Streak - 14. Chapter 14

September 27, 2002

Boston

JJ

Alex had taken me to a little café in Harvard Square. It wasn’t very romantic, or at least it wouldn’t have been if I were with anyone but Alex. I couldn’t stop gazing at him, and that would have embarrassed me if he hadn’t smiled every time he caught me doing it. “When do you skate again?”

“My next competition starts next Wednesday,” I said.

“You seem awfully calm.”

I laughed. “Wait until next Wednesday,” I said. He laughed with me, even though it wasn’t really a joke. I knew my stress levels would soar when this thing started.

“I would think that after the Nebelhorn, you would have nothing to worry about,” he said, getting a huge grin for that stroke to my ego.

“Thanks,” I said. “There’s some good talent here in Boston, but unless I totally fail, I should make it through to the sectionals.” I was exaggerating about the ‘good talent’ here, but it was the polite thing to say.

“I can’t see you failing,” he said.

“Not when my lucky charm is there,” I said, flirting with him, and reminding him that he promised to be there for me.

“And that reminds me that I should ensure that I have your events scheduled in,” he said. He pulled out his pocket calendar and I told him when my long and short programs would be. “That fits in marvelously.”

“Awesome,” I said. “While you have your calendar out, I was wondering if you had plans for tomorrow night.”

“Why do you ask?”

“I got you a present,” I said, and I felt color rushing to my face even as I did.

“You certainly do not have to buy me presents,” he said.

“This one is kind of for me too,” I said. I handed him an envelope. He opened it, even as he looked at me quizzically.

He pulled out another envelope, which was from the Boston Symphony, then looked inside and pulled out several tickets. “You got me tickets for the entire season?”

“I got us tickets,” I said. “They’re the same seats we had last time.” I’d had to spend a fucking fortune to buy out the season from the people who had them, but watching his excitement was worth it. I’d given him the tickets to his seat, and kept the tickets to my seat.

“That’s brilliant!” he said enthusiastically.

“The next concert is tomorrow night,” I told him. “It’s Verdi’s Requiem.”

“I love Verdi,” Alex said.

“I’m glad.”

“This is such a wonderful gift,” he said. “I really do not know how to repay you.”

“You owe me nothing,” I said. “It’s my way of thanking you for watching my competitions, and for your excellent company.” This was actually telling him that he did owe me something, but I thought I did it in a pretty nice way.

“Unfortunately, I must truncate our dinner,” he said. I didn’t react fast enough to stop myself from looking sad. “I have to attend an event at an art gallery. It’s for one of my classes.”

“That sounds like fun,” I said, even though I didn’t mean it. Hanging out at an art gallery wasn’t my idea of a good time.

“Why don’t you come with me?”

“Are you sure? I mean, wouldn’t it be weird, if it’s for a class?”

He smiled. “It’s not a university event, but we’re required to go to a number of galleries and critique the art as part of our studies.”

“That sounds like fun,” I said. And suddenly the concept of looking at a bunch of art was really attractive, as long as I was looking at it with Alex.

He paid for dinner, and then hailed a cab to take us to this gallery. I figured that it would be a really stodgy affair, since Alex seemed to like older artwork. I just couldn’t get into those heavy oil paintings of fat chicks from the 1700s. But this was different: It was a really cool gallery, and it specialized in art that used multiple elements. I was reminded of the painting my father made after his brother Billy died, one that incorporated glass shards and metal fragments from the crash.

“Welcome,” a lady said as we entered. She had a very refined Boston accent.

“Good evening,” Alex said smoothly. “I am studying art at Harvard, and I am tasked with evaluating works at various galleries. I was hoping to look through your establishment.”

I had wondered if she would be all snobby and give us shit, but I should have known better. “Of course. Please feel free to look around. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.” It was amazing how Alex’s refined British accent could slap down even the most arrogant of clerks, although this woman didn’t seem arrogant at all.

She escorted us into the gallery and the first thing we saw was a huge picture. It was probably eight feet square, and made of some sort of metal that was partially painted over. “This is really interesting,” I said.

