Opposites Attract

Brian walked into Kinnetik Monday morning looking a little the worse for wear. It had been a long, lost weekend since Justin’s arrival on Saturday. Too much booze and too little sleep had made Brian Kinney a dull and miserable man.

Cynthia gave him a look and immediately knew that there was no point in making a snappy reply. Coffee was indeed a necessity. Any smart retort she might have made died on her lips. She had seen this look on her boss enough times over the years to know that he had not had a good weekend. “Yes, Boss,” was all she said.

Brian slumped into his chair behind his desk. Cynthia appeared almost immediately with a mug of coffee and a small box. She handed him the coffee and set the box on the desk. Brian took a sip of the coffee and closed his eyes for a moment letting the hot, rich liquid flood his system. When he opened his eyes Cynthia was staring at him.

“That parcel was sitting on the front doorstep when I came in this morning.”

“Isn’t a good executive assistant supposed to open packages in case they are filled with explosives or fucking anthrax?” Brian asked sarcastically. He eyed the package suspiciously since he was not expecting any kind of a delivery.

Cynthia snorted. “Open your own explosive devices,” she stated, then turned on her heel and left the office.

With a snort, Brian picked up a pencil and jabbed at the box a couple of times. When it didn’t explode, he sat back in his chair and studied it while he sipped his coffee. After a couple of minutes he picked up the box and looked for the return address. There was no address of any kind on the box, just his name Brian Kinney, printed in large letters with a marker.

Brian set down his mug and ripped the brown paper off the box. Underneath the paper he found a crudely folded Mountain Dew box that had been cut down and reformed into packaging for something. He popped the tape that held it all together. Out fell a magnet – a horseshoe shaped magnet with red poles – just like he had used in high school. Things began to form in Brian’s brain and he let out a soft laugh. He picked up the cardboard from the Mountain Dew case and looked inside. Sure enough there was a message printed on the inside of the thin cardboard. He read the words.

The little shit! What was he trying to pull? Brian reread the message several times trying to figure out if there was a deeper meaning to the words. Deciding that if there was a deeper meaning, he didn’t know what it was, Brian concentrated on the string of capital letters at the end. They must be initials for words, an acronym, Brian decided. He studied them trying to associate a meaning to the string of letters. After several minutes he gave up. Any of the words he assigned to the letters really didn’t make much sense.

“Right,” Brian replied, stuffing the magnet in his desk drawer and dumping the disassembled Mountain Dew carton in the wastebasket. “Send them in.”

About seven-thirty that evening Brian rode the elevator up to his loft. It had been a long, but productive day in spite of its rough beginning. The new ads for Eyeconics looked great and that bitch who ran the company had been thrilled. He had cemented their account for another year.

Brian smiled as he pushed up the gate on the elevator. He was remembering the “Orange is the new blue” speech that a certain young intern had made many years ago. The kid had had balls, even if he didn’t always use them in the most appropriate way.

Fishing for his keys in his trousers pocket, Brian almost stepped on something that was propped against the door of the loft. He bent down and picked up a large envelope with his name printed on it in marker. It looked suspiciously like the printing on the other item that had been left on his doorstep at Kinnetik.

Brian unlocked the door and headed into the loft. He dropped his briefcase by the computer desk, his keys on the counter and his coat on the stand inside the door. He closed the loft door before heading up to the bedroom. Tossing the envelope on the bed, he quickly divested himself of his suit and tie, changing into his well worn jeans and a wifebeater. Barefoot, he grabbed the envelope and made his way to the fridge where he got a beer. He took a long drink from the bottle before walking over to the sofa. He dropped down on it holding the envelope out in front of him so he could see the clearly printed name.

