Picture of Victor's best friend, Nelson Peterson.

Going on a business trip in the middle of my planned vacation was fucked up. Who the hell, in their right mind, would do this to anyone?

Apparently, my father would.

I knew he was still in a higher position than me and could persuade the Board of Directors to fire me – with him being the chairman and all that - but I was his son, for God's sake. He could at least leave me alone for the two weeks I was supposed to spend in California and relax. I hadn't been on a vacation for the whole year. I was looking forward to having nothing to do for some time, just lazing around, drinking and enjoying life. But no, my father decided it was a good idea to send me on a fucking business trip in the middle of it. And to Boston on top of that. He sent me over the whole damn continent to help with our office that was having trouble with making a profit.

"I fucking hate him!" I grumbled and flopped into the chair that was standing near the window. I was currently in my hotel room in Boston Harbor Hotel, drinking a beer and mumbling curses under my breath because of this shitty situation when Nelson came inside with a big grin on his face.

"Stop it, that's just disgusting!" His smile widened even more after my words, and he plopped down right next to me on the other chair. He decided to come to Boston with me because we were supposed to spend time in California together, and he refused to stay there alone. Where's the fun in that, he said.

Right.

I was starting to think he came with me just because he wanted to mock me all the time.

Nelson Peterson was my best friend and CFO in my father's company, Nemara Inc. Our families had known each other for more than 40 years, and it was natural for us to become friends. My father studied at the same university as his father, and they became great friends over the years. I and Nelson ended up in a similar situation as our families lived near each other and spent a lot of free time together. We became friends quite quickly and by middle school, we were joined at the hip, giving our parents headaches from all the antics we did.

In high school, we decided to attend the same university so we wouldn't have to separate our ways. It was hard for both of us because the university we chose was so far from our reach we were afraid we would not get in. The acceptance rate for Harvard was extremely low after all. But both of us studied like madmen, attending lectures and spending all of our free time buried in textbooks, and even though it looked a bit hopeless for a while, it paid off. We got in. The rough time wasn't over after that, though. To be more precise, it was quite the opposite. There were a few times I was so close to being kicked out it was a miracle I wasn't. It was too much to handle from time to time. But Nels was always there to punch me in the face (literally) and make me realize what I wanted in life and what I needed to do to get it.

He was there for me even when I realized I was attracted more to boys than to girls. I was so petrified at that time that I spent my days drunk and high, sleeping with every woman that was willing to put up with me in that condition. I wanted to change my body and mind to like only women even though I knew it was impossible.

Just remembering that time of my life made me depressed every time I thought about it, so I tried my damn hardest to keep it locked in the farthest parts of my mind.

I sighed and leaned against the chair, closing my eyes and trying to relax a bit. This place made me recall all the unpleasant memories I had about my university days, and I was not happy about it. This fucking city was making me weak again, and I fucking hated every second of that.

"C'mon, Vic! We are in Boston after all those years again! Be a little excited, will you?! It's the city of our youth!" Nelson yelled excitedly, and my head started to pulse.

"God, Nelson. Shut up, my head hurts!" I grumbled again and looked at him through my slightly opened eyes. The idiot was still grinning, and his eyes were twinkling like a little kid's. What the hell was he scheming? I didn't like this expression of his; it was scary as fuck. He always did something stupid or embarrassing when he got like this. With him being thirty-five, one would expect he would act more appropriate to his age.

"We are going out!" he cheered, standing up abruptly and tugging at my arm, pulling me up by force.

"I don't want to go anywhere, Nels. This city makes me nervous. I didn't experience my greatest days here, you know that," I said silently but still followed him like a little obedient puppy without making any effort to resist his forceful pull. Nelson stopped after my words, turning to me with wide eyes.

"Who are you?!" he asked, feigned shock and horror written all over his face.

"Where did you hide my cold, sarcastic and arrogant best friend? The one who has a stoic, expressionless face even if he sees his amazing best friend fuck two hot chicks in the back of his car?!"

I looked at him, both eyebrows raised, asking him if he was fucking serious only with my expression.

"That's my friend!" he yelled and started to pull me out of the room once again, not stopping until we were out of the hotel.

***

This was ridiculous. Why the hell did he bring me to a gay bar? He wasn't even gay, so why was he willing to spend time in there? My friend was crazy. He was legitimately crazy! I should probably call his psychologist and tell him to give his case to one of his psychiatrist colleagues because this was slowly getting out of hand.

"Why are we here?" I asked after gulping down the rest of the scotch that was in my glass. It was already the fifth one, and I was getting a little bit tipsy. I knew I should have stopped after the second one. I didn't like the idea of ending up dead drunk doing some bullshit. I couldn't afford to make a scene when I was in such an important position in our company. My father, together with the whole Board of Directors, would kill me. But once I took a sip, it was almost impossible to stop.

"You need to relax! Let off some steam! And what's a better way of relaxing for a gay man than to watch all those eye candies? Hm?" he smirked and motioned for the bartender to bring us another round of that god dammed alcohol.

"I can't drink anymore. I will get too drunk and that wouldn't end up well. I would probably end up fucking someone, and that's not a good idea. The bastards from the news are just waiting for me to slip and cause some trouble." It was stupid, but it was the truth. The moment I announced my engagement with my fiancée, Alison Edwards, every reporter in Chicago started to follow me around, waiting for some kind of scandalous revelation.

I knew I was messing around with men quite often after the bad break up I had with my first and last official lover, but why couldn't they leave it alone? With my past experiences and the articles they wrote about me, all they could know was I was probably a bisexual, which would make me having a relationship with a woman absolutely normal. I had never said I was gay in public, not directly, so why were they so adamant about my engagement being a scam? Alison was a beautiful young woman. There was no reason for me to not want her.

They were right in their deductions, of course. It was a scam. She was asexual, so she agreed to marry me for a business benefits mine and her marriage would bring, too tired of being disappointed with her potential partners. But the stupid reporters didn't have this information, so I couldn't figure out why they would even think we were lying.

Ali's father owned one of our rival companies, so our marriage would enable us to merge both companies and build an even bigger and more lucrative one. We even signed a contract that stated if one of us would fall in love, we could leave the marriage/engagement without any consequences. This meant that if we broke up before marriage, there wouldn't be any merger. If we, however, broke up after the marriage, the merger would proceed even after our divorce.

Just remembering the faces of our fathers after we told them about this made me smirk. We were keeping the truth from them for a while, and although both of them thought it was weird for us to be with each other, they accepted it after some time. When we invited them for dinner and told them about our plans, my father almost choked on his wine while her father sputtered some of his on the table. It was priceless! It took them a while to come to terms with the whole 'secret deal' thing, but in the end, they gave us their blessing. And to be honest, it was unbelievably freeing. Keeping this from my father was extremely hard, and I felt bad at times because I was still not an official owner of Nemara Inc. and he could disinherit me at any moment.

Thank God he didn't do that!

Nelson knocked back another glass of scotch and turned to me, his eyes still twinkling. He grabbed me around my shoulders and laughed.

"Oh shut up, Victor! If you mess around in the VIP section upstairs, you are safe! The stupid fuckers from the tabloids can't come inside. The VIP is only for invited, and I just got you an invitation." He grinned and gave me a little golden card with pictures of black kisses and a VIP written on it.

"That's very...authentic." I choked and couldn't hold the laugh that escaped my lips. I didn't know why, it was elegant and corresponded with its purpose, but it looked so damn cheesy. It was ridiculous.

"Right? It couldn't scream gay more than this! Well, go on, go on! You need to loosen up! Choose some twink or whoever you find hot enough and go!" He shoved me off the barstool and started to chat with the bartender, completely ignoring my presence from that moment.

Shaking my head, I walked away from him and looked around the room. It was always like this with Nelson. He was a few months older than me and thought he was my older brother and had to take care of me. I was usually the dominant one, no one could order me around like this. But with Nels, it was a totally different story. Thanks to our history together, I was not able to resist his demands. He really was like an older brother I always wanted, and I was too tolerant of him.

So I ignored my growing irritation towards his antics and went to a dance floor to find someone acceptable for the night. There were several faces that looked good enough to entertain me for longer than two minutes, and if there was an opportunity, I wouldn't miss it.

It wouldn't hurt anyone if I enjoyed one night out, right?