Tigers on the Run

by Sean Kennedy

  A sweet little kiss in public! It’s not like it had never happened before, but there was a time and a place. At a Pride event, sure. In an ordinary crowd? You chose your moment, and you usually erred on the side of caution. But this little kiss was enough to calm me down a little. “I guess I’m being a drama queen again?”

  “There are times when you aren’t?” Dec smiled to let me know it was a joke. We were now headed towards the JF Kennedy Memorial in the Treasury Gardens—not that far from the city centre at all and just behind Parliament House. I often ended up there when I needed to get away from work. “I’m sorry I kept it secret. I didn’t want to. I told Coby it was stupid, and I wished he had kept me in the dark as well.”

  “I can’t believe he’s being such an arsewipe,” I said. I guess I wasn’t too exhausted to feel anger, which was now making a reappearance. “He knew how I would feel, and he manipulated you into helping him.”

  “I do have a brain of my own, Simon.”

  It seemed like I couldn’t say anything right. “I know that! But clearly he’s lost his. He’s been brainwashed. He might as well buy a pair of Nikes and put a plastic bag over his head.”

  “Babe, we both know Jasper Brunswick. He’s not charismatic enough to be worshipped as a cult.”

  His little jab at Jasper softened my resolve a little. We sat on the limestone wall, and I reached down to take his hand. We sat in peace for a little while, listening to the ducks on the small pond. Bloody ducks. I bet they had never been stabbed in the back by one of their closest duck friends.

  “Just, you know me and Jasper Brunswick.”

  “Yes,” Dec said with a small smile. “I know ‘you and Jasper Brunswick’.”

  “He has the ability to piss me off more than anybody else on earth.”

  “Given the very long list of people that piss you off, that’s pretty bad. But fuck, Simon, hasn’t it been long enough?”

  Was it possible to forget so many years of sniping and outright antagonism? “No. Not when he tried to take us down to elevate his ex-boyfriend.” I dropped his hand. Was I the only one who didn’t want to forget this and hold them to some kind of account for their actions?

  “And my ex,” Dec reminded me.

  “Believe me, I don’t have to be reminded of that. I was there, remember?”

  “An elephant never forgets.”

  “I hope you’re not insinuating I’m the elephant.”

  He grinned and reached for my hand again, clasping it in both of his. This time I didn’t pull it away. “Let’s just say we both are. Anyway, as I keep having to remind you, and probably will do so for the rest of eternity as you are determined not to remember, you felt sorry for Jasper by the end of it all.”

  “I’m sick of everyone reminding me of that. It doesn’t mean I forgive him.” I looked down the hill towards the Yarra, and was unhappily reminded of the last time I had seen Jasper Brunswick in person. If I craned my neck a little I could see the bridge where Jasper, myself, and a waiter went over the edge and into a media storm. It was too close still, both in proximity and memory. “Maybe I did feel sorry for him. It doesn’t mean I want him as a friend—”

  “Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

  “—and it doesn’t mean I want him as part of my inner circle, either. But that’s what he’ll be now, thanks to Coby.”

  “It’s part of life, though. We all have people that we need to put up with because of the people we love.”

  “I’m that person your loved ones need to put up with, aren’t I?”

  “Don’t push for compliments. They all love you, and you know it.”

  I was more of a star in the Tyler family than I was in my own. But, of course, everyone worshipped Declan in the Murray clan.

  “I knew that boy was trouble from the moment he walked in. And okay, I think I just inadvertently quoted Taylor Swift, and that makes me even angrier. This is all Nyssa’s fault!”

  Dec burst out laughing. “Okay, that train of thought really went off the rails.”

  “If she hadn’t left and gotten herself knocked up by a sheep herder, then I would never have hired Coby, and Jasper Brunswick wouldn’t be constantly appearing in my life like Bloody Mary.”

  “He was doing that before he started going out with Coby. Jasper has always been your Bloody Mary, and now you’ve got me doing your stupid analogies.” He paused. “And Nyssa didn’t get knocked up by a sheep herder.”