Brian lifted the flap on the envelope and pulled out a single sheet of paper. He scanned it quickly:

· big - little

· cheap - expensive

· clean - dirty

· deep - shallow

· easy - difficult

· far - near

· fast - slow

· fat - thin

· full - empty

· good - bad

· happy - sad

· hard - easy

· heavy - light

· here - there

· high - low

· hot - cold

· in - out

· inside – outside

· light - dark

· long - short

· many - few

· new - old

· rich - poor

· right - left

· right - wrong

· safe - dangerous

· single - married

· smooth - rough

· soft - hard

· strong - weak

· tall - short

· thick - thin

· tight - loose

· warm - cool

· wet - dry

· wide - narrow

· young - old

Brian chuckled and shook his head. What was Justin doing? The kid should be trying to convince him that they weren’t opposites, not that they were. And there was that stupid TBHICB again. If only he could figure out what that stood for, he might get to the bottom of this whole thing. Brian sipped on his beer while mentally listing all the words that started with any or all of those letters, and might furthermore apply to Justin Taylor.

“The blond homo is cute, but…, Twink Boys Have Ideal Charming Butts.” Brian snorted at that one. Showed where his mind always went, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. He tried again. “Theodore Budget’s His Income Clearly Best.” Where the fuck did that one come from?

Once again he was ready to give up, not finding any apparent solution to this riddle. If Justin Taylor had cooked up this little plot, Brian Kinney should be able to figure it out. That was one thing they had in common – they were both very bright. He’d give Justin that.

As Brian continued to stare at the list of opposites and the little message underneath it, he realized his phone was ringing. He set the sheet of paper down on the coffee table and retrieved the portable phone from the desk. The caller display gave no name, just a number. He knew it was Justin’s.

He was tempted to turn the phone off, but he wanted to find out what Justin was up to, if only to put a stop to it. He pressed talk.

“What the fuck do you think you’re pulling, Taylor, leaving these little messages all over the place?”

“They aren’t all over the place,” Justin contradicted. “I left them in strategic places where you would be sure to get them.”

“I wouldn’t dream of doing that, Brian. I know how valuable your time is. I’m sending you a very important message.”

“You got that part.” Brian could sense the smile on Justin’s face. “But there’s more to it than that.”

“You’d be wrong. I counted carefully and decided that 24 of the 37 applied to us.”

“24? I don’t think there’s that many, and your list better not include young/old.”

Justin laughed out loud. “You still worried about growing old? If it mattered to me, I wouldn’t be doing this.”

“You always implied that my bottom was fat,” Justin said with a grin, knowing what thoughts of his well rounded ass could do to Brian.

Justin’s breath caught in his throat. Brian had called him Sunshine. Maybe all this nonsense was working. “I’ll take that as a compliment,” Justin said before Brian could take his words back.

“I didn’t especially care for the married/single pairing on your list,” Brian said to move away from his words that had so easily slipped out.

“That’s us, isn’t it? Almost married, still single. Maybe to marry in the future.”

“Is that what the ‘B’s’ in it stand for – bodacious bottom?” Brian asked with a chuckle.

“No,” Justin laughed. “But I rather like that.” He paused for a moment then said, “So you haven’t figured it out yet?”

“I may have,” Brian replied even though he had no idea what the letters actually meant. Maybe Justin would let something slip if he thought Brian already knew.

Justin smiled. “Did you like the magnet?” Justin asked directing the conversation to a subject that he hoped would bring them back on track to their reconciliation.

“Not very subtle,” Brian retorted. “I would have thought you could come up with something better.”

“I didn’t want anything better. It made the exact point I wanted it to make … and I know how you loved science in high school,” Justin chuckled.

“Yeah, we’ve done a lot of talking since we started working on Rage together.”

“Brian, um, could we get together and talk about what’s going on?” Justin asked, his voice soft and reassuring. He really wanted some answers, and more than that, he wanted to fix things.

“You know my little messages are going to continue until you agree to talk to me. We have unfinished business.”

“Brian, I know that I hurt you when I went to New York, but you practically forced me to go.”

“So, this is all my fault,” Brian said with weariness clear in his tone.

“It’s nobody’s fault, but we need to sort some things out,” Justin said doing his best not to beg.

“Better for who?” Justin demanded feeling the sting of tears in his eyes. “Lindsay?”

“I have to go. Email me if you figure out what TBHICB stands for.” Justin cut the connection.

Brian stared at the phone as he pulled it away from his ear. It only took him a minute to put two and two together and figure out what Justin had meant by Lindsay. He was going to have Ted Schmidt’s balls.