“It is,” Alex agreed. “This artist used aluminium, and then ground out these patterns in it.” I loved the way he said aluminum. He gestured to where the grinder had carved circular patterns into the tips of the breaking waves, giving them almost a three dimensional effect.

“That is correct,” the lady said. “This is a Marc Carmine work. After he has shaped and ground the metal, he then paints over it, and finally seals it, to give it this nice sheen. He’s one of the newest artists we feature.”

“I like the way he uses not only the paint, but the grinding pattern, to give it real depth,” I mused, then got embarrassed because I’d been rambling, and I wasn’t an art expert.

“That’s a very astute observation,” Alex said to validate me. But even if I wasn’t an art aficionado, I was a pretty good interior decorator. There was a big wall in our condo in Tribeca that was empty, just begging for art like this.

“How much is this?” I asked.

“This one is priced at $75,000,” she said. Her tone was courteous, but slightly condescending, as if to suggest that, while she was being polite to us, she wasn’t willing to believe we could shell that much money out for this painting.

“Do you think that’s a reasonable price?” I asked Alex.

He studied it carefully, looking at in detail, as if he were analyzing the brush strokes. “While this type of art isn’t my specialty, I would guess that it would be more correctly priced at $65,000.”

“Then that is what I’m willing to pay for it,” I said to the lady. It was incredibly pleasant to see her blink in surprise at that.

“Let me make a call to consult the artist,” she said, then left us.

“She already knows whether he’ll accept that or not,” Alex whispered in my ear. “She’s just posturing to negotiate with you. Don’t pay more than $69,000 for it.”

“Sixty nine?” I asked, raising my eyebrows. He chuckled and shook his head. We wandered around the gallery, looking at their other works.

The lady returned and said, “I have spoken with the artist, and he doesn’t feel he can part with it for less than $69,000.” I smiled at Alex.

“If you are willing to ship it to New York for me, that’s acceptable,” I said.

“Excellent,” she replied with a smile. “I’ll write up the sales agreement. How would you like to pay for it?”

I pulled out my American Express Platinum card. Every member of our family had one of these, because they basically allowed us to charge unlimited amounts of money without worrying about hitting credit limits. “Use this card.” She took the card and vanished.

“What are you going to do with that painting?” Alex asked.

“There’s a blank wall in our condo in New York. This will fit there perfectly.”

“I have not been to New York for some time,” he said wistfully.

“Then after this painting is delivered and installed, we’ll have to take a trip down there to see it,” I said.

“I would like that,” he said. We toured the rest of the gallery, while Alex took copious notes. I had to leave him to go finish the paperwork for the painting I bought, and then to avoid annoying him, I called Stef.

“I bought a painting for the condo in New York,” I said, as soon as our pleasantries were over.

“Indeed?” he asked. “And what does it look like?” His words may have sounded as if he weren’t happy about it, but his tone said otherwise. He was just curious.

I described it to him, and told him where I wanted to put it. “While I can’t be sure, I think the blues in it will work perfectly with the colors of the walls.” He’d picked a soft blue color for the main room.

“I have been laboring over what to put on that wall,” he said. “Thank you so much for solving that problem.”

“I promised Alex we’d go down to New York to see it when it was installed,” I said. “You should meet us there.”

“Is Alex with you?” he asked, and almost sounded nervous.

“He has to tour galleries as part of his homework, and he invited me to accompany him,” I said.

“And was this a date?” he asked playfully, only there was something bothering him.

“I’m pretty sure that it is,” I said happily, hoping that would put his mind at ease.

“Then I will let you go so you can enjoy it,” he said. We ended our call, but the more I thought about our conversation, the more irritated I got, especially when I figured out that he wasn’t all that keen on me being with Alex.

“I think I am finished here,” Alex said.

“Let’s go home,” I said. We hailed a cab for the short ride, and just chattered about the artwork we’d seen. And while we talked, we exchanged looks. Just his expression was enough to send my libido into overdrive.

