eyes widened.

"Yeah..she wanted me to be her first, and, dumbass that I am, I agreed."

Brian nodded sagely. "You should never fuck your friends."

"I know that now! Where were you two years ago?"

The irony! If Gus hadn't been born the night they'd met…

"So what happened? I assume she got over it."

"Yeah, eventually. She said she thought we should try dating. She thought that maybe I was bi because I was able to get it up for her. When I explained that I'd been thinking about someone else, she looked so sad. She said she understood, and we tried to be friends like always. But it sucked. I felt bad so I spent a lot of extra time with her. I took her to all her favorite places and worked harder to make her laugh, but it was like, the happier I made her, the sadder she was, if that makes any sense."

"Actually, it does."

"I thought we'd ruined our friendship…Still, we moved to New York together, as planned, though I gave her an out before, just in case, you know, she thought it was a bad idea, under the circumstances. But she said no…that she was excited about us going together. So we went. Things were still a bit strained…especially the few times she'd walk into my room without knocking and catch me dressing or…uh…doing other stuff."

Brian chuckled. "She actually caught you jerking off?"

"Yeah. Twice. Talk about awkward!" Justin smiled. He was beet red. "But then came the solution to our problem…Dex."

"Is that a pharmaceutical?"

"No! A person. She met him the second week of classes in Foundations of Western Culture: Homer to Dante. She looked up from the book she was reading, Nightwood, and their eyes met. Dex said, 'The doctor's really funny, isn't he?' She asked, 'You've read it?' He nodded and said, "Twice.' That was it. Daphne knew she was in love."

Brian chuckled. "How long did it last?"

"Two months. But from the moment she came barreling into my bedroom, all excited to tell me about her suave, superintelligent new boyfriend, we were okay again."

That's when Brian looked up and saw, much to his chagrin, his best friend Mikey. Much to Mikey's chagrin, before Brian looked up, what he saw was…

Brian caressing some young blond's wrist.

A plate with a slice of tiramisu and two forks, both of them covered in crumbs and cocoa.

The young blond chatting away, and Brian actually listening. Not looking bored or checking out the waiters' asses. No. He was actually listening.

Mikey plastered a fake smile on his face and weaved through the crowd until he and the guy he was with made it over to Brian's table. "Brian! You're here!"

Brian clenched his jaw almost imperceptibly (Justin saw it), but did not move his hand away from Justin. He figured that doing that would draw more attention to it. Maybe Mikey hadn't noticed. Instead, he emptied his expression of everything and deadpanned, "What an astute observation."

Mikey laughed and pushed Brian's shoulder. Then he pulled him to a standing position (breaking the offensive caress) and into his arms, hugging him tight.

Brian wanted to keep Mikey's attention everywhere but on Justin, at least as long as possible. So he asked, "Who's this?"

Mikey looked back at his date and smiled softly. "This is Mark. He's a lawyer! He works with Mel."

Brian had to try very hard to keep the derision out of his expression. The guy was wearing an improperly tailored non-designer suit. He had a decent body (though through the large folds of fabric, Brian couldn't accurately gauge the firmness of his ass or the size of his cock), but he was bald. From the stubble on the back half of his head, Brian guessed that the guy had started shaving it as soon as his hairline had started to recede.

Mikey said, "Mark, this is Brian, my best friend."

Brian extended his hand. "Nice to meet you." He looked Mark right in the eyes and smirked when he felt Mark's grip tighten. Brian decided that Mark must really like Mikey, to be so threatened. Brian was about to introduce Justin. He looked back at the table, but Justin was no longer sitting. He was now standing next to Mikey. With a bright smile on his face, he said, "Hi! I've heard so much about you. I'm Justin, Brian's boyfriend."

Brian's what? Mikey looked at Brian, a smug expression on his face. He couldn't wait to see the twink's bright smile fade when Brian corrected him. Mikey waited and waited, but Brian didn't say a word. He just stood there with a blank expression on his face. He didn't even have the courtesy to look embarrassed. Mikey was forced to take the hand a still brightly smiling Justin had proffered (he'd been hoping the kid would run out of the restaurant crying after Brian set him straight). Mikey muttered, "Nice to meet you."

TBC…