The Office
Note: It occurred to me that an executive at the level Brian is supposed to be working at would have a lot of demands on his time.
“Goddamnit, I’ve been here since six fucking thirty for the fucking breakfast meeting with the head of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History that Vance bailed out on. I said I wanted coffee, not whatever the fuck that shit is.”
“Not a morning person?” Her only answer was a glare. “OK, I’ll be right back.”
Vance stopped Cynthia as she was walking out. “Are you doing something at the moment?”
“I’m sorry, he’s given me an assignment with a deadline.” Nodding, he let her go.
“Brian, I need you to deal with the pitch this afternoon.”
He looked up, glare still in place. “You mean the one you said you’d handle so I shouldn’t concern myself about?”
“Right. I’ve got to leave early today, can’t be avoided. Sorry to dump it on you, but no choice. I’ll have Bennett brief you about it in—say—ten minutes?”
“What about the Cadillac pitch I’m supposed to be giving at two?”
“That’s not a problem, is it? The Depends meeting isn’t
until
“Caddy’s to adult diapers. Should be aimed at the same demographic
anyway. Have you made any decisions about opening the
“Soon. I have to speak with the bankers to see how things are standing in that department. You’ll know when I do.” He started to walk out. “I have a lunch meeting, so I’ll just see you tomorrow, then.”
Cynthia handed Brian a fresh cup of latte. “Better?”
“Yeah. Get the head of the car team up here and tell him that I need
a briefing in half an hour so that I can pitch this afternoon. After that,
tell
“Are you still on for your lunch with the people from Mellon Bank?”
“What time was that for?”
“12:30. It will be tight with the car people.”
“Shit and it’s too late to reschedule them. Fucking shit.”
The phone started ringing, again. Cynthia picked up. “Brian Kinney’s office…. Just a moment, I’ll see…it’s Justin, can you take it?”
“Yeah, what do you want…I paid that last week… Justin, stop being a princess, you twat….Tell them to look again… Of course I’m fucking sure, I have my checkbook right here, it was check number…Fuck. OK, I’ll get it to them this afternoon…$10,500 for the semester, right?…Yeah. They’ll have it today….Later.”
“You write the check and I’ll get a messenger to take it to
the Bursar’s office. That’s the office on
“Yeah, that’s the one. OK. Next see if you can move the lunch to a restaurant closer than the one down at the point. That should help and they probably won’t give a shit as long as they’re not paying for it.”
“Mr. Kinney?” A nondescript young man with wire rims and a cheap suit, carrying storyboards poked his head nervously in the open door. Brian looked up.
“Who the fuck are you?”
“I’m Sean Bennett, Mr. Vance asked me to tell you about the Depends presentation?”
“Right. Sit down.” He immediately forgot that the man was in the office. “When are we scheduled to pitch the bank?”
“That’s not until next Tuesday.”
“OK, fuck em for now. I’ll make lunch fast and be back for the car thing. If I’m late give them a tour or something to kill time. Show them the fabulous operation we have going here.”
“Impress them?”
“Show them your tits if you think it will help.”
“I think I can manage. You need anything else?”
“Just change the reservation and make sure that the bankers know. Bennett? You’re on. Educate me about diapers for the Metamucil set.”
For the next twenty minutes the poor man tried to answer every question put to him while trying to ignore that he was scared to death of Brian Kinney and that that he was new to the company and wasn’t all that sure what he was doing. Somehow Kinney held his temper even though it was obvious he knew the guy was a neophyte. In fact, he even seemed to go easy on him once he realized it. After he was finished with his pitch to the company’s number two man a heavy silence fell in the room as Kinney stared at him—or through him, depending on your perspective, taking his measure.
In a voice quieter than he would have expected, Brian asked the frightened man. “You’re new, aren’t you?”
“I started last week.”
“Ever work in advertising before?”
“No, sir. This is my first real job.”
“What’s your background?”
“I was a business major at Pitt.”
Kinney nodded without saying anything, still staring.
“This your first presentation?”