We got home and walked through the foyer. I just wanted to escape to the elevator, and to avoid any conversations, but it was not to be. Matt greeted us pleasantly, and then zeroed in on me. “I wanted to talk to you for a minute.”

I was pretty sure that when I got to the fourth floor, there was at least an awesome kiss waiting for me, and maybe more. I couldn’t believe that Matt was cock blocking me. “Can it wait until tomorrow?” I asked.

“I’ll meet you upstairs,” Alex said, being polite.

I watched him walk away, heard the elevator doors open and close, and then sighed in frustration. “Let’s talk,” I said to him unpleasantly. He led me into the study and closed the doors behind us.

“I want to talk to you about Alex,” he said. He was obviously nervous about this, probably because he could already tell I was pissed off at him for even raising the issue. “You need to be careful with him.”

“Who told you to talk to me about this?” I challenged.

“I volunteered,” he said.

“Who are you, or anyone else in this family, to tell me how to conduct my relationship with Alex?” I demanded. I was absolutely furious, because I knew that he had been selected to talk to me. It could have been just Wade and him, but I suspected, based on my conversation with Stef, that he was involved too. That probably meant I’d have to deal with my father, which really lit my fuse.

“When Wade and I were with him, we found out something about him that was a little freaky.” And as pissed off as I was, he’d aroused my curiosity, so I just stared at him, waiting for him to go on. “He has a Madonna-whore complex.”

“What the fuck is that?” I asked, remembering not to scream.

“It’s where a guy has a really pure and wholesome partner, that he has really bland and infrequent sex with; and he also has a whore on the side, that he can get freaky with.”

“Thanks for telling me,” I said dismissively, and went to walk out of the room.

“I just wanted you to have your eyes open when you went into this thing with Alex,” he said.

“Maybe his complex isn’t really a complex at all,” I said to him acidly. “Maybe he just acted that way because Wade is like a princess and you are like a whore.”

That pissed him off. “If you don’t want me to worry about you, fine.”

“I don’t want you, or anyone else in this family, to get involved in my relationships with anyone.” I was clenching my teeth, fighting back the anger as I spoke. “All of you lose your fucking minds when someone does that to you, and you think it’s alright for you to butt into my business? When you were a total ass last year, who backed you up? When Darius told you that you were a scumbag, who supported you?”

He looked down sheepishly. “You did.”

“Did I tell you how to treat Wade? Did I?”

“No.”

“If I had, would it have made any difference at all?”

“Well…” he began, but I cut him off.

“You wouldn’t listen to Grand, you wouldn’t listen to anyone. You know it wouldn’t have mattered. Instead, I tried to show you that I’d have your back, no matter what. Is that what you’re doing to me now?”

“I’m sorry I brought it up,” he said, and was probably telling the truth, since I was throwing this all back in his face, calling him a hypocrite.

“Since you’ve made yourself the speaker for all the fucking busybodies in my family, I’d like you to convey a message back to them.” I was spitting out my words, and he said nothing. “You tell them that if they so much as even suggest to Alex that he stay away from me, or if they even talk to Alex about us, I’m going to go so postal, I’ll make Will look like a fucking pussy.”

Matt looked shocked, because I had pretty much towed the line and didn’t rebel, but this was a big fucking deal, and there’s no way I was going to let them fuck up this relationship. “I’ll pass that on.”

“Alex encourages me, he props me up, and he treats me with respect. Just having him at Nebelhorn helped me win silver. Who else from the family was there, cheering me on?”

“It was a busy time,” he said lamely.

“You all want to drive him away, and leave me alone, just like you have all my fucking life. Well you tell everyone else to stay the fuck out of my business, and stay the fuck out of my life!” I was screaming by the time I said that. He stared at me, and I gave him a contemptuous look and stormed out of the study and up to my floor. I got off the elevator and saw that Alex had closed his door. I was tempted to knock on it, and try to see him, but I changed my mind. I was too pissed off to be fun, and I got the feeling that he wouldn’t like it if I made the moves anyway. Instead, I went into my room, locked the door, and started researching this complex Matt said Alex had.

