Taylor’s cell phone rang. Taylor jumped asthough he’d been electrified and scrambled for his phone. Hecleared his throat, swiped the screen. “Hi Richard. Thanks forreturning my call.”
Will listened to Taylor’s half of theconversation, stroking Taylor’s back. He could feel Taylor’s heartpounding, and though Taylor sounded careful and calm as heexplained their plans and business strategy, Will knew him wellenough to recognize the nervousness beneath that even tone.
Taylor hated this and Will hated that Taylorfound himself in this position. That they were both in thisposition. He ran his hand down Taylor’s back and he could feel thehint of dampness between Taylor’s shoulder blades.
Then Taylor said gruffly, “One hundred andfifty thousand dollars,” and Will sat up too.
“What?” he whispered. He hoped he’dheard that wrong. He knew he hadn’t.
Taylor ignored him. He listened to the tinyvoice on the other side of the world for what seemed like a verylong time.
“That’s very generous,” he said at last, andhis voice cracked, making him sound about fifteen years younger.“But no. We appreciate it, but no, there’s no reason why youshouldn’t at least earn some kind of a percentage. We look at thisas an investment not a —” He listened again. “I know, but family ornot, we wouldn’t feel right.”
Will reached over and squeezed Taylor’s rockhard shoulders.
“That’s…”
More silence.
“Thank you. That’s…”
Taylor sucked in a sharp breath. “All right.Of course. Thank you, Richard. I’ll keep an eye out for thepapers…yes…I appreciate it…love to Mom…”
Taylor clicked off. He fell back on hispillow. Will took the phone out of his unresisting hand.
“You got the money,” he said, still notquite believing it.
“I will have, within a week or so. But we’repaying him back, Will. Every cent. With interest. I don’t care whathe says. We’re not…”
“Absolutely,” Will tried to reassure him. “Iagree. It’s just a loan.”
“I can’t…”
“We’re on the same page.”
Taylor let out a long sigh.
A hundred and fifty grand. Will felt windedjust thinking about it. The possibilities of it. They could pay offtheir credit cards. They could hire someone to answer their phone.They could buy the proper equipment. They could go after the bigjobs. The lucrative jobs.
They were in business.
They were in debt.
He could feel Taylor thinking it over,absorbing it as well.
He said at last, “Taylor?”
“Hm?” No trace of sleepiness in Taylor’svoice now.
“Was I wrong?”
“Which time?”
But Will was serious. “I gambled everythingon us striking out on our own, starting this new business. I riskedeverything. For both of us. I didn’t give you a choice, not really.I just shoved it through, made it happen, and now…if I’mwrong…”
Taylor raised his head, peering through thedarkness. “Hey.”
“You were right to be angry. You were rightabout all of it. If I’ve fucked this up, it’s going to take usyears to dig ourselves out.”
Taylor rolled onto his side. He ran his handslowly up and down Will’s arm. “This isn’t like you.”
“What does that tell you, right there?”
Taylor made a sound of amusement. “That youusually think you’re right. And a lot of the time you are.”
“And a lot of the time I’m not.”
“True. But I pick up the slack there, sowe’re okay.”
Will just shook his head.
They listened to the rain tick-tickingagainst the window panes. Nothing but rain ahead in the next fewdays’ forecast. It was going to be a damn long drive to L.A. onMonday.
“Will, listen.” Taylor sighed. “Maybe Ihaven’t been entirely fair. Or honest. Yes, I was pissed off atbeing hustled into making decisions I wasn’t ready to make, but thefact is, this is what I ultimately wanted. I did want us tobe together, I did want us to start our life. I said from the startI wanted us to live together and work together, and I wanted it tohappen as soon as it was feasible. Where we differed was on whenthat would be feasible. But ultimately the goal was always thesame.”
“That difference might mean success orfailure.”
“We’re not going to fail.”
“You can’t know that for sure.”
“Yeah, I can. I do.” Taylor said it withcalm certainty. “We’re not going to fail. I don’t think it’s goingto be easy, but we’re not going to fail.”
“And why is that?”
“Because it doesn’t matter if we fail.”
“What?” Will raised his head off thepillow.
“This was never about making a bunch ofmoney or winning Businessman of the Year. If we’re not successfulat this, we’ll be successful at something else.”
“You’re going a little too Zen master for menow, MacAllister. Ten minutes ago you were shaking at the idea ofbeing in debt to your stepfather.”
“The main thing, the important thing to bothof us, is what we already have. We’re together. And as long aswe’re together, we’re okay. And if we’re okay, then reallyeverything is okay.”
Will was silent for a moment. He said atlast, “That’s beautiful, Tay.”
Taylor lay back again and settled his headon the pillow. “Thank you.”
“You realize if we can’t make this businesswork, we’ll be in hock to Richard for the rest of our naturallives?”
“Yes, I do.”
“This venture of ours really does have tosucceed.”
“Yes, it really does.” Taylor added for goodmeasure, “Really.”
Will started to laugh.
“Really,” Taylor said.
Surveillance Report
Case #3433BR
Subjects: Brandt, William andMacAllister, Taylor
Investigator: Schwierskott
November 16, 2013 (Saturday)
7:00 a.m.:
Investigator arrives at the residence of WilliamBrandt, Sr. located at 76011 Mellinger Road, Mist Bend, OR 97064.Investigator observes the blue 2010 Toyota Land Cruiser currentlyregistered to William Brandt in the driveway. Investigatorestablishes stationary vehicle surveillance with a view of thedriveway of the residence.
8:00 a.m.:
NO ACTIVITY
9:00 a.m.:
NO ACTIVITY
10:00 a.m.:
NO ACTIVITY
11:00 a.m.:
NO ACTIVITY
12:00 a.m.:
NO ACTIVITY
1:00 p.m.:
NO ACTIVITY
2:00 p.m.:
NO ACTIVITY
3:00 p.m.:
NO ACTIVITY
4:00 p.m.:
NO ACTIVITY
5:00 p.m.:
NO ACTIVITY
6:00 p.m.:
NO ACTIVITY
7:00 p.m.:
NO ACTIVITY
8:00 p.m.:
NO ACTIVITY
9:00 p.m.:
NO ACTIVITY
10:00 p.m.:
NO ACTIVITY
11:00 p.m.:
NO ACTIVITY
12:00 p.m.:
Investigator terminates surveillance and departs thearea.
Acknowledgements
Sincere thank you to L.C. Chase, Kevin,Keren, and Janet.
The author wishes to acknowledge the SGT GRITwebsite among other research and reference materials used in thiswork.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A distinct voice in gay fiction,multi-award-winning author JOSH LANYON has been writing gaymystery, adventure and romance for over a decade. In addition tonumerous short stories, novellas, and novels, Josh is