“Uh, yes.” He had the sense not to apologize.
He pushed an intercom button. “Cynthia?”
“Yes?”
“I want Bennett transferred to my team effective this afternoon. If Vance gives you any shit about it, tell him to talk to me.”
“OK, boss. The messenger is here. And your mother called. She wants to know if you can take her to church tomorrow.”
“Jesus. My life sucks.”
“Brian? The messenger?”
“Send him in.” He spoke to Sean. “You work for me now. I expect you at the pitch at four thirty.” He was dismissed.
“Thank you, Mr. Kinney. I’ll do my best, I swear. You won’t be sorry, I promise that you’ll…”
“It’s OK, I get the idea. Most of the people around here call me Brian, at least to my face. Just work hard and we’ll see what happens. I’ll see you later.”
Walking down the hall to the elevators, he broke a smile. Damn, he’d been hearing what a prick Kinney was, that he was a heartless bastard who’d screw you as soon as look at you, but he was alright. Smart, tough, sharp and no bullshit, but OK. He’d just been handed a major chance by Kinney to make an impression and show them what he could do. Damn, now just don’t stick you foot in it, you asshole.
“Cynthia? I’m leaving for lunch. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“I moved it to Sam’s. You know, that new seafood place next door? The reservation is in your name.”
“Good.”
“And Justin called, the school got the check. I think he was standing there waiting for it, poor thing sounded like a nervous wreck.” She leered slightly. “You might want to make it up to him later.”
“Bite me.”
“That’s in his job description, not mine. Enjoy your lunch.”
=======================================
“Hey Miss Cyn, are you still on a diet? You’re looking great.”
Cynthia sat next to Laurie, Vance’s assistant and her peer in the hierarchy of Vanguard. It was lunch hour, thank God. Brian had been a bear this morning, even by his standards.
“Thanks, sweetie. With Brian around I try to look as decent as I can manage. He’s such a peacock.”
“Between you and me, how do you handle that man? He’s worse than Vance when he’s on a rampage.”
“I’ve been with him forever and he’s really a big pussy cat when you get to know him.”
“Sure he is.”
“You’d be surprised. He just won’t admit it.”
“Is it true that he has a son? I heard some of the girls talking, but then I heard that he’s gay. And who was that little blonde kid he brought to Vance’s party? C’mon, give.”
“He really doesn’t like talking about his personal life.”
“Cyn…”
What the Hell, it wasn’t like everyone didn’t know anyway. “The blonde is Justin—they’re friends. And he has a son. He’s about two now and he lives with his mother who is an old friend of Brian’s. He was just doing her a favor.”
“Shit, honey. He available for any more
favors?”
=======================================
“Hey, Sean. I hear Kinney had you moved over to his side of the court. You do know he dances on the other side of the ballroom, right?”
Sean was in the McDonald’s across the street on his lunch hour. He sat at the empty space next to a couple of his coworkers.
“He’s gay? I mean, I heard a rumor, but it’s true?”
“Queer as a three dollar bill.”
“Yeah, you didn’t hear the scandal? His boyfriend was bashed last year, almost got killed from what I hear. Kinney was there when it happened. There was a trial, lot’s of coverage. Ryder almost fired him over it—and that was coming on the heels of the sexual harassment suit that he got hit with a couple of months before that.”
“You shitting me? What happened?”
“It somehow got dismissed. Kip Thomas, that was the guy who sued him. What an asshole. He disappeared and that’s no loss. He was like this major little weasely shit.”
“You think Kinney really blackmailed Kip? You think he did it?”
“Nah, Kinney is smarter than tanking his career over a blow job. Kip was a shit.
And you were at the picnic, he has the goods waiting for him at home, he doesn’t need a turd like Thomas. Besides, Thomas is the one who fell off the planet and Kinney is the one sitting in the corner office.”
“Yeah, Ryder wouldn’t have let a scandal threaten his business. If he thought Kinney was guilty, he would have cut him loose so fast your head would spin.”