  “He’s a Kiwi, same diff.”

  Declan shook his head bemusedly.

  “Jasper will be in our lives even more, and it will be worse than it ever was before. ‘Ooh, Simon’,” I said in a terrible imitation of Coby, “‘of course I’ll come to dinner but my boyfriend Jasper will have to come too.’”

  “Was that Super Grover?” Dec asked.

  Okay, all my imitations seemed to sound like creatures from the Jim Henson workshop. “Funny.”

  “You’re just going to have to suck it up and deal with it.”

  “Thanks.” That wasn’t brutal at all.

  “If it’s any consolation, Jasper will have to suck it up as well.”

  I shuddered. “Please don’t mention Jasper and the word ‘suck’ together. Unless it’s in the sentence ‘Jasper sucks’.”

  “That sentence sounds really bad, too,” Dec pointed out.

  “Okay, no mention of Jasper and sucking.”

  “You have a lot of rules when it comes to dealing with people.”

  “It’s the only way to survive.”

  Dec sighed. “I’m not trying to be harsh with you. But we have to look at this realistically, and I’m sorry, babe, but it’s true. They’re together, and Coby says he loves him.”

  “It’s been four months! He doesn’t love him.”

  “I loved you before four months.”

  I slumped in defeat. He always knew how to come out with little statements like that, blowing me away with an almost painful feeling of loving him. I kissed him. “So did I.”

  “So maybe they are in love. You’re not going to be able to avoid this. There’ll be work functions, birthdays, and if they eventually move in together, the chance he might pick up the phone…. Jasper Brunswick is here to stay.”

  I stood and walked over to the pond, staring down into its relatively shallow depths. “I’m so fucking depressed now.”

  He came up behind me and his arms encircled my waist. “It could be worse.”

  “Yeah, how? How could it possibly be worse?”

  “Coby could have started dating Greg.”

  I turned in pure horror. “You’re evil, Declan Tyler. Pure evil.”

  But his lips went from spilling pure evil to kissing like angels. And as I wrapped myself around Dec, not caring about the open space or any possible discovery by strangers, I begrudgingly came to the realisation that when it came down to it, I couldn’t deny Coby the bliss that could come with love.

  Even if it was with Jasper Brunswick.

  I WOULD just have to “deal,” especially if Declan had decided he could. He had just as much reason—in fact, even more—to be pissy with the guy and hold a grudge that could last til doomsday.

  But then, Dec had always been the better man out of the pair of us.

  “I’ll leave you here,” Dec said, as we came to a stop outside my building. “I’m already running late for my meeting.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to come back up?” I pleaded.

  “Nope. I did what I came here to do.”

  “Make out with me in Treasury Gardens and then take me out for coffee?”

  “Yep.”

  “Best boyfriend ever.”

  “Don’t you forget it.”

  “I never could.”

  He looked very pleased with himself, and I was surprised with another kiss. “See you at home.”

  “Yeah, go do some work, you slacker.”

  I watched him saunter away with that easy gait of his. He could move amongst a crowd
as delicately as he could avoid other players gunning for him on the football field.

  But now he had left me to go confront Judas The Surly Coworker.

  Coby wasn’t at his desk when I got to my office. Maybe I was being granted a reprieve. But as I sat down, I saw through the glass partition that Coby was talking with someone who instantly made my head turn into Hiroshima again.

  Jasper Brunswick always looked comfortable, no matter what his surroundings. He may have been plagued by other self-doubts in his personal life (especially when it came to Heyward), but he knew how to work a room.

  Coby glanced over in my direction. He did a double take, and I waved my takeaway coffee at him. He seemed to panic, conversing wildly with Jasper. His new boyfriend turned to look at me, and I thought for one dreadful second he might make his way into my office and want to strike up a conversation about old times.

  But he moved off, and Coby came practically skipping into the office filled with nervous energy.

  “He was here on business!”

  I shrugged.

  “I mean, it was just really bad timing. I would never have invited him over, today of all days, especially when I thought it may have been a possibility you would throw an office chair out the window and then him after it.”

