Cellinos fingers hesitated over his glowing phone screen. It was late, and he knew Barnes would be asleep in the master bedroom by now. Cellino sat alone in the kitchen as his mind raced over the past events of the day—the gala, how good Jacob Emrani’s ass looked in those pants, how Jacob’s face lit up from across the room when they made eye contact, how Jacob laughed at his little jokes, and how soft his hand felt when they accidentally went for the last maccaron. And the fight. It seemed like a single day couldn’t go by without some absolute bullshit coming up.
When Cellino met Barnes, they worked so well together. Their clients were good people who needed help. They were injury attorneys who fought against greedy insurance companies to get people the money they DESERVED. These days Barnes was skeptical of everyone. He turned away that old woman with a broken leg because he didn’t think that she would pay his fees. That’s what this was all about, that damned woman. Cellino clenched his fist. If she had never limped into the office in the first place, this wouldn’t have happened. He slowly unclenched it and sighed. He knew that the accident wasn’t her fault. She hit that college kid because he was biking while drunk off of his ass, and probably trying to show off for his equally fucked up friends. Cellino remembered when they were all in law school together, getting fucked up and yelling in the streets. It was so much simpler back then.
Cellinos mind looped back to Barnes screaming at him earlier that day. “WERE RUNNING A FUCKING BUISINESS HERE, WHO ARE YOU?? MR. RODGERS??? WE CANT BE FUCKING NICE TO EVERYONE”. When they started the firm together, they worked HARD to treat everyone with the respect and dedication that they deserved. Everybody got a free consultation because everyone deserved to hear their side of the story heard. Now, Barnes refused to move a fucking muscle unless he was getting paid off of it. Cellino hated that about him, and worked behind his back to help all of the clients who called the hotline. They’d gotten into spats before about money, but it never really mattered. They had enough of it, so why did Barnes care so much about getting more? Cellino thought back to earlier in the day when Jacob stepped outside just to listen to a client who needed help, all while Barnes was in the bathroom probably railing with a crisp hundred kept in his wallet exclusively for that purpose.
The phone screen turned black. Cellino sat alone, looking at the moon over the skyline from the big kitchen window in their Hollywood home. He wondered if Jacob were watching the same moon. He had his number. He memorized it from the radio ads and the billboards plastered up around the city. He even called it once, just to see if it worked. He was going to pretend to be a man who had recently gotten into a motorcycle accident, but once he heard the familiar sweet tenor of Jacob’s voice asking what-can-i-do-for-you, he got nervous and hung up. He wanted to call so badly, ask how he liked the last macaroon, ask how he should help that old woman, ask if he should leave the firm that him and Barnes had worked so hard to build for so many years….
On the other hand, he didn’t even want to talk, he just wanted to feel Jacob’s soft lips pressed up against his, and lay on his chest in a comfortable silence, the kind that he never enjoyed with Barnes anymore. Cellino felt guilty for having these thoughts. The Cellino and Barnes firm had been a staple of the city for years, billboards were plastered just about everywhere advertising it. Cellino couldn’t turn on the TV or the radio without hearing the familiar jingle that they had written together. Expectation suddenly weighed on him as if he were Atlas. He couldn’t break up the firm, he wouldn’t break up the firm. He tip-toed down the hallway and into the room that he shared with Barnes, and held his breath as he slid onto the other side of their bed, careful to not wake up his partner. Barnes shifted and turned over, not even looking at Cellino, who stared at the ceiling, anguished over his failing marriage and business, and his growing, throbbing feelings for jacob.