CHAPTER 53: APOLOGY, NOTICE, TROUBLE & SURPRISES

LIBERTY AVENUE

LINDSAY

“What on earth possessed you to say that?!”  I shout at him, pulling him along the street.

“Lindz!  Let go of me! I can walk unaided!”  He tries to yank his arm free but I hold tight.

We make it to the apartment in record time. Only once the door is locked, do I let go of him.

“I bet you’ve left a bruise!  What’s wrong with you?!!”  He checks his elbow and glares at me.

“What’s wrong with me?  Do you know what Grim does?”

“No.  And why should I care what some aging Dom with a love of chicken does?”

I pinch the bridge of my nose at his blasé attitude.  “He’s a cop and you threatened to shank his boyfriend!”

That gets his attention.  “I didn’t!  I just said I know how to do it. That’s not the same thing!”

“And we’re banned from the diner again.”

“No, we’ll be fine tomorrow.  Everything would’ve blown over by then.  Want some wine?”

“We need to order some groceries to be delivered and quickly before we’re blacklisted in every store!”  I snap at him and click on the computer.  “Sometimes Michael your inability to think worries me!”

DINER

GRIM

I need to find out exactly what’s happened, but first I need to calm him down.  A little light has gone from Twinkle’s eyes and it’s all his fault.  As much as I like and respect Debs, if she had shown more tough love to that manchild, he wouldn’t get away with half the shit he’s gotten away with.

Debs comes up and places a hand on my arm.  “Grim, I’m sorry for whatever he’s said to Twinkle.  I wasn’t here so I don’t know exactly…”

“He kept calling me Twanker.  Then he s-said that he hadn’t forgotten the milkshake incident and that he knew how to shank.  That’s not good, is it?”

“No, it’s not but trust me he doesn’t.  He was just being a bully and a coward.”  I reassure him. Ems goes to stroke his back but I shake my head.  At times like this, he only wants me.

“Why don’t you two go out back?”  Ems suggests.  “Want me to bring the box?”

I nod and gently manoeuvre Twinkle out of the booth and into the office.  Ems places it on the sofa and leaves us alone.

“Twinkle.”  I lift his chin and his bottom lip wobbles.  “Come now, where’s my brave boy who helped me with Slick and poured milkshake over their heads?  And do you know what a swirly is?”

He shakes his head.  “It’s when someone has their head stuck in the toilet and it’s flushed sometimes with scat in it.”

He twists his face in disgust.  “And that happened to him?”  

I chuckle.  “Yes.  Twice.”  This makes him smile.

“Master?”  He looks away. I know what he’s going to ask so I stop him.  “It means to stab someone with a homemade knife. It’s a prison term.  But he will never ever hurt you, I will hurt him first.  I promise.”

He fiddles with the corner of the box.  “It’s nicely wrapped.”  He murmurs.  “Can I open it now?”

“It’s your birthday present.  So no, you have to wait until Saturday.”

There’s a tap and Ems pokes his head round.  “Can I get you guys anything?  You can eat in here if you like.”

“Yes please but I want to sit in the booth.”  Twinkle says firmly.

I grin and let him lead me out as we settle down to order, I lean across and kiss him gently on the cheek and he goes a nice shade of pink.

KINNETIC

CYNTHIA’S OFFICE

CYNTHIA

I glare at the text message and put my phone face down. If I leave it face up, I will only read it again and get angrier.

Now I’m not a violent person but that manchild has pushed it too far.  I head to the break room to get me some furball love only to find that Brian has beaten me to it.

“I know I heard.”  He sighs as he plays with Baloo ears.  “But he’s on his own.  He has to fix this.”

“Good, because word on the street is that Grim is going to have a quiet word with him.”

He snickers and shakes his head.  “What did I do wrong Cyn?”

“Nothing!  Absolutely nothing.”  I tell him firmly.  “Now get yourself up off your Armani-clad ass and go home.  Like you said, he has to fix this.  And if Grim doesn’t get through to him, there’s a certain COO that will!  I’ve got a lot of love for him stored up over the years.”

“I’ll bet.”  He gets up and clicks for the boys to follow.  “See you Wednesday.”

“Wednesday? Why Wednesday?”  And then I remember.  “Oh yes, I would go with the shoes first.”

“Oh God, this is going to be all out war. I can tell.”

SLICK’S EMPORIUM – TUESDAY MID-MORNING

DAPHNE’S APARTMENT

LOUNGE

HUNTER

The tension is palpable.  Daphne is grinning as she’s got this beautiful fitted dress in peach that is perfect for her.  Well, according to Jennifer.  Personally I think she looks better in a pant suit.  So we’re just waiting to see what Slick has to wear.  She’s looking warily at the suit bag but Brian gives her a shoe box first.

Opening it she snickers.  “They’re not peach…”  She grins at Brian.  “And they’re fucking gorgeous! Score one for you.”

We let out the breath we have all been holding and she opens the suit bag. The first thing I see is something silky and definitely peach.

“Reserving judgement until I see the rest of it, but that top’s a no…” Dad mutters.

