Page 4 of For the Love of the Lawyer

The entire scene had been an unanticipated, huge misunderstanding, but it was turning into theoutJon had been seeking to end his relationship with a guy who was too young and too damn possessive. Barron George had been a lot of fun when they began spending time together a few months prior, but he became progressively more jealous and controlling during the time they'd been seeing each other.

Jon was truly done with the relationship, but his desire to avoid conflict had made him lax, so he didn’t push things with Barron to the point of calling it off. The events of earlier in the evening had been embarrassing to say the least, but they were about to give him the freedom he greatly sought.

"Audrey, I can’t understand why you're thinking about leaving the firm." Jon was sitting with his best friend, Audrey Langley, as the two were having dinner at an Italian restaurant down the street from their offices.

Audrey's father, Sherman Langley, and Jon's father, Hamilton Wells, were the founding partners of Langley & Wells, the firm where Jon and Audrey worked. There were offices in Richmond, Alexandria, and Fairfax, and there were about fifty attorneys in the firm at Jon’s last count.

They were a premier Virginian firm, and they'd been around for about twenty-five years. Jon had followed in Ham's footsteps, just as Audrey had followed in Sherm's. Jon and Audrey had known each other all their lives, and they were dear, dear friends, but that was where it stopped.

"It's fucking smothering me, Jon. Surely you feel the same suffocating pressure to get married, don't you? Hell, they allthink we're dating, and we both know we wouldn't touch each other with ten-foot poles. Lyla is about ready to leave me if I don't tell my parents I'm a lesbian, and hell, you go through men like a hot knife through butter. When are you going to man up and tell your parents the truth about your lifelong love affair with dick?" Audrey put her hands over Jon's that were resting on the table. He gripped hers and smiled just as he heard the exaggerated gasp and its accompanying hiss.

"You motherfucking cheating bastard!" Jon turned to see Barron standing at the end of the table with one of his hags in tow, sporting the requisite scowl of derision.

Instead of allowing Barron and his shadow to embarrass them, Jon tossed money on the table, kissed Audrey's hand, and escorted Barron out of the restaurant. The hissy fit which followed on the street as Jon led him to the parking lot was epic, but not unexpected. He was sure the next morning when he awoke alone, he’d believe the whole scene to be worth it if it meant he’d ultimately gotten Barron out of the Barron worked at a house—and out of his hair.

"At this point, Barron, it doesn't matter if I did or didn't, does it? You've made up your mind about what happened without any hesitation. Maybe it's better this way? We should kiss and say goodbye, once and for all. I'll take the copy of my key you had made.” Jon held out his hand.

The key was numbered, and the management office had been called when the key was taken to a shop to be copied. Jon was called by the building super and gave his consent, not wanting to cause a fuss at the time, but he was definitely going to get his key back and then have the locks changed.

He looked at the young man he hoped would be gone from his life very soon, and he saw the anger-laced surprise in his light-brown eyes. Jon didn’t suffer fools, and obviously, Barronthought his tantrum would result in Jon begging him not to go. That wasn't going to happen.

Barron was the most recent of a long line of go-to guys who Jon had kept around beyond their shelf life. He seemed to always pick guys who got too attached, too quickly. It really plucked Jon's nerves that he wasn’t strong enough not to go back for a second bite of the apple, but he ended up succumbing to the whims of his own libido, which was a terribly sad trait in a grown-ass man.

Jon tried to maintain his distance when it came to intimate encounters, but sometimes they had beautiful eyes, or they could suck his cock down their throats, and that distance would evaporate like so much smoke. There was always something to entice him to stay too long at the party, regardless of how many leaves he turned over in his imaginary dating journal. Barron was a good example of a bad decision Jon should have rectified long ago.

“And your fucking job always comes before me, just like your precious Audrey. I wanted to go to that concert at Constitution Hall in DC, butnooo, we couldn’t go because it was Audrey’s birthday, and she wanted to go out for a quiet dinner—without me coming along. You should have told her no! You should want to make me happy, Jon. You should have wanted to spend time with me, but instead, you did what Audrey wanted.”