  That was a very pleasant fantasy. I sipped at my coffee with relish.

  “You’re still not talking,” Coby said unhappily.

  I put my coffee down and prepared my most businesslike voice. “I need you to arrange a production meeting for the GetOut documentary.”

  “Um, okay. What time?”

  “Tomorrow. One o’clock.”

  “Sure. Anything else?”

  “That will be all for now.” I think I was trying to channel Miranda Priestly, but with none of the fashion sense. Coby was all wide-eyed and vulnerable Anne Hathaway as Andy Sachs, and there was a vicious part of me that liked it. Jasper fucking Brunswick. Back in my life, and apparently a part of the major cast.

  “Okay.”

  “Oh, and you might want to speak to Jasper Brunswick about the possibility of an interview for it.”

  Coby turned back, trying not to look suspicious. “Really?”

  “He’s been writing articles about Micah Johnson. He can give us a social and cultural analysis.”

  Coby looked nervous. “You’re not going to kill him, are you?”

  “What would ever make you think that?” I flashed my most dangerous smile, and Coby wrung his hands before leaving.

  Poor kid. That would have to be my last moment of tormenting him.

  For a while, anyway.

  Chapter 5

  THE DAY finally came to a close, and although I had stopped shit-stirring Coby, things were still tense between us. He was overly-sensitive and prone to taking everything as a slight against Jasper Brunswick, even if I asked for something as innocuous as a contact folder for one of our on-screen talents. Okay, I knew that I was being a bit cold and distant as well, but I wasn’t being entirely bad. The words “Jasper Brunswick” never came out of my mouth, although he was a definite presence in the room between us. Part of me wanted to ask for details—how they had met up again, what had led to them liking each other, blah blah blah, but I wasn’t ready for the therapy that would have to come immediately afterwards.

  So it was a relief to get home, where I could forget about Jasper bloody Brunswick for a while. I was determined to drink a bottle of red, make out with Dec, and see where the night took us.

  But Dec had other plans. And they involved Roger and Fran, minus the twins, who were sitting on the couch when I got in the door.

  “Uh, hi,” I said.

  I was instantly drawn into hugs and kisses, and I stood like a lemming, letting it happen.

  “That’s a nice welcome,” Fran said.

  Roger smelled of beer and the cologne he liked to drown himself in.

  “I see you’ve started early,” I said.

  “We’re free for the night,” he said, a little too happily.

  “Don’t get too drunk. You still have to pick them up later on.”

  “No!” he said, his eyes glowing. “It’s a sleepover!”

  “Really? The first sleepover? You guys gonna be okay?” I remembered the first night they had left the kids with Roger’s parents in order to go out to dinner with us, and how we had barely seen them as they kept rushing off to make or take phone calls.

  “We’ll be fine,” Fran said. “We’ve got wine.”

  But the fact that both of them were holding tightly onto their mobiles in case a call should come through was a dead giveaway that they were nervous, although Fran also did look rather happy clutching her wine glass.

  I stepped away from them and was enveloped by Dec. “Hey,” he said, and gave me a nice, slow, welcome home kiss.

  “Please,” I said, pulling away, “not in front of the children.”

  “I’ve had a couple of beers.”

  “I can tell.” He tasted like a brewery, but it just made me want one. “Fetch, please.”

  He trotted off, in a sprightly mood enhanced by good friends and good alcohol.

  I threw my messenger bag beside the couch and kicked off my shoes. “Why am I so blessed to come home to this?”

  “Just lucky, I guess,” Dec said, his voice muffled from within the fridge as he pulled out more beer.

  “Dec invited us,” Fran said. “And luckily enough, the in-laws agreed to babysit.”

  “And this has nothing to do with the fact that Coby is shagging Jasper Brunswick?”

  “Coby’s shagging Jasper Brunswick?” Roger cried. Somewhere Meryl Streep woke up, assured the Oscar was still hers.

  “No,” Fran and Dec drawled in unison.