She puts the top aside without even looking at it and then gasps.  “Holy good gravy, you’re kidding me?  You guys can’t be serious?”  She looks at them both and they nod.

“It’s perfect.”

“What is?  Let me see that?”  Daphne demands and then she looks at her dress and back to whatever is in the bag.

“That’s a Dolce & Gabbana 3 piece dinner suit.”  She sighs.  “It’s gorgeous.”

I spot the quick look that Brian gives Slick and she peers in the bag again. “Yeah so why do I have two of them?  This one is at least a size too small for me…”

I have never seen two men grabbed in a vice like grip by someone so small at the same time!

“So we can return the dress?”  Justin gasps once he gets his breath back.

“We have to try these on!”  She grabs Slick and pulls her upstairs, only letting her stop briefly to grab her shoes.

“Daph!”  Justin calls her back.  “Don’t you want your shoes?”  Her squeal almost shatters glass.

Twenty minutes later they are down and looking absolutely stunning.  “Okay take them off and give them back.”  Brian orders. Two sets of mournful brown eyes turn to him.  “Not going to work. Off and back or you’re relieved of best women duties.”

They stomp upstairs with Slick muttering dark things about cars and oil pans.  It takes 2 hands slaps to get the suit bag out of Daph’s hands and Brian takes them immediately down to the car.

“So what did I miss whist I’ve been away and so freaking busy it’s not funny?  And since Renoir has to prepare for his show, I’m a man down.”

We all turn to Debs.  “Michael ran his mouth again.  This time he went after Twinkle and said that he knows how to shank.  But Brandon shut him down and now I’ve banned them from the diner for good. So it’s been…”

Slick is pulling on her coat and heading out the door.  “Oh fuck!”  Brian groans and goes to follow her.

“Brian, please stop.  This is Twinkle; he saved her life.  Let her do it.”  Justin tells him.

“I’m not going to stop her from doing anything he doesn’t deserve, but what if she hits him?”

“Good point!  Slick, wait!”  Dad shouts.

We all dash downstairs. Luckily she had stopped off in the office to collect something and that seemed to focus her mind.  She grins at us.  “Well, come on if you’re coming.”

MICHAEL’S APARTMENT

MICHAEL

We’ve been stuck in this apartment for almost 24 hours now. It feels like I’m back in jail again!

Lindsay is barely speaking to me as she blames me for us being inside, despite it being her idea to lay low!

“Lindsay, I do think that you are overreacting to this.  If Grim was going to do anything surely, with all the love he has for Twanker, he would’ve come to protect his honour by now?”

“Michael.  He has the power to put you, I mean us, back in prison!”

I gape at her.  “What in fuck are you talking about?”

“If he reports…”

The door knocking interrupts her tirade and when I open it, I’m faced with not only Slick and some of the newly formed family but also Grim.

“So Mr Godfather, what did you think you were fucking playing at?”  Grim growls at me.  “You upset Twinkle and I don’t like that.  You are going to write a letter of apology to him now and then we will forget the whole thing!”

He hands me a piece of notepad and a pen.  “This is his favourite paper and I thought it appropriate as I’m sure he’ll keep this for posterity.”

I can feel the heat dousing my face and remain rooted to the spot.  “Unless of course you want me to report your threat to him, which will have dire consequences for both of you.”

“Michael, come and sit down and I’ll tell you what to write.”  Lindsay grits out.

“I’m more than capable of…”  I begin, only to be cut off by mother.

“Sit down and write the following!  On another piece of paper first so you can copy it properly.”

She clears her throat.  “Dear Twinkle.  Please accept my sincere apologies for the upset I caused you yesterday when I called you names and threatened to pay you back for the milkshake incident with a display of how to shank.  I was wrong and was being a bully, a coward and a show off.  The next time I see you, I will treat you with respect and good manners.  Sincerely Michael Charles Novotny.”

She looks at Grim who slowly nods his approval and checks what I’ve written before watching carefully as I copy it out onto the good paper and he folds it up and leaves before pausing.

“You guys still coming on Saturday?”

“Absolutely, wouldn’t miss it for the world.”  Mother grins and everyone else nods.

I turn to the rest of them and scowl.  “What do you lot want?”

Emmett snorts derisively.  “Well Slick wants to speak to you and we’re here to make sure she leaves you alive.”

I roll my eyes and that gets a slap upside the head from Mother.  “You didn’t pull that shit in prison so don’t do it here!”

“This is my home!”  I just about manage to rein in my snark as her hand comes up again.

Slick looks round.  “Your rent is due and you must pay it and…”

“I can pay my rent.”  I smirk at her and I look across at Lindsay who nods at me.

“Ain’t that great.  However, since this lease is legal it means that I can’t kick your ass out now.  So as per the lease, you have a month and your asses are out of here.”

“What?!”  Lindsay gasps.  “You’re evicting us?  You can’t do that!”