The young redhead continued to pack up his things which had quickly accumulated without Jon's permission or notice. Barron continued bitching and moaning about every little wrong he felt had been foisted upon him since he and Jon had started fucking.

Meanwhile, Jon poured himself a Scotch and took a seat on the leather sofa in the living room. He placed his drink on a coaster resting on the glass-topped coffee table and bounced around a bit, finding the sofa too hard for his taste.

The piece of furniture was a year old, and it wasn't any more comfortable now than the day it was delivered. Jon decided to be on the lookout for something new when he had time. Ridding himself of things in his life which were onlyokayseemed to be a new goal he was looking forward to achieving.

Jon heard stomping from the hallway and steeled his face before the growntoddlerreached the room. Barron held a sweater of Jon’s, and while he didn’t want to have a full-on shouting match over it, Jon liked it far too much and damn well wasn't going to watch the man walk out with it.

It was a beautiful, royal-blue cashmere Jon had received from his mother for his birthday in February, and Barron knew it was his favorite. He wasn’t going anywhere with that sweater if Jon could stop him.

The lawyer rose from his seat on the uncomfortable couch and slowly walked over to the young man who looked flooded with anger. Jon eased the garment gently from Barron’s delicate hands and spoke softly.

"This one's mine. It was a gift from my mother which I cherish. Take any other one in the closet if you must, Barron, but this one's mine.” Jon calmly brushed the back of his right hand against the younger man's cheek.

A little tenderness could diffuse an attack on his wardrobe with a pair of scissors, as he'd been slow to learn in the past. There was definitely a downside to dating twinks—their thirst for revenge. It was a lesson Jon should have learned years earlier.

The younger man smiled before a tear slid down his cheek. "Sorry, baby. I don't want us to end on a bad note. It's just… You won't ever commit to a guy, will you? You'll never have a serious relationship with a man, right? Please, tell me it’s not because you don’t find me attractive.” Jon could see the vulnerability in Barron’s sparkling brown eyes.

Well, he's got that right. He wasn’t looking to hurt Barron, nor was he hoping to remain friends with the man. His only course of action was to play the card he'd used so often when he tried to let someone down the easy way.

"No, honey, it has nothing to do with my level of attraction for you. I just can't go down the yellow-brick road, looking for the rainbow, Barron. My parents… Hell, if they knew I was bisexual, they'd have a cow. My father would probably fire me before they both disowned me. It's just not the way a Wells is supposed to behave. It's nothing against you, but I just can't live without my family.” Jon’s voice didn’t sound right to his own ears. He hoped Barron didn’t notice.

Jon’s parents were very down-to-earth, and he could never imagine a scenario where his father would fire him. They weren’t the snobs Jon was making them out to be, but he was pretty sure they’d be disappointed if they found out he was dedicated to dick. It was for the best.

Jonathon Wells had grown up with privileges and luxuries few of his peers had enjoyed. His father was a successful attorney. Considering he was a black man in the south, it was really a tribute to the man’s tenacity and intellect. He definitely had a way of handling those who retained his services, many Jon would bet were nothing but bigots. Ham Wells’ success rate in a courtroom couldn’t be ignored.

Jon’s father, however, attributed all his successes as a lawyer to his best friend, Sherman Langley. They'd been friends since law school, and they'd both met the loves of their lives on the same night at a bar in the District of Columbia. Sherman was equally as business savvy, and Ham always claimed the clients wouldn’t come if Sherm didn’t schmooze them.

Marnie Mbutto was a beautiful, ebony-skinned woman of West Indian ancestry. She came to Washington, DC, from Cambridge University as part of an exchange program atAmerican University. She became best friends with Allison Granger, a beautiful WASP born and raised in Concord, New Hampshire, who was also attending American University.

Both women were studying public policy at the time, and they were ready to take on the world, which was likely what attracted Ham Wells and Sherm Langley to them in the first place, or so Jon speculated.

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