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storeroom. Its damp, musty odor smacked him like a drunken kiss.  It s a little, uh& 
 Rank, I know. That s what happens when you mix spilled booze and a shitload of
dust. No matter how often we clean, the smell never goes away. Cameron shrugged.
 You ll get used to it. There s a broom and a face mask in the corner. Sweep up as best
you can before our next liquor order gets delivered this afternoon. He turned and went
back in the office.
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A Fool for You
Brian stared after him, then glanced around at what he was supposed to clean up.
Jesus, the place was a fucking pigsty, with muddy footprints tracked in from the back
door and dust bunnies as big as his head. Obviously no one had cleaned in here for a
while. What the fuck was Cameron trying to pull?
He marched back into the office to find Cameron behind his desk, working on some
accounting program. He didn t even bother looking up.
 Okay, I get it, Brian said.  Ha, ha, very funny. Is this your way of getting back at
me for all the shit I ve given you since& well, ever?
Cameron turned his head slowly, giving Brian a puzzled look.  I have no idea what
you re talking about.
 Sure you don t. So when you said you needed another broom-pusher, you meant it
literally?
 What else would I mean? Is there anything else you can actually do?
Brian shoved his hands in his pockets and thought about it for a minute.  I can wait
tables. I did it a couple of summers during high school.
 Not here, you can t. You re not old enough to serve alcohol.
 I ll be twenty-one in three months.
 Then we can talk about it again in three months, if you re still here. Right now
cleanup work s all I have available. He turned back to the computer.
So that was it? No, it couldn t be.  B-But& couldn t I help out with the show? There
must be something I can do backstage.
 Not unless you want to put on an evening gown and high heels. Then you d have
to pass inspection with Mike and Ryan. They re in charge of entertainment.
Now Cameron was just making fun of him. Exactly what this had been about from
the start.  Okay, fine, Brian huffed, stomping off toward the storeroom.  Whatever.
There was a moment of deadly silence, and then,  Get back in here, Brian. I have a
couple more things to say to you.
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Cat Grant
He d never heard Cameron use that tone before quiet, yet completely chilling. It
shot up Brian s spine like a lightning bolt, setting his hair on end and spinning him
around against his will.
 Sit down. Cameron pointed at one of the chairs in front of his desk. Brian couldn t
plop himself down fast enough. Then Cameron stood. He wasn t that big of a guy, but
he looked pretty fucking imposing right now. Brian could ve sworn his eyes had gone
darker.  I m not your enemy, Brian, even if you insist on treating me like one. But if you
weren t Trevor s kid, I would ve booted your spoiled-brat ass out of here five minutes
ago.
 So why didn t you?
 Because I believe in second chances. Hell, I m living proof that a person can turn
his life around if he really wants to. You ve got an opportunity to do that here. I d hate
to see you throw it away.
 An opportunity to get black-lung from inhaling a fuckton of dust? No thanks.
Brian started to get up.
 You realize you could be rotting in jail right now? And you would be, if you didn t
have a dad who gives a shit about you. Who knew you d rather get raped in the
showers than do a little manual labor? He stared at his hand as if he d just noticed
there was a pen in it, then tossed it on the desk with a sigh.  If you don t want to work,
fine. Get on the subway and go home. I ll think of something to tell Trev.
 Something that ll put me in the doghouse for the next month, Brian spat.
 You re already in the doghouse. He stole a glance at his watch.  And now, no
thanks to you, I ve got about half an hour to get this bank deposit ready before we
open. With that, he sat down and got back to work.
First chewed out, then ignored. Brian had had enough of this shit. He grabbed his
jacket, then beat a retreat through the storeroom to the back door, flipped the deadlock
and slipped out into the alley. Right next to the dumpster. Bye-bye, stale, dusty stench.
Hello, ripe stink of rotten food and dog piss. At least, he hoped it was dog piss.
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A Fool for You
Shoulders slumped, he made his way to the corner newsstand and started flipping
listlessly through the latest issues of Green Lantern and Superman. God, he hadn t even
looked at a comic book since he d left Toronto. He hadn t done a lot of things since then.
He hadn t laughed much, or slept too well. Every morning he d woken up around four
and spent the next hour or two staring at the ceiling while Kit and Stewart snored away.
No matter how exhausted he was, he couldn t escape this awful weight-of-the-world
feeling. First it was because no club wanted to hire them. Then once they d landed the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]