I wasn’t convinced that was the deal with Alex, but if it was, that meant I had slotted nicely into the role of Madonna. That made me laugh so hard I hummed a few verses of ‘Like a Virgin’ and cracked myself up even more. I decided that it was more likely what I told Matt; that Alex had fit into those roles with the two of them because that’s how they were. They were taking their own fucked up issues, and throwing them back at Alex, and blaming him. Those two dipshits couldn’t even take responsibility for fucking up their own relationship. Instead, they had to blame Alex, and then they tried to blackball him with their lies. It was kind of like the same deal that Gathan had done to Zach.

Then I thought about my conversation with Matt. I knew he’d been set up for it, because he wouldn’t have wanted to deal with something that unpleasant, he wouldn’t have wanted to piss me off, and when we were arguing, he was on pretty shaky ground. I let my mind wander through the other people in my family who could have instigated this whole thing. It might have been Stef, but I doubted it. And even if it was, it was more likely that he would have said something himself. No way would Will venture into this, and even if he did, it was unlikely that he’d be able to talk Matt into doing that. There was really only one person who could be behind this thing: my father.

This thing they were trying to throw at me was like a snake, and to kill it, I had to cut off the head, and that meant I had to neuter my father. I hated snakes.

September 27, 2002

Escorial

Brad

“This place is incredible,” Chris said, as we looked out at the blinking lights of Palo Alto and the Bay. “Thanks for bringing me here.”

“I’m glad you like it,” I said. “It will make the flight home tomorrow a lot easier.”

“No shit,” he agreed. I’d had fun with him in Hawaii, but by Thursday, I’d been pretty much done. He was a good friend, and a good lover, as long as I wanted to bottom. We both seemed to get that this wasn’t a viable romance, and that had made it relaxed, but by Thursday, that had segued from relaxed to boring. So on Friday, I’d brought him here, and that had livened things up enough so I could enjoy him until today. And now, I was ready to take him back to New York, and to get back to work.

My phone rang, interrupting our quiet moment. I looked at it and saw that it was from Wade. “Hello,” I said pleasantly.

“Hey,” he said. “Matt’s talk with JJ didn’t go very well.”

“No?” I asked, feeling my mood change from bored to annoyed. And as if to make things worse, Will came strolling out, sat down at the table, and started talking to Chris.

“Matt told him what happened with us, about Alex’s Madonna-whore complex, and he lost it,” Wade explained. “He said that it was probably our fault. That I was a princess and Matt was a whore, and Alex just dealt with our personas.”

“What do you think?” I asked.

“I don’t think that’s the case, but I don’t have any solid arguments to back that up,” he said. He was so much like JP. There was no proof, so he was unwilling to jump to conclusions.

“Well that changes nothing,” I said. “I have to find a way to separate those two. JJ has been through too much shit, and been too wounded, to deal with Alex.”

“He asked Matt to pass a message back to all of us,” Wade said, and paused before going on. “Basically, he said, rather loudly, that we should all mind our own fucking business and work on our own fucked-up relationships before we tried to get involved in his.”

“I’m not trying to run his life, I’m trying to protect him from this guy who is sucking him in, and will probably end up hurting him. I don’t want him to have to go through that kind of pain, and I’m not convinced he can handle it.” The visions of JJ in his room, when Will had caught him cutting himself, flashed in my mind. I remembered the blood, and his pain. No way would I let him go through that again.

“He demanded that we stay the fuck out of his business, and stay the fuck out of his life. And he said that if we try to even talk to Alex about this issue and drive them apart, he’s going to go postal, and it will make Will look like a pussy.”

“He’s not as rebellious as Will,” I said. “He won’t lose it like Will did.”

“Matt thinks, based on his reaction that he just might.”

“JJ likes to posture a lot, but in the end, he tows the line,” I said. JJ had never been that difficult.

“Well, I just wanted to pass that on to you,” Wade said, which was his way of disagreeing with me.

