I was finally back home after a long 1 week and a half in Japan. I closed on one more store, but Robert kept calling me about our deal. I was really pissed at him just by what Chris told me but on the other hand he was still one of the biggest designers in fashion right now. I was conflicted, especially since he will be gone after the show this weekend. Johnathan has been on my ass about this too. Even in Japan he kept trying to see if I was going to take the deal or not. I could avoid him because there was plenty of work and at night, Chris was the only thing on my mind. We had been texting each other and got on the topic of clothes, even though he was just getting up for school.

He had sent me a few pictures from his design book that looked amazing. I was still going through them again before Johnathan walked in with an urgency. He stopped, looking at me with his arms crossed and a tight glare.

As if that ever worked.

"What do you want?" I asked him, sitting down my phone.

"He is going to be gone this weekend Harry," He stated leaning over my desk, "We need to jump on this deal."

I sighed leaning back against my chair. If Johnathan knew what I knew he would be more considerate of why I'm taking so long to decide. However, he already made it clear about separating personal from business. All he was worried about was the money aspect, but he still was my partner. He had to know the information and I'll let him infer what he wanted to.

I placed my elbows on the desk looking Johnathan in his eyes and said, "I have something to tell you. Pull up a chair man."

He squinted before pulling up a white chair to sit in. Once he sat down and leaned forward again, I spoke, "Now I don't know if it is true or not but I have gotten information about our friend Robert Norway."

He took a deep breath before moving back in his chair waiting for me to continue, "There is talk that he steals clothing ideas and clothes from lesser known designers."

Johnathan's eyebrows came together as he frowned and asked, "Who said this?"

This was the hard thing to answer. I couldn't tell him that Chris had personal experience because he was going to think I was handling things with my dick. So I just said, "A young designer emailed me before we left."

"Why didn't you tell me this in Japan?"

"Because I had to really think about if what he was saying was true. I still don't know if it is yet."

I leaned back again and really processed what I just said. I wasn't sure if what Chris was saying was true or not but I wanted to trust him. However, my business was still going to be standing if Chris and I don't work out and I can't risk losing out on a potential big deal like this. I was caught between my business and someone I just said I love you to. I groaned in frustration as Johnathan looked at me suspicious.

"If it's just some random guy," He begin playing with the loose paper clips on my desk, "Why does his one opinion matter so much to the point we can't make this deal?"

Johnathan wasn't stupid and I wasn't sure if he was catching on but I wasn't about to just say his son told me. I just answered, "Because if it's one person, there is going to be more that come out the woods. I don't want to be a part of a deal with someone who may be a fraud. But I see what you are saying that it's not enough but it's enough for me to look into it."

He groaned before saying, "Fine! Just don't wait until the last minute. We got until Saturday."

"You have until now," A voice came from the door, making us turn. Robert was standing there as my assistant hung her head low. He was wearing a plain shirt with khakis along with Gucci slide ins. His face told me how upset he was at the missed calls and obvious dismissal anytime he bought up a deal.

"He wanted to see you and I didn't want to interrupt- "

"I don't need an excuse so stop making one," Robert interrupted her.

"Don't talk to my assistant like that," I injected and the room fell silent. I stood up not missing the angry stare Robert was giving me. Johnathan took the tense atmosphere as a warning to leave along with my assistant. Robert moved aside not breaking his glare from me as they closed the door behind him.

"I'm glad that I could catch you here, " He said, "It seems your phone just keeps going to voicemail on me."

"For good reason," I stated sitting on my desk as he walked over. He scoffed and laughed, "Good reason? Do you know who you are talking to?"

"Apparently someone who has people saying that his work isn't his," I stated and his face grew into a frown. His eyebrow rose as he folded his arms as he asked, "What do you mean someone?"

I bit into my lip coming off my desk. There was no need to act with him. He already knew what person I was referring to. I just shrugged, "Someone who is very close to you."

He smiled but this one was menacing. He licked his lip and shook his head. He knew...he knew. He unfolded his arms and begin to walk around with them on his hips, still grinning. He stopped, not even looking at me. Then he said, "Was this after or before you fucked him?"

"Excuse me?"

"You heard what I said," He looked at me still with that evil grin, "I swear that boy has been trying to ruin my life since he set foot into this damn world."

That struck something in me and I knew that it would prove that Chris told me but I said, "He didn't ask to be here."

"Oh, so now you want to admit," He laughed, "I thought I was going to have to play dance around with you. What he tell you? Huh? That uhm I stole his clothes and that I passed them off as mine, right?"

I didn't say anything and just stared. He continued, "Haha. That was a misunderstanding Harry. The boy likes to exaggerate a lot of things. Now let me tell you the truth."

I was a fair man, so I'll give him a chance to explain. He adjusted himself, regaining his composure before he smiled, "My son is misguided but I am trying my best. I have tried contacting him and everything. No matter what I seem to do, nothing works."

He sounded sincere but I was still not convinced as he continued, "I didn't take anything of his alright. I was just playing along with what someone said and he took it too far. I had to call the cops on him but I felt it was wrong for me to do that, so I let go of the charges."

I rolled my eyes and asked, "Why would you play with something like that? He worked hard on those clothes."

"I was going to give them back and I did. This drunk girl was just out of her mind and I was just dumb."

"You're like almost 40 years old. You shouldn't be that dumb."

"Watch it okay," he stated with his finger in my face before putting it back down, "I know that I wasn't trying to steal. I mean look at these."

He pulled his phone out from his pants pocket and started pressing his fingers to the touch screen. He begins to swipe and then pushed it out towards me. The picture on the screen looked very familiar, so I begin to scroll through the pictures some more. Then he spoke again, "Does it look like I need to steal? I design my own shit."

The faster I went, the angrier I got. I couldn't show him though, so I just smiled as he acted like he was getting to me. I nodded getting to the end of the designs and said, "Yeah these are amazing. You mind if you send these to me please. You know so I can really look at them."

He smiled taking back his phone and said, "I'll send you a few but not all. Does this mean we may have a deal still?"

It was taking everything in me not to punch his fucking head off, but I had a plan brewing. I smiled and answered, "Maybe. I need to see the response at this show and if we can talk after, we can talk contract."

He nodded and extended his hand to shake mine. I wanted to wipe the smug look off his face but I had to keep my composure long enough to get him out the door.

"I'm glad that we can clear all this up," Robert said going towards the door, "And your relationship with Chris is good with me."

"I still don't know what you are talking about but I will see you at your show," I told him as he finally made his way out. As soon as he made it down the hall and into the elevator, I lost it. I threw the nearest thing I could at the wall. That so happened to be my loose paperclip cup. I saw Johnathan rush to the door and burst through into my office. His hair looked like he had been running his hand through it the entire time Robert was here.

"What happened," he nervously asked, "Did we lose it? Did we lose the deal?"

"Fuck that deal," I stated walking over to my Mac, "This dude is for sure a fraud."

He was breathing heavily as he asked, "What? How do you know that for sure?"

I started to go through my text messages from Chris and the pictures that Robert texted me. I went back and forth.

They were identical.

I called Johnathan over to see them and as he inspected them, he saw it too. He stood back, still staring at the screen but this time with a blank stare.

"Chris sent me his pictures while we were in Japan and Robert just showed me these," I said. Johnathan shook his head in disbelief before he stated, "We don't know for sure if Robert is the copier here."

"What the hell John?" I yelled, "I'm telling you this is Chris's stuff. He took it!"

"You can't prove who took what from who," Johnathan said sounding more stupid, "The pictures don't have their names on them and I just can't say Robert did it."

Johnathan wasn't being dumb as I thought he was. He was being level-headed about this. The pictures didn't have either of their names and the only way to really see who did it was to find the design book. Even though I was probably being blinded by love, I knew Chris wouldn't lie to me. So to prove to Johnathan, I grabbed my coat and him to take a small trip.

**

I had quickly forgotten, it was championship week and the basketball team would be gone to two cities over. So being the determined person I was, I got some snacks from a nearby gas station and we hauled ass.

"I didn't sign up for a 4-hour road trip, " Johnathan said laying down in the backseat, "Pass me the Cheetos."

I tossed the bag back to him and heard him crunching down on them a few seconds later. Then he spoke, "So what is so different about this guy Harry?"

"What?"

"Chris. I mean, you're doing all this extra shit to prove a point to me and lose one of the best deals ever for our company. Why?"

I rolled my eyes and answered, "There will be more deals John."

"But this deal is here now. I mean come on, I've seen you with Roman and you have never acted this way towards him. Even when he asked to get in on our business you said no. This guy comes around and you change your whole perspective around. Now, you are questioning what could be the biggest deal just because of someone you fucked."

I abruptly stepped on the break, making Johnathan almost fly over the seat.

"Dude what the fuck!" He yelled and I turned to him. From how wide his blue eyes had gotten he could tell this wasn't a joke. My face was burning hot as I restrained myself from knocking his head loose.

"Chris isn't just somebody I fucked," I spat out, "And I am so sick of you being so negative about me in my relationships. What you think I'm not capable of really being in a relationship with someone?"

"No, man!"

"Seriously?"

"You can't fucking think straight when you are in one," he stated, "You let your dick get what it wants out of people and then you turn these guys loose and Caleb and I are always there picking up the messy pieces from them. You don't know how many fucking guys I've stopped from ruining us because you couldn't keep it in your pants."

I was shook because I didn't know that anyone was trying to mess up our business. I was beginning to feel horrible but Johnathan continued to talk, "Oh yeah! You remember Roman right? The guy you said was Mr. Right but you dumped his ass. You want to know what he was going to do? He was going to destroy us by getting all our investors to buy us out until I told him that I knew about the illegal work he was doing overseas. So yeah, I save your ass more than you know."

I was for sure now that without Johnathan, the company would have been under by now. I worked but apparently he worked harder trying to keep us afloat. I understood now why he was always on my ass about the people I chose to date. I guess I had a part in his relationships not working because he was always babysitting me. I wanted to let him know that this time, it wasn't going to be any of that. I was already in love with Chris before I even knew it. It just wasn't the right time but this time was it.

I had calm down enough to see that Johnathan had been letting that weigh on him for a long time. He was looking out for me and I didn't even know. He sat back into the seat and placed a hand on his forehead. He slowly shook his head in frustration as I said, "Man, I didn't know all that shit was going on. Why didn't you tell me?"

"You had other shit going on," He expressed, "You were raising Caleb and then had to do things for the company. It was the least I could do. You are my best friend and I understand that you want someone every now and then. Which is why I'm so on you about this one. I'm trying to make sure that you won't mess up again because this time I don't think we can come back from this deal."

It was written across his face that he was more concern then anything. So right now, I had to convince him that if this thing with Chris does go the other way that losing this deal will not be the end of us. I knew it wasn't but Johnathan has been cleaning up my shit for so long that he deserved to understand why I felt so deeply that Chris wouldn't lie.

"I promise you, Chris is different," I assured him, "He doesn't want me for anything and I'm pretty sure he would love me even if I lost everything. I never felt that way about anyone before. I never wanted someone's trust as much as I wanted him to trust me. So please, I promise. Just do this one more dumb thing with me."

He huffed through his nose before staring back at me. It was a moment before he sighed, "Fine. But this is the last time and the designs better be his."

He laid back down as I smiled. I turned back to the steering wheel and begin to drive the remaining miles to the championship.

**

"It's so many people here," I said as Caleb guided us to our seats. Darrius had come over the day after I left and they made up. I knew it would happen but my brother was always a sucker for him. I would rather him be a sucker for Darrius than anybody else though. The stadium was packed already. It was people that I saw at the last game that had traveled to see the team play. It was already 3rd quarter when we sat down and I looked on the court to see Chris. He was sweating and every muscle that he could show was shining. I even looked at his calves to watch as they tighten every time he took a step. They begin to play again and I was glued to him. He couldn't see me but I could see him. He looked so concentrated and alert. If he was like this with basketball, I could only imagine what he looked like designing.

He had signaled for Tre to move towards one of the opponent players. Even though Tre had his moments, the one time I watched him play I could tell he was in his element. Maybe not as much as Darrius was because he was on fire and my brother wouldn't let other people forget it as he made a basket.

"YES BABY," He yelled and I could see Darrius smile but he didn't look in the crowd. He knew his voice and that made my heart jump. Chris high-fived him as they ran down the court. The game was close but the guys were in the lead. The crowd was roaring with cheers for Wilson and the opposing team, Hillcrest. The ball was in play again and I had completely forgot why I was here.

Instead of trying to prove something to Johnathan, I had become a supportive boyfriend like my brother. I found myself jumping out of my seat every time he scored or helped score. My brother and I held our breaths every time they went to the free throw line and participated in yelling at the other team to miss. This felt way better than any deal that Robert could ever give me. Right now, I just wanted to thank him for providing the sperm that created this person that amazed me more than anyone in the world. Someone that seemed more than human.

Then within the next moment, I realized just how human Chris was. The fall could be heard across the stadium as Chris landed. The audience gasping ringed before the place went silent. Caleb grabbed my shaking hand as my heart pounded against my shirt. Johnathan even stood up, placing his hand on my shoulder. Chris screamed and it came from a deep place of pain. It felt like the world had stopped and all I could do was hear him scream. I could hear the tears in his voice and it made it even worst when they showed it on the huge jumbo-tron.

Chris was on his back crying his eyes out. Darrius and Tre were trying to soothe him but it wasn't working. Nothing would work in this situation because on the jumbo-tron everyone could see how bad the damage was. I didn't want to look but I couldn't turn away. Tears were falling down my face as I watched him suffer in front of hundreds of people.

Right there on the screen, it showed his ankle twisting almost completely around.