June 2012

"How could you do that to me? You know that I wasn't planning to leave New York any time soon! You knew it! This is our home. How can you leave our home?" Blaine yelled at Wayne.

"Blaine, please!" Wayne pleaded in exasperation "It's just a job! We're gonna come back eventