by Jake Biondi
When his cell phone rang, Cole picked it up from the counter and, upon seeing that David Young was calling, immediately answered it.
“Hey,” Cole said. “How are you?”
“I’m good, thanks,” David replied. “Tired, but good. I just wanted to let you know that I made it to my parents’ house safely.”
“Oh, good. You ran out of here so fast last night I hardly had the chance to say goodbye.”
“I’m sorry. I just wanted to get on the road. I have so many questions for them.”
“I know. I hope they are open to answering them all for you.”
“They know something’s up. It’s not every day that I just show up unannounced at the crack of dawn.”
“Well maybe you should take a nap or rest a bit first. You have to be wiped out.”
“I know, but I can’t sleep. I’m running on adrenaline and stress right now. Once I talk to them, I’ll be able to rest.”
“Whatever you think is best,” Cole said as his front door buzzer rang. “Let me know how it goes, okay?”
“You bet.”
The buzzer rang again and Cole started walking toward the front door. “The buzzer’s ringing. Jesse must’ve forgotten his keys again.”
“No worries,” David said. “I have to go anyway. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Good luck with your parents.
“Thanks, babe.”
“Bye,” Cole said, ending the call. He put his phone into his shorts pocket and then opened the door. He was startled when he saw a visibly drunk Derek standing in the hallway, with a half-empty bottle of Maker’s Mark in his hand. “Derek?”
“I didn’t know where else to go,” Derek said, stumbling forward into the apartment.
Cole grabbed Derek’s arm to steady him and closed the door to the apartment. “What is wrong with you?”
“I’ve been drinking,” Derek said, slurring his words. He held up the bottle in his hand. “Want some?”
“No, thanks,” Cole said. “It’s ten o’clock in the morning and you’re trashed.”
Derek took a big gulp from the bottle and then wiped his mouth with his shirt sleeve. “Yup.” Derek took a step backward and stumbled, landing on the sofa behind him.
“What’s the matter?” Cole asked, sitting down on the other end of the couch.
“Only everything. My life is a mess. I’ve lost everything.”
“That’s not true.”
“It is. I lost my wife. I lost my twins. I lost you. And now I lost my son.”
“Your son? What are you talking about?”
“How could I lose you?” Derek asked as he leaned back against the pillow behind him. “What happened to us?”
“What do you mean you lost your son?”
“I love you. You know that, don’t you?” Derek’s eyes began to close. “You know...”
“Derek.”
“...I... love...” And before he could finish speaking, Derek passed out on the couch, spilling some of the alcohol all over his shirt.
Cole sat for a moment and watched Derek sleep. Then he straightened Derek’s legs on the couch, took the bottle resting on his chest and placed it on the coffee table, and folded Derek’s arms across his chest. He took a blanket off the other sofa and covered Derek with it.
As Derek slept off his buzz, Marco Ciancio wrapped up a telephone call in his hotel room. He stood staring out the window looking at Chicago’s skyline and Rachel Carson sat nearby looking through a wedding magazine.
“That’s perfect. Set it up for the day after tomorrow,” Marco said. “Excellent. Talk to you soon.” Marco ended the call and walked over to the table at which Rachel was sitting.
“What was that all about?”
“Setting up our meeting with the Mancinis to share our merger idea.”
“Why wait a day? Why not do it tomorrow and be done with it?” she asked as she more closely examined one of the wedding dresses in the magazine.
“It’s all about timing. I want to give the publicity firestorm that’s about to hit the Mancinis over Justin’s arrest time to rattle them.”
“Timing, eh? First the arrest itself, then news about David and Tyler, now the negative press over the arrest -- it all seems too perfect.”
“Perfect for us, you mean,” Marco said, standing behind Rachel and kissing her neck.
“And it was all happenstance or coincidence?”
“Call it what you want, my dear. It’s working to our advantage. Why question it?”
“And you had nothing to do with it?”
Marco looked down at the magazine. “That dress would look amazing on you.”
“It’s one of my top choices. There are so many options.”
“I’m sure whatever you pick out will be great,” Marco said. “I need to clean up and meet Gino.”
Marco headed into the bathroom as Rachel continued to peruse the magazine.
At the same time, Emmett was sitting on the edge of the bed in his room getting dressed. He pulled on some socks as Jensen came to the doorway.
“Hey,” Jensen said.
“Oh, hey,” Emmett said. “What’s up?”
“I have a question for you,” Jensen said, lying down on the bed next to Emmett.
“No, I haven’t called the colleges yet.”
Jensen smiled. “It’s not about that. It’s about Keith.”
“Keith? What kind of question do you have about him?”
“I just want to know what your relationship with him was like. You were engaged to him at one point, right?”
“I was,” Emmett said. “It didn’t last long. The engagement, I mean.”
“What happened?”
“I called it off and ended things with him,” Emmett replied, standing up and grabbing a suit from his closet.
“Didn’t you love him?”
“I loved him very much. But he didn’t trust me. He accused me of cheating on him with Max. And if someone doesn’t trust you, you can’t marry him.”