“Actually, I can and I am.  First, there is technically no us as your name is not on the lease.  Second, he’s breached the proprietary behaviours part of the lease, when he threatened Twinkle.  Actually, he breached that when he went to prison, and only because of Debs was he kept here.  This is no longer the case and so you have a month.”

“But…”

“And Lindsay, you still owe me three months’ rent for quitting without due notice in Canada. So you need to find that money, too.”

“I can pay you now.  How much is it?  Will you take a check?”

“Great.  $3800 and of course not unless it’s a cashier’s one, or you can just transfer the money to me now!”

“I’ll do the transfer.  Excuse me Michael.”  She moves me out of the way and logs into her account.  “Can you put your details in?”

Within 10 minutes the money is transferred and she makes sure to delete her bank details earning a scowl from Lindsay.  Brian just looks at us coldly.

“What’s the matter Brian?”  I don’t understand why he looks the way he does.

“None of your business.  Are we done here?”

They start to the door and Slick stops.  “What I don’t understand is why such a comic aficionado as yourself didn’t go to the restorers with it. You could have gotten something.”

I grimace.  “Unfortunately, Lindsay managed to throw it away by accident and by the time I realised that, the compactor had been emptied.”

She burst out laughing and shepherds everyone out.  “We need to go back to mine. This is just too good!”

SLICK’S APARTMENT

LOUNGE

BEN

She couldn’t stop snickering all the way back.  It was unnerving.  She opened a bottle of champagne and Daphne handled the samples from Emmy.

“Okay spill it.”  Brian helps himself to the chicken pie, which is a favourite of everyone’s.

“Lindsay sold his comic back to us.”

“She did what?”  I start to smile.

“Came in before she went down and sold us the comic for ten grand, took the money on the spot.  Funny thing is she wanted the money wired to her first and not to him.  Methinks there is trouble in paradise with those two.”

“Shame.”  Hunter is starting to grin.

“Yeah real pity.”  Justin snickers.

Before long we are all laughing our heads off, wondering what the next episode of stupidity is going to be.

BRITIN – FRIDAY EVENING

JUSTIN

I can hear music.  I got so caught up in my painting that I didn’t hear Brian come in.  I head downstairs and find him in the kitchen listening to someone and dancing, actually properly dancing!

I just stare at him in surprise at first because normally we’re just grinding against each other but this is the most erotic thing I’ve ever seen!  I switch off the player, startling him.

“How long have you been standing there?”

“Never mind that.  Three things:  One, who was that and what’s the song?”

“Brooke Benton, again, and Kiddio.”

“Secondly, why didn’t you tell me you can dance like that?”

He shrugs, somewhat embarrassed.  “And the third thing?”

“Bed, now!”  I growl.

GRIM & TWINKLE’S HOUSE

LOUNGE

GRIM

I’m so nervous.  I hope he likes them.  Twinkle is in his element after the unpleasantness earlier in the week.  He told me that Brandon held his hand until I got there and I told him that it was fine; that he was just offering comfort, nothing else and he need not worry that I was mad.

I tap the glass and there’s silence.  “Gents and some honorary gents, it’s present time!  Now Twinkle, you need to stand here.”

He’s grinning at me and I have to keep reminding myself that I’ve been with him for almost 15 years!  I first found him when he was 18 in Meathook and I thought he was adorable then but he’s even more adorable now.

“Which should I open first?”

“This present is from Michael Novotny.”  Twinkle looks worried and crestfallen and there’s murmurs of discontent.  “Hold on, it’s an approved by me and Debs, so present from Michael Novotny.”

I hand him the envelope and tell him to read it out loud, by the time he’s finished people are teasing Debs and I about how we got him to write it.  Brandon especially.

“Master do I have to keep it?”

“No.  But why don’t you want to?”

“He doesn’t belong in our home.”

“Fine.  Then we will throw it away.”

He beams at me and looks eagerly at the box that Emmett gave him. “Yes you can open it now.”  For all his enthusiasm, he’s very careful when he opens it, making sure not to rip the paper needlessly.

“Oh!”  He gasps as he sees his absolute favourite bath products.  “Thank you so much!”

“You are welcome Twinkle.  Now take them upstairs and we can use them tomorrow.”

“Master!”  He squeaks, blushing bright red.

TWINKLE

I have put my presents away and I am so happy that I was allowed to get rid of that horrible meaningless note.  I’m just coming down the stairs when Master takes my hand and pulls me into the kitchen.

“Have I done something wrong?”  I ask.

“No, you’ve been my darling Twinkle as usual.”  He kisses me gently.  “Can you help me with the cake please?  By the way, how long have we been together?”

“15 years next Tuesday.”

“I think that’s long enough, don’t you?”

I freeze and feel my heart plummet to the floor.  “L-long enough?”

“Yes, I think we’ve done this partner thing long enough.  So will you Twinkle, marry me Grim?”

“Marry you?”  I gasp and turn to him only to find him on his knee holding a ring, an actual ring, for me!  “Oh Master, please yes please!”

“Oh lord!”  Emmett squeals.  “You two have to get married first!  I shall sort everything. No arguing, now go announce!”

And once again this week; Master lets me lead.