“Kinney has a boyfriend?”
“Well, yeah. I think I heard that they live together. The pisser is that he’s like seventeen, eighteen years old.”
“Yeah, he likes them young, I guess.”
“Man, you shoulda been at the cookout Vance had a couple of months ago. He had this company thing at his house. You should see this place. It’s an estate on like ten acres and the pool and the tennis courts and the whole bit. So, Kinney shows up wearing these tight jeans and a black tank and the whole look is just ‘fuck me’. All the wives were creaming just looking at him. I thought Vance would shit.”
“Yeah, and he brought this kid with him, this blonde kid who looks like he’s about fifteen.”
“You’re shitting me. What happened? Did they do it or something?”
“It would have livened things up if they had. But you know how pissy Kinney can get? The master of the snotty putdown? The kid is almost his equal in snot except he does it with this angelic little smile. He made a couple of remarks that even had Kinney doing double takes. But you know what was really funny? The kid kept a lid on Kinney. Whenever he was about to cross a line with some crack to someone, the kid would calm him down.”
“Yeah, OK, he’s gay, but he’s really good, right? That’s what I heard. I heard that he’s the best in the company and that he’s won a bunch of awards and stuff.”
“That’s why Ryder and Vance put up with him. He’s the fucking best they have and if he got pissed and left, half of the accounts would go with him.’
“You think he’ll stay at Vanguard?”
“I dunno. He gets head hunted pretty often, from what I hear.”
“He’s been there for almost ten years, but if he ever decided to start his own agency, he’d probably make it fly. He works harder than just about anyone in the place—practically lives there when a big push is on. Plus he’s smart and he’s a tough son of a bitch.”
“And now you’re on his team.”
“Yeah, good luck, man. You screw up and he’ll eat your balls for breakfast.”
=======================================
“So I think you’ll agree with a softer approach that’s more in tune with the family investor, you should see an increase in clients.”
“Sort of the Hallmark cards approach to banking, Mr. Kinney?”
“That would be one way of looking at it. Would any one like dessert today?”
“What about you, Brian? Maybe some of that cheesecake they’re famous for?”
“No, thank you. I don’t eat dessert.” Besides it would take twenty minutes he didn’t have.
“You set a good example with your twenty nine inch waist. Alright, that’s it, I guess. Brian, I have to thank you for a pleasant lunch. We’ll get together early next week to go over the finished drawings. Would you like to come for a walk with us? We always try to have a stroll after a meal, makes the digestion work better.”
“Thank you, but I’m afraid that I have to be getting back. We’ll have those storyboards for you on Tuesday. I’ll look forward to it, Bill. Enjoy your walk.”
=======================================
“Brian! There you are. This is Mr. Flynn, the president of the Cadillac division. These other gentlemen are…”
“They’re the suits who follow me around, Miss Monroe. Mr. Kinney? Glad to meet you. It’s always good to do business with another Mick. What part of the old country are you from, then?”
Cynthia thought that Brian would swallow his tongue. “I believe that the family was originally from Donegal, but that was a while ago, Mr. Flynn. Shall we?” he indicated the conference room.
“Cynthia?” He waited in the hall while the others went in. “How long have they been here?”
“Only about fifteen minutes. Mr. Flynn seemed pretty happy with the fact that you share a common heritage. Just something you might want to play with.”
“Yeah, give him a couple of stiff ones.”
“That was rank, even for you.” She smoothed his jacket down where it had ridden up slightly. “The others are all in there.” She gave him a gentle push. “Go on. Be brilliant.” Rolling his eyes, he went to work.
=======================================
Two hours later Cadillac was represented by the Vanguard Agency, hands shaken and contracts signed. Not only was it a huge account, but also had the kind of prestige that Brian had been trying for. God knew it was more down his alley than diapers.
Mr. Flynn had insisted that they get together for dinner to celebrate and that he should bring his lady. Thanking the man, Brian explained that it was short notice tonight to have his someone get downtown from where they lived, let alone dressed up. Another time would be great, though. In another millennium, perhaps.
