Episode 004, Season One

Ben sat in his office looking out of the window at the Port Wayne skyline. He couldn't concentrate on work, as his mind was flipping back and forth between Nick and Joey. Nick whom Ben felt he still loved and actually thought the idea of them getting back together is the ideal thing to do. He didn't know if he'd gotten over Nick or not. Leave it to Damien to stir things and throw Joey into the mix. Poor guy. Maybe he should warn Joey about Damien. Ben moved to pick up his phone, but quickly sat back at ease. It was none of his business what Joey was doing or thinking or anything. Maybe Joey was over Ben. He had no idea what Joey had done or where he had gone, all he did know was that when he told Joey to go the poor kid left.

Ben didn't mean to hurt him, but he would have eventually...just as he'd hurt almost everyone he became involved with. Ben knew that he thought with the head of his dick instead of the emotions in his heart and it was something that he couldn't control. Man, there were times that he wanted to, but he couldn't. Does he really want to? Yeah, for the sake of he and Nick getting back together. As a matter of fact, Nick didn't seem to want to talk about his past with Joey at all the other night. Maybe he has moved on; maybe he has changed more than Ben is willing to admit.

Fucking Damien, Ben thought. Joey's back, and, for the first time, Ben felt a little quake in his heart as well as his crotch.

* * *

"What's up with you? I haven't seen you this happy since we were back at school," Nick said, looking across the table at Jed. "Have you been getting laid?"

They were having a late lunch on the patio at Caverns.

Jed almost burst out laughing. "What the fuck, man? I got my magazine and my two best friends are backing me up with this. Can't I be happy?"

"This is something else, Jed. You can't fool me. I mean, I remember...wait a minute! You haven't smiled like this since you met Ken Darger back in college! You have a crush on someone!"

"Keep your voice down."

"Why? Tell me, who is it?"

Jed found that he couldn't help but to smile. "Yes, I've been seeing someone. His name is Steve Lassister and he just moved to Port Wayne from Italy. He's opening up a restaurant and he's the most beautiful man I've..." Jed stopped talking as he thought of Steve.

Nick looked at Jed from across the table. He grabbed his glass of ice water and raised it for a toast. "To you, Jediah Marcus Langton, happily in-crushed and in lust for the first time in, shit, how old are we?"

Jed laughed as he raised his glass and clinked it to Nick's. "Old enough, I guess."

"You look really good, Jed! Goofy, but good. "

"Thanks. I wish I can say the same for you."

"What do you mean?"

"You and Ben? Again? And you don't look one iota as happy as you were when you and he were together."

"We're just taking our time, that's all."

"In case he decides to fuck half of the population of the Northwest District?"

"Don't you mean the other half? Did you know that he and Joey used to, um, go out?"

"You mean my new mailroom guy? That Joey? Fuck, no!"

"Yeah, and I will give you one guess as to who set up the revealing situation."

"Damien. So what does all of this mean?"

"I don't know. It's just weird that Ben went for such a young kid like Joey."

"Maybe there was a real attraction there."

"Yeah, maybe there was..."

"Are you jealous?"

"No, not really. To be honest, I met someone when I was in New York and we sort of had a mild flirtation."

"The filmmaker you wrote me about?"

"Yeah."

"Do you keep in touch with him?"

"Nope. He had to go off to promote his latest movie and I was on the tail end of promoting my book and about to get your offer."

"Look, let's finish up here. I would like to take Steve out to dinner later on I have to review the plans for the launch party..."

* * *

Just as Nick was saying goodbye to Jed outside of the door leading to the loft, Joey walked out of the doors. Jed greeted him before dashing up the stairs.

"Hey Nick," he said.

"How's it going, Joey?"

"Okay. Uh..."

"Yeah, I know. It was pretty uncomfortable the other night."

"Yeah."

"How long have you known Damien?"

"Since I met Ben, about two years ago."

"Listen, Joey, let's just take one step at a time and move forward. I'd like to be your friend."

Joey smiled. "Me too!"

"Good. Where are you headed?"

"I'm going home. I have a roll of film I want to develop."

"You know, I would like to see some of your work."

"Really?"

"Yes. If you don't mind, that is."

"I don't mind at all!"

* * *

Damien entered Nexus with the same thing running through his thoughts that have kept his mind occupied for most of the day: Ben's scratchy words about meddling. Fuck Ben, he thought as he ordered a drink and took a seat on the stool. But how true could Ben's words be? He usually found someone that would catch his attention, and he would usually loose him to someone else. Why? Damien suddenly asked himself. And why am I letting this bother me?

Damien tried to think of all the relationships he'd had in his life. Of all, well, of the few of them which ones did he know he could actually settle down with? There was Denny Parker back in school, but didn't he turn out to be 'just experimenting' and ran off with some psych major? There was Justin Osborne, but didn't he end up confessing his love for Jed? Okay, what about Harry Gillis when he was writing obits for that rag of a paper? There was promise there...that is until Damien found out that Harry only wanted him because he came from a rich family. Didn't he run off and become a porn star?

Damien didn't need a relationship. He was fine all on his own. When the bartender set down his drink, Damien took a sip. A guy had just walked in and sat a couple of stools down from him. Damien did a double-take. The guy was handsome, masculine and looked almost familiar.

The guy looked over and it was then that Damien knew that he was staring.