“Thanks,” I said, and hung up the phone. I had forgotten that Will was out there, and I swallowed hard when I saw the fire in his eyes.

“I’m going to bed,” Chris announced, probably because of the tension levels.

“Do you need me to show you back to the room?” I asked, hoping to escape.

“I’ll be fine,” he said. He walked toward the door, and as he opened it, he almost ran into Stef and JP, as they were coming out onto the patio. Will just sat there, saying nothing. He looked like a bomb that was counting down before it exploded.

“Good evening,” Stef said in his friendly manner.

“What did you do to him?” Will demanded.

“What are you talking about?” I usually asked questions like that, not to be obtuse, but to find out what the other person knew. If I reacted off the cuff, it was possible that I’d share something that Will, in this case, hadn’t figured out. Unfortunately, he didn’t appreciate my strategy.

“You know damn well what I’m talking about,” he said. “What did you do to JJ?”

“We talked about his relationship with Alex, and decided to ask Matt to talk to him and explain what had happened with him and Wade,” I said.

“Who is ‘we’?” Will demanded.

“Me, Stef, Wade, and Matt,” I answered.

“And how did the conversation go?” Stef asked.

“Not well,” I grimaced. I relayed what Wade had told me, even as I got some really unpleasant looks from JP and Will. “He says that if we interfere in his relationship with Alex, he’s going to lose it worse than Will did.”

“I’ll have to remember the type of acid I used and send him an e-mail,” Will said, as he glared at me.

“That’s not funny,” I snapped. “He won’t do that anyway.”

“You are quite confident in that assertion,” JP said, questioning me.

“He has to tow the line, both at home and in public, because of his skating career,” I said. “That is the force that helps keep him in line.”

“I think it’s totally unfair for you to throw that out at him whenever you want him to do something,” Will said. “That’s bullshit, to take his career, the thing that is most important to him, and constantly threaten to ruin it.”

“I’m not trying to hurt him,” I said. That was the core issue. “I’m just trying to protect JJ from another potential predator.”

“After what happened with his coach, it is not inappropriate to worry about him,” Stef opined.

“Only that’s not what you’re doing,” Will said. “You’re not trying to protect him; you’re trying to control him.”

“This is not about me controlling him,” I said loudly. It really pissed me off that whenever I had a disagreement with someone in this family, they trotted that issue out and threw it in my face, calling me a control freak.

“You didn’t learn a damn thing from our problems,” Will said, zeroing in on me. “You have to let him make his own decisions, and you have to let him learn from them if they’re mistakes.”

“Alright smartass,” I snapped, “how would you handle this?” I was so sick of his Monday morning quarterbacking.

“I’d talk to him, and ask him how things were going, and hope that he opened up to me about his deal with Alex,” he said. “Then I’d be able to see how serious it was, and I’d be able to try to help him think things through clearly.”

“That would appear to be a good approach,” JP said, entering the fray. “That way, you do not damage the trust he has in you.”

“So that’s what you’d do?” I challenged Will, because that was way more passive than he normally was.

“Wade and I talked about this, and I told him I wanted to think about it before I talked to JJ. I thought about it. So when I talk to him, that’s what I do,” he said.

“How involved with Alex is he?” I demanded.

“That’s none of your fucking business,” he said to me, really pissing me off. Just because he had completely ignored the role of parents in his life, didn’t mean that was the best approach.

“It is my business, and it’s Wade’s business, since I’m his father, and Wade’s responsible for him when he’s in Boston,” I asserted.

“Ask JJ,” he said, smirking at me.

“I’m asking you,” I said, making it sound like a demand.

“You’re wasting your breath,” he said, in a dismissive manner that almost set me free. “I’m not telling you shit about what he says.” I glowered at him, and felt my anger taking my mind off in all kinds of directions until I recognized that it may be impairing my logic.

“Then maybe I should talk to Alex,” I said. He’d probably sugar-coat everything, but at least he’d know we were watching him.

“Don’t you dare say anything to Alex about this,” Will said.