“Did you? Cheat on him with Max?”
Emmett pulled on his pants. “No. Max and I were just close friends at the time. Keith’s ex Nick, Rachel’s brother, took a bunch of photos of Max and me and sent them to Keith to make it look like we were having an affair. Max was with Logan at the time.”
“Rachel’s brother? Wow. Why would Nick do that?”
“To fuck things up between Keith and me. And it worked...because Keith let it.”
“But now you’re with Max, so maybe things work out for the best?”
Emmett pulled on a white shirt. “I agree. I’ll always love Keith, but he’s not the man I’m meant to be with. You’ll learn as you grow older to follow your gut and let it guide you.”
“I already follow my gut instincts. It’s gotten me through most of my life.” Jensen paused for a moment. “And you like Keith and Michael together?”
“You know Michael; he’s a great guy. They get along really well.”
“But if it weren’t for Nick, you and Keith might still be together?”
“Maybe,” Emmett admitted. “But I’m sure something else would have happened to raise the trust issue. I’m very happy with Max and love him very much. And he loves me, too. That’s my wish for you -- that you end up with a wonderful guy like I did.” Emmett adjusted his belt. “So why all this interest in Keith all of a sudden?”
“No reason,” Jensen lied. “I was just curious about how you two get along now, I guess.”
“We get along just fine. We’ll always care for each other; we have a special bond.”
“That’s good. Keeps drama to a minimum.”
Emmett laughed. “I guess it does.”
“What’s with the suit?”
“I’ve been summoned to a meeting at Mancini Global. I think I have to participate in a press conference of some kind.”
“Wow, sounds important.”
“Let’s hope it’s quick. I don’t do well with TV cameras.”
“You’ll be a hit,” Jensen said. “Who knows? Maybe you’ll be discovered and become a big model like Cole.”
Emmett laughed. “I’ll leave the modeling to him, but thanks.”
At the same time, Keith Colgan and Michael Martinez were at Keith’s apartment packing up the dining room. Knee-deep in boxes, they sorted through everything in the room.
“I never realized how much shit I have,” Keith said. “Are we going to have room for all this at your place?”
“We’ll see,” Michael replied. “We can always rent a storage locker.”
“Some of this stuff is Emmett’s from when he lived here. We can get it back to him so we have less to move.”
“That would be great,” Michael said, loading some dishes into a box. “Have you heard from anyone today? Emmett?”
“Nope,” Keith replied. “I’m sure they’re dealing with the fallout from the arrest. It’s all over the news.”
“I’m sorry this is happening.”
“It’s not your fault, Michael. Like you told me, you were just doing your job. It’s out of your hands now.”
Michael walked over to Keith and put his arms around him. “Know what is in my hands? You.” He kissed Keith.
“Aww, thanks.”
“I love you, Stormy.”
“I love you, too,” Keith replied, kissing Michael. “But as much as I’d love to stand here kissing you, we have work to do.”
“Yes, Sir,” Michael declared, laughing. “I may be the commander at work, but you sure are the commander at home.”
“I’m not that bad, am I?”
“Not at all, Stormy,” Michael said, returning to the box. “You’re just fine.” They continued packing up Keith’s dining room.
In Chicago’s Gold Coast, Gino entered his bedroom dressed in a suit. He found that Justin was still sound asleep. He walked over to the bed, sat down on it, and gently nudged Justin, who eventually woke up.
“Hi,” Justin said, stretching his arms over his head.
“I’m sorry to wake you up; I know you’re exhausted,” Gino said. “But I think you need to get dressed and get to the office. The media is all over your arrest and your office keeps calling your phone.”
“Oh, shit,” Justin said, sitting up. “Is it that bad?”
“I’m afraid so. You’re all over the news, but your public relations guys are doing their best to reply to any questions. I really think Derek and you need to get ahead of this story before it begins to affect your business.”
“Have you heard from Derek?”
“I haven’t,” Gino said. “You should check your phone; it’s been lighting up with calls and messages all morning. I wanted to let you get at least a little sleep, though.”
“Thanks,” Justin said, getting out of bed. “Let me clean up and I’ll head over”
“I’m going to call Sam to see if there’s any news. I’ve already turned over all your clothes from the night of the shooting to them. And I’ll try to locate Derek, too.”
“Great,” Justin said, kissing Gino on the cheek and hurrying into the bathroom.
Gino’s phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket and answered it.
“Gino Ciancio.”
“Hi, Gino. It’s Cole.”
“Cole, how are you?”
“I’m okay, thanks. I didn’t know how else to reach Justin. I don’t have his number.”
“No problem. What’s up?”
“I wanted to let Justin know that Derek is here with me.”
“What is he doing there?”
“He showed up here a little while ago, completely drunk. He was babbling on about a lot of stuff and then passed out on my couch.”
“Drunk?”
“I’ve seen all the news stories about Justin and I figured he might be looking for him.”
“We are,” Gino said. “I’m glad you called. How’s he doing now?”
“He’s still asleep on the couch.”