"Hey," the guy said.

"Hi," Damien said.

"Can I help you with something?"

"Forgive me for saying, but you're absolutely beautiful."

The guy smiled. "Thank you."

"You look familiar."

The guy held out his hand. "Matt Galveston."

"Oh, shit, of course! I should have recognized you. I'm a big fan."

"Thank you. And you are?"

"Damien Chastain."

"Okay, I think I've heard of you...from somewhere."

Damien seemed to be offended for a second. But he left it alone. "Can I buy you a drink?"

Episode 003 - Season One

"You two know each other?" Ben asked Nick.
"Yes. Jed just hired Joey to work in the mailroom between photo assignments."
Joey looked at Ben, his eyes a bit starry. "Yeah. Damien got me the job."
Ben looked at Damien - an expression of contempt on his face.
"And how do you guys know each other?" Nick asked.
"Ben and Joey used to date," Damien offered.
"I see,"
"Well, Nick, we should get going. I don't want to be late for our reservations." Ben said, trying hard not to look over at Joey and keeping his anger for Damien at bay.
Nick and Ben got out of the booth they were sitting in. Everyone said goodbye quickly, trying to get out of what had come to be an uncomfortable scenario.
"I wonder," Joey said, looking at Nick and Ben as they left Nexus. "how does Ben know Nick Fuller?"
A slight smile crossed Damien's face. "They used to be boyfriends. That is, until Nick moved to New York about two years ago."
"You mean, Nick is the boyfriend Ben was speaking of when we met?"
* * *

Instead of driving or taking a cab, Jed decided to walk Steve back to his apartment, which was only a few blocks from the restaurant where they just finished having dinner. The night air was warm and the streets weren't crowded as usual.
"So why did you choose Port Wayne to settled down and open a restaurant?" Jed asked.
"I had heard about the Northwest District. More classy than West Hollywood, historic like the Castro, homey yet charming like Capitol Hill with a delicate urban sensibility much like Greenwich Village. It sounded like the perfect place."
"Italy will suffer a major loss."
Steve smiled. There was a tingle in the pit of his stomach. He couldn't believe that Jed Langton - the most eligible gay man in the country - held an interest for him. "This is my place."
"Nice. You rent or own?"
"I just bought it. Would you like to come upstairs for a nightcap?"
"I would love to, but I have an early and long day tomorrow. How about a raincheck for tomorrow night?"
"Sounds good to me."
They both stood looking at each other. Slowly, Jed leaned in to kiss Steve. He felt his heart begin to pound hard in his chest. He thought that maybe Steve could hear his heartbeat, but he didn't care as he pulled Steve closer to him and took him into his arms. When they finished with the kiss - a new hunger stirring inside of them - both Jed and Steve smiled.
"I guess this is good night," Steve said, knowing that he did not want the night to end.
Jed seemed out of breath. "Yeah, I guess this is..."
* * *

As they said good night to each other, both Nick and Ben felt a bit awkward. Nick walked into his apartment and found that he held no jealousy toward Joey. He guessed it would have been a bit petty to hold such a dangerous position. After all, he and Ben did break up after Nick caught Ben having sex with Damien and Nick did move to New York to say farewell to a life he had felt somewhat confused about. Dealing with Ben's sex addiction was hard enough, but throw in the fact that his boyfriend fucked his nemesis and Nick found that he could not take anymore of Ben and he certainly had had his fill with Damien. So, Joey posed no threat to Nick even with he and Ben trying to work things out. The only thing that did bother him was that Joey was so not Ben's type at all...
* * *

Damien's phone rang just as he sat at his desk.
"Hello?"
"You want to know the one thing that is not only shitty about your life but as sad as well?" Ben asked.
Damien sighed. "Go ahead tough guy, give it to me."
"You drag an innocent kid like Joey into one of your dramas while pretending to be his friend. Damien, why don't you at least pretend to like yourself so that you can find a relationship of your own and stop fucking with everyone else's."
Before Damien could say anything, Ben hung up.
* * *

As Jed took the time to train him, Joey found that he could not stop thinking of Ben. And just think that the ex-boyfriend Ben talked about on that first night was Joey's favorite writer. Well, as far as the novel went, Joey hadn't read Nick's previous work. Joey wondered if the novel was based on Nick and Ben and who would have been that nasty other guy in the book? Yeah, two and a half years ago Joey had wandered into a bar and found Ben drowning his sorrows. Joey siddled up next to Ben and just started to talk. Joey didn't mind the handsome somewhat older guy talking about his ex-boyfriend. What Joey found exciting was that Ben was sensitive enough to know what he did wrong and actually felt the pain of hurting someone. Joey took a drunk Ben home that night to his bachelor apartment. Ben fucked him but didn't seem to remember it the next morning. When Ben came around later that evening to apologize, Joey found himself falling in love. And he knew that Ben felt something for him also. they lasted a year and a half until Ben discovered that he had not dealt with loosing Nick and, instead, tried to run away from it.
When they broke up, Joey took off to Los Angeles to find photography work. And he did find work taking pictures of naked guys for porn magazines. It was pretty steady work, but he did not want nudes to become his forte. After his roommate, a porn star, was making decisions to leave the industry, Joey decided to rerturn to Port Wayne in hopes that he would one day run into Ben so that he could move on.
However, Joey found that he was still in love with Ben.