  “Are you jealous?” Roger asked.

  Three sets of eyes zeroed in on him, and he shrank back against the couch. “Sorry. I’ll never make a joke again.”

  I opened my mouth to reply, but Dec pushed a beer into my hand while also kicking my shoes together more tidily. “Please let’s not start another round of The Very Long List of Grievances Jasper Brunswick Has Afflicted Us With.”

  “Yeah, we’ve already got the book,” Fran agreed.

  “It’s as long as War and Peace,” Roger said.

  Fran snorted. “When did you ever read War and Peace?”

  “Well, I haven’t. Because I know it’s a bloody long and boring book.”

  I took a swig of my beer that almost emptied the bottle. “So if I’m not allowed to talk about Jasper Brunswick, what exactly are you lot doing here?”

  “Supporting you, stupid. In ways of not talking about Jon Brown,” Fran said, always taking delight in using Jasper’s real name.

  “Okay, but no kid talk either,” I demanded.

  “You don’t think we want a night of escape, too?” Fran asked.

  “BUT LOOK at this one,” Roger cooed, next to me on the couch and swiping through the photos on his phone. “Georgina just threw up, but she looks so cute.”

  “I’ve got a photo of you after you just threw up,” I said. “You don’t look half as cute.”

  “That’s because she takes after her mummy,” Roger said, adoration in his voice. It was vomitously sweet.

  “Lucky for her,” Fran said.

  “I’m very good looking,” said a miffed Roger.

  “You get more beautiful with age,” I said.

  He leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. “Thanks.”

  “Righto,” said Fran, “before this turns into an orgy, I need more wine.”

  “JASPER BRUNSWICK, huh?” Lisa asked.

  It may not have been an orgy, but it had become a little party. Abe and Lisa had trekked up from their floor, with much-needed food they had bought from the restaurant in the ground floor of the next building.

  “We’re not allowed to talk about that!” Roger reminded us.

  “Hey, you talked about your bloody babies all night long!”

  I swear I heard a record screech
as the needle was dragged off it.

  “And by bloody babies I meant bloody brilliant babies, which they most definitely are. I’m their favourite guncle, so I wouldn’t lie.”

  “You’re a guncle,” Fran said. “And maybe you should lay off the sauce.”

  I knew Dec took the prize for favourite guncle anyway. The kids had already chosen wisely.

  Lisa giggled. “It’s kind of weird them being parents, isn’t it?” she asked in a whisper so Fran’s excellent hearing would have trouble deciphering her.

  “It is, and it isn’t. They’re so happy, even though they try to claim otherwise.”

  Lisa raised her glass. “Good for them!”

  I clinked mine against it.

  “Did that sound condescending?”

  “No.”

  “Because I really do mean it. They’re going to be brilliant parents. They are brilliant parents, I mean. I just don’t get it, sometimes.”

  “Get what?”

  “The whole kid thing. I mean, you’re with me on that one, aren’t you? I can’t imagine you with kids.”

  Even though I had long protested that very thing to everybody else (bar Declan), I found it hard to laugh along. It was one thing to say it about myself, but to have it confirmed by one of your closest friends….

  “Anyway,” Lisa continued, unaware of the turmoil she had caused within me. “Jasper Brunswick! Your future adopted brother-in-law.”

  “Coby is no adopted brother of mine.”

  “Aww, don’t be like that. You know you love him.”

  “I did, until he brought Jasper Brunswick home, the Boy Nobody Wanted.”

  “Coby seems to want him.”

  “Coby’s an idiot.”

  I knew Dec was watching me now, probably getting tired of the same Jasper/Coby drama being dragged up again, so when Lisa asked me if I could ever forgive Coby, I decided to be magnanimous.

  “Didn’t Jesus forgive Judas? I like to think, in my own way, I am like Jesus.”

  Was that the record screech again? We didn’t even own an LP player.

  “What? Oh, so it’s okay when John Lennon says it?”

  “That was John Lennon,” Roger said. “John Lennon.”