“Don’t tell me what to do,” I snapped.

“If you go there, if you do this, you will cross a line, and JJ will never forgive you,” Will said. I didn’t believe that. I knew that JJ would be pissed at me, but he’d get over it. It was irritating that Will basically read my mind and responded to my thoughts. “I’m a pretty forgiving person, so when you and I had our problems, I was able to put it all behind us. JJ isn’t like that.”

“If I save him from severe pain, he will ultimately forgive me,” I said, and I truly believed that. I knew that he would fight like hell right now, but in the end, he’d appreciate that I was looking out for him.

“I do not think that he will,” JP said. We all looked at him, demanding to know why he thought that. “JJ is quite capable, in my opinion, of developing and holding a grudge for a considerable period of time.”

“When I piss him off, I basically have two choices,” Will said. “I can both apologize and grovel, or I can wait for him to cool down. Only waiting for him to cool down takes a long, long time.”

“There is something else to consider,” JP said. “You claim that he will ultimately see how your actions have benefited him, while I think that is highly unlikely.”

“Why?” Stef asked.

“Because you didn’t let it play out,” JP said. “You have decided how things are going to go, that Alex is basically going to use JJ and manipulate him, and then he’s going to break his heart and leave him a shattered wreck.”

“That’s exactly what’s going to happen.” That was my worst fear, and that’s what I was trying to prevent.

“How do you know that?” Will asked. “That’s what you think will happen, not what JJ thinks will happen.”

“I’ve been around a little longer than he has,” I said. It annoyed me that Will didn’t give me credit for learning from my past mistakes.

“And I have been around longer than you,” JP said firmly. “You will ruin his relationship with Alex, and he will think that you have destroyed something beautiful. He is not listening when you warn him about Alex now, and he won’t listen to you after you chase Alex out of his life.” I could kind of see his point, but I wasn’t willing to let JJ suffer just because he couldn’t see the future very clearly.

“I’ll think about it,” I said, to stall for time. I wanted to digest all of this, and consider it, before I made any decisions.

“Think about this,” Will said in a nasty way. “The last time you screwed around with JJ’s career, when you put Wade in charge, the first thing he did was to start searching for lawyers to get you out of his life.”

“He was going to file for emancipation like you did?” I asked, stunned. That had to be so much posturing on JJ’s part. He simply wasn’t that obnoxious.

“He was. You threatened the most important thing to him, and he wasn’t willing to let you hold that over his head. It was only the fact that Wade stepped in and was reasonable that made him back off,” Will said.

“Well I’m not threatening his skating career,” I said. “This is about romantic entanglements.”

Will shook his head at me, all but calling me an idiot, and really pissing me off. I stood up to leave, determined to escape from there before I lost control and really lashed out at him. “What if you were really into a guy, and we all thought he was bad for you?”

“I’d consider what you had to say,” I said. I was confident that I would listen to these guys if they had legitimate grievances. They all looked at me, telling me with their eyes that they thought I was full of shit. “So you think that Alex is good for JJ?” I challenged him, thinking that maybe I could get some useful information out of this otherwise idiotic conversation.

“I’m not talking to you about JJ,” he said flatly. I gave him a dirty look and went into the house. I was almost to my room when I felt my phone vibrate, and the caller-ID told me it was JJ.

“Hello,” I said calmly.

“You and I need to talk,” JJ said to me. “When are you going to be back in New York?”

“What do you want to talk about?” I asked.

“I asked you a simple question. When are you going to be back in New York?” I’d never heard him this pissed off, and he’d never talked to me this aggressively.

“Monday,” I answered. “I’ll be in Connecticut during the day, then in New York at night.”

“I’ll meet you at Triton at 2:00pm,” he said.

“Let me check my schedule,” I said, pulling out my calendar.

“This is one of those times when you can meet with me and show you give a flying fuck about me, or you can refuse, and show that you don’t.”

I ignored him and his attitude, and made some adjustments to my schedule. “I’m free,” I said. Then he ended the call.