“Make him some coffee and see if you can get him up. He needs to get to the office to meet with us and his attorney as quickly as possible. Justin and I are headed there now.”
“Okay. I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thanks, Cole,” Gino said. “I’ll talk to you soon.” Gino ended the call and then dialed Sam. “Hey Sam, it’s me. Is there any news?”
As Gino spoke with Sam and Justin showered before heading to the office, Jesse stepped into Logan’s office. He gently knocked on the door and, when no answer came, opened the door and entered the office.
He saw Logan asleep at his desk, his face lying on a pile of documents. Jesse closed the office door behind him and walked over to Logan. He tried to wake him by softly rubbing his shoulders. When Logan didn’t wake up, Jesse shook him more forcefully.
Then Jesse looked down and saw an empty wine bottle rolling back and forth under Logan’s desk. He knelt down and picked up the bottle, then looked at Logan and tried to wake him up again.
He grabbed Logan’s shoulders and pulled him up, leaning his body against the back of his chair. Then he gently slapped Logan’s cheek.
“Logan, Logan,” Jesse called.
Eventually, Logan partly opened his heavy eyelids.
“It’s me.”
“Uh,” Logan mumbled.
“You need to wake up.”
Logan just mumbled more.
“Come on, Logan. You’re at work.”
A knock came to the door and Logan’s secretary poked her head into the office. Jesse jumped in front of Logan’s chair, blocking him from the secretary’s view.
“Excuse me,” she said. “I have the files for his client meeting. It starts in ten minutes.”
“You can leave them right there on the bookcase,” Jesse said. “I’m going to the meeting in his place.”
“Okay, great,” she said, putting the files down.
“Thank you,” Jesse said as she left the office. Jesse turned back to Logan. “God, babe. What are you doing to yourself?”
Near Logan’s office building, Hugo Martinez and Jensen were walking hand in hand in Millennium Park. They walked over to the famous “Bean” sculpture and paused beneath it.
“Selfie time,” Hugo said, putting his arm around Jensen and taking a photo of them with the sculpture shining in the background. “Perfect.”
“It is a perfect day; the weather is awesome,” Jensen said. “Of course, this is Chicago. We’ve had snow in May before so you never know...”
“It’s not a perfect day because of the weather,” Hugo said. “It’s a perfect day because we’re spending time together.”
“Aww,” Jensen replied, taking Hugo’s hand as they continued to walk through the park. “So what do you think of Keith? Do you like your uncle with him?”
“I guess. I don’t really know him that well. I only spoke with him a bit at the party, that’s all. He seemed cool enough.”
“Did you know he was once engaged to Emmett?”
“No. Obviously, things didn’t work out.”
“Nope,” Jensen agreed. “But your uncle seems very happy with him.”
“He does.”
“Hugo, what do you do when you know about something that you should probably share with a friend, but if you do, you’re going to hurt another friend?”
“Wow, heavy stuff.”
“Just something that’s on my mind.”
“That’s a tough one,” Hugo said. “Sounds like either way, someone’s going to get hurt.”
“I know.”
“Anyone I know?”
“Only a little,” Jensen said. “I’m just not sure what to do.”
“I always try to follow my heart and let it guide me,” Hugo said. “That’s what I’m doing with you.”
Jensen smiled. “And what does your heart say about me?”
“That you’re a great guy who I want to get to know better.”
Jensen kissed Hugo quickly. “Thank you for saying that. I like you, too.”
“Good. Well, I need to meet my father for lunch, so I need to get going.”
“Thanks for the walk,” Jensen said. “I need to get up to the restaurant anyway.”
Hugo kissed Jensen. “Call me later?”
“Of course,” Jensen replied, smiling.
They hugged each other and then headed in opposite directions out of the park.
Meanwhile, Derek walked into Cole’s living room after having showered. He was wearing only his pants. Cole was standing in the kitchen pouring a cup of coffee.
“Feel better?” Cole asked.
“A little,” Derek said. “I have one hell of a headache.”
“Too much Maker’s Mark will do that to a person,” Cole said. “More coffee?”
“No, thanks,” Derek said, sitting down to put on his shoes.
“I put a clean t-shirt there for you to wear. The shirt you came in is soaked in whiskey.”
Derek picked up the shirt from the couch and held it up, examining the Notre Dame logo on it. “Oh, sure. Kick a guy when he’s down.”
“Don’t worry, it won’t hurt you. Besides, you’re only going across the street. I put your shirt in the wash. I’ll get it back to you later.”
“Thanks for taking care of me,” Derek said, pulling the shirt over his head. “I’m sorry to stumble in on you like this.”
“It’s okay,” Cole said, walking over and sitting down next to Derek. “You’ve had a rough few days.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Sounds like you should get to the office to meet with Justin.”
“I’ll stop home, put on a suit, and then head on over.”
“You don’t really think he shot you, do you?”
Derek shook his head. “No. We certainly have had our differences, but no. Besides, he’s way too smart to just leave his gun lying around like that.”
“Agreed.”
Derek stood up from the couch. “I should get going.”
“Derek, what did you mean earlier about losing a son?”
