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.