Episode 007, Season One

To the average person sitting inside of Caverns in the early evening the four men at the table by the front window would have seemed to have been friends who have known each other for years. Actually, the average person would have been three quarters right their summation. An invitation to cocktails from Jed to Nick and Damien so that they could meet his boyfriend Steve turned into an early dinner and a good time. Sometime during the evening Jed actually thought his life was perfect. He was taken aback at such a conclusion since he never thought a person, a life or a mere existence could be described as perfect. Yet here he was, his life had magically taken shape into a world he'd dreamed of. Jed smiled, for he felt the total equal to some sappy dime store romance book - the kind that the bored and ignored, but faithful, housewife would spend late afternoons swimming in before the kids got home from school and the husband would call, once again, to announce that he had late meetings or overtime.
Nick excused himself to go to the restroom just as Jed started to tell the story of he, Nick and Damien's introduction to each other in a journalism class sophomore year.
Once the story - that wasn't completely hilarious nor anywhere near it - was over, Damien excused himself to go to the restroom. And just as he walked in he found Nick splashing water on his face.
"Are you bored or just trying to close those pores?" Damien asked.
"Funny."
"Nick, oh my, is something wrong? You've looked so peaked lately. Are you getting enough sleep or is age finally catching up with you?"
"You know, Damien, you'd be a lot more funnier if you could just get a sense of humour. Its Ben, he's been so fucking horny lately."
"Lately? The man is a sex addict, I'm pretty sure a libido in overdrive comes with the title," Damien said as he moved over the urinals. "So what do you think about Steve?"
"I think he's nice. He and Jed seem to actually be in love."
"There's something about him I don't get. I don't know."
"Damien, whatever it is that's going through your big head, leave it alone. Jed seems happy."
"Yes, but there is something suspicious about Steve."
"Look, hot shot, you don't have to like Steve but Jed does. You do something to sabotage this and I promise you that I will lower myself to your level and..."
"And do what? Yell at me?"
Nick glared at Damien. "You leave those two alone. Enough said."
Nick walked out of the restroom and back into the restaurant just as Damien saddled up to the sinks to wash his hands.

Joey and Jon sat inside of Joey's studio apartment, looking through the contact sheets of the photo shoot from the other day in the park. Joey felt that he'd completed a pretty good job making Jon look as sexy as possible, if one could pull of such a task being that Jon already had the smoldering sexual vibes coming from out of his pores and a face that could launch a few million masturbation fantasies for both men (gay and straight) and women (straight and gay). However, even though Jon was graced by touches of the gods Joey found that he could not stop thinking of Ben...especially the way that Ben has looked at him in the park the other day.
"These are great, Joey. I can say that I'm glad I looked you up. These are better than the stuff you did for me back in L.A."
"Well, back in L.A. you didn't have any clothes on and a monkey could have taken those pictures and you'd still come out hot."
Jon blushed a bit. Joey thought it was cute.
What if...
What if Joey handed himself the opportunity to try to forget about Ben?
"I'd like to hire you again to do some more work for me," Jon said.
"Clothes on or off?"
Jon giggled. "This is for my clothing line."
"Sure. I'd like the chance."
"Alright!"
Joey's heart jumped just a bit as he felt a tingle in his groin. He reached out and touched Jon's hand.
Jon looked at Ben with a bewildered look in his eyes. Joey moved his face closer to Jon's to meet for a kiss. Jon responded, dropping the contact sheets onto the floor as he brought Joey into his arms and they leaned back onto the sofa.

Matt hated Hollywood. How could a businessman tell and artist how to create? One of the most sickening aspects of captialism is that the corporations think they know what the public wants. Even more annoying and dangerous is seducing the public into believing what they think they want. That should be the topic of his next project...if only he could get anything off the ground. Matt moved to Port Wayne to run his own shop and without money he doesn't have enough room to move around in. Oh, he could probably get one or two small television projects off the ground but that meant listening to a bunch of network fuckheads who would want to edit the final project into a warped sense of what they would call the truth. Running shop from his apartment could get quite chaotic, but it was his best bet since the money he had left from his grandfather's inheritence would be able to see his own company through about a year and a half, maybe two and that's without a staff.
Maybe if he took on investors, but, again, that would be someone else telling him how to do his work. He thought about hitting up Damien, but they were friends and he didn't want to jeopardize that. What a fucking character Damien was. He's a cool cat, a bit, well, not there but still fun to hang around with just the same. They've been spending a lot of time together and even though Matt had been enjoying himself, he knew he had to get his focus back on his production company. Yeah. He couldn't even get a loan from the bank unless he had guaranteed work to back him up and how much could he put upfront fromthe local news departments who have bascially beggedhim to produce or edit or shoot local news spots for them? Crap!! It did help some that he had something of a name, but that Matthew Galveston could only get him so far.
Maybe he should take these television stations up on their offers...that way he could probably still live like a college student and save enough to get Matthew Galveston Productions off the launching pad. Man, what a rush to think that he was so near his dream.
Matt stood up and walked over to his sofa where he stretched out and closed his eyes. Dreams do come true, he toldhimself. He knew that for a fact for he had lived some of his dreams. Matt took a deep breath. A whole new beginning...in Port Wayne...
And out of nowhere he thought of Nick Fuller. They were reunited and Matt wondered if it was coincidence or manufactured plot...after all, he did know that Nick was from Port Wayne when they first met...but, no, he's not the type of guy to go chasing after someone after only a couple of dates. But, then again, Nick wasn't like any other guy he'd ever met.

Steve just left Ben Taylor's office. He was right to use Nick's advice. Okay, Ben was Nick's boyfriend and all, but at least the meeting went better than expected. Everything felt to surreal; so perfect. Steve had never believed in perfection for he thought it was too boring a conception. However, the way his life was moving and shaping since his return to the States would probably force him to believe in such unabashed rediculousness. Jed's friends all seemed to like him, even though, Steve had to admit, there was something sneaky about Damien. Of course, Jed had told Steve all about Damien's crafty way of dealing with whatever surrounded him and it was nothing more than a security blanket. Steve knew that. But, all in all, he told himself to keep an eye on Damien. Steve had learned a few tricks. Tricks that he never thought he would have to use. One would call that self-defense, right?
When Steve reached his house he found a package on the front steps. He picked it up and brought it into the house. After setting down his briefcase he took the brown paper wrapped packed and eyed it carefully. No address or return address or card or anything. Curious, he tore off the wrapping and found a travel book on Budapest.
Steve's hands began to shake and he looked nervously around his house and through the windows. He looked back at the book, his heart pounding heavily in his chest.