Flynn let it go, telling him about his daughter back home in Flint, Michigan. He would tell Brian more about her over dinner at the most expensive French restaurant in Allegheny County. After seeing them to the elevators, he returned to his office.
So far, so good.
He was taking a minute for a cigarette, alone with the door closed when Cynthia buzzed him. “Justin on line twelve. Do you want me to take a message?”
“No, I’ll take it.”
“And Brian? Michael called five times while you were in that meeting and your mother called, too. I hate to say it, but she sounded drunk.” Cynthia knew about Joan. “And don’t forget that you have that pitch in twenty minutes.”
“Yeah. Fucking pain in the ass.” He picked up the receiver and punched a flashing button. “Justin? What?”
“My mom called, she wants to know what time you want to have dinner.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“We’re having dinner with her and Molly, remember? I told you about it yesterday. It’s her birthday. We were going to take her out. She needs to make a reservation.”
“Shit, I can’t. Tell her I’m sorry and that we can do it another night—tomorrow.”
“Fuck you, Brian. I told you about this and you said that you would be there.”
“I have to have dinner with a client, it just came up and I can’t cancel. It’s important.”
“It’s always fucking important when to you have to kiss some ass, but it’s always bullshit when it’s anything else.”
“Justin, I’m not getting into to this with you. I’ll call her and explain, she’ll understand.”
“Like she always understood when my father did the same thing. Fuck you.” He heard the phone slam down.
Shit.
He hit Mikey’s speed dial. “Hey.”
“When can you get here?”
“Where’s ‘here’ and why?”
“You said that I could use your jeep when the new shipment came in. I got a call a couple of hours ago that it’s in the warehouse.”
“Tomorrow morning, first thing.”
“What about tonight?”
“Busy.”
“You shit, you said that it wouldn’t be a problem.”
“Well, now it is. Seven tomorrow morning, be ready. Bye Mikey.”
Cynthia stuck her head in his door. “Brian? The people are here for your four thirty, I’ve put them in the small conference room and your sister is on line seven.”
“Tell my sister that she can fuck herself.”
“She says that it’s important.”
“Fuck her.” He stood up, stretching his back. “I’ve got a meeting. Meet me in there as soon as you get rid of her.”
She went back to her desk “I’m sorry, Claire, he’s in a meeting, but I’ll be sure to see that he gets your message.” She hung up the phone. “She says that you’re a prick.”
“That works for me.”
Ninety minutes later he was finally back in his office, running late. Six o’clock. He had hoped to be able to get back to the loft to shower and change before the dinner with Flynn and the carboys at seven, but it wasn’t looking good. Shit. He hit the intercom.
“Cynthia? You still here?”
“Yes, what do you want?”
“I’m going to take a shower and change here, but I don’t have a clean shirt. Go over to Brooks Brothers and get me something decent, white. You know my size. I’ll need it in half an hour.”
“Do you want anything else?”
“No, I’ve got a spare suit, I just need the shirt…and socks. Black.”
“No undies?”
“Your fantasies will have to wait for another day.”
“Isn’t it always the way?”
=======================================
“Brian. Come on there, laddie. You’re too thin, you need to fill out. You know, you’ll have to meet my Megan when you come out to see the plant next week. Smart as a whip that one and pretty? You couldn’t believe.”
“I’m sure she’s something, Mr. Flynn.”
“Jerry, I’m Jerry, you’re Brian, OK?”
Brian was working on his veal without much enthusiasm, but knew he had to get the meal down out of politeness. Jennifer had been fine with postponing her dinner until tomorrow and Mikey could cope. Claire was a cunt, so screw her. Justin would be in a major pout when he got home, though.
Fuck.
At least Flynn had dumped the rest of the suits and it was a one on one. Those he could handle in his sleep.
“So, we’ll be expecting you on Tuesday, then.”
“I’m looking forward to it. I understand that you’ve installed state of the art robotic assembly procedures on some of your lines. I’ve been curious to see them in action.”
“So we’ll be sure that you get the fifty cent tour while you’re there—oh, and don’t bother with a hotel. I’ve plenty of room. You’ll stay with Dorothy and me at the house.”
“That’s very generous of you Mr.—Jerry, but I couldn’t impose...”
“No imposition in the slightest. We’ve more room than we know what to do with.”
“I’ll have another glass of water.”
“Your Mr. Vance was telling me that you’re not married, there Brian.”
Oh, for the love of God, Vance and his fucking sense of humor. “Well, no, but I am with someone.”
“’With’ someone. What the Hell does that mean? Are you married or not?”
Flynn didn’t strike Brian as the sort who would be open to gay. Shit. The account was too big and too new to screw it up over a matchmaking father. Fuck. “I live with someone, for a couple of years now.”
“You happy?”
Brian smiled that ‘guy’ smile he knew would be understood. “Most of the time, you know. It’s pretty good.”
“So why don’t you marry the girl? You know, a lot of people like to see stability in their workers, especially one at your level, Brian. Just some free advice, you know.”
“Thanks.”
“You should have brought her this evening, I’d like to see where your tastes run. You know, you’d be surprised what you can tell about a man with his choice of spouse.” Jerry laughed, “You don’t strike me as the type who’s whipped, if you know what I mean.”
“Well, I try not to be.”
“She one of those working girls or do you take care of her?”
“I’m paying for the tuition now. Graduation isn’t for a couple of years, then I’m sure there will be some decent job offers” Brian paused, sipping his water.
“Tuition? Like em young, eh? You must have some study dates, I bet?”
“We do alright.” He was getting bored with this.
“Well, good for you, but if she’s what you want, marry the girl. Don’t let her get away, if you’re smart.”
“I’m trying not to, Jerry.”
“Well then, you should be getting home to that girl, shouldn’t you?” They both stood, Brian having picked up the tab. Vanguard would be paying him back. Extending his hand, Jerry thank him for dinner and a pleasant evening, promising to make good on his offer of lodging when Brian toured the facilities next week.
Yeah, great.
Finally, he could head home.
His usual parking place was taken up with an old VW minivan and the closest thing he could find was two blocks away. Fuck.
When he slid the loft door open it was almost eleven. Almost all of the lights were off, the only light coming from the under counter ones in the kitchen so that he could see. Either Justin wasn’t home or he was in bed. Whichever it was, he was likely pissed. Shit.
He saw the empty Chinese food containers on the counter and the bottle of JB that had been left out. It seemed to have gone down since last night. Shit. Evidently Justin had made do for dinner. Turning off the kitchen light and walking up to the bedroom, he started removing his clothes, using just the light from the windows.
Christ he was tired.
It was too dark to tell if the lumps on the bed were Justin or just some pillows piled up.
Stripping the remainder of his clothes and hanging the suit up, he quietly climbed onto his side of the mattress. He could feel the warmth from under the sheets.
Good.
At least the twink was home.
Much as he hated to admit it, Brian hated when Justin was out late tricking or whatever. He couldn’t sleep. He worried.
Oh, sure, he’d pretend that he had work to do or a book to read but he knew that it didn’t fool Justin. He even knew that it annoyed him to know that Brian waited up for him, “Just like my fucking parents.”
It didn’t matter, he did it anyway. He needed to know that he was safe.
After the bashing, he had to know that Justin was safe.
Justin was home. He was tired and could go to sleep.
Rolling onto his right side he closed his eyes. He knew Justin was pissed about having to reschedule his mother’s dinner. He knew there would likely be a day or two of pouting and tantrums and door slamming and no sex.
Fuck it. It happened.
He’d get over it.
His eyes had closed and he was starting to drift off when he felt the slight movement behind him and then the arm slipping over his waist to hold him. He felt the gentle kiss between his shoulder blades and heard the soft. “I love you.”
He moved his arm so that he could hold Justin’s hand, squeezing gently. He smiled slightly to himself and managed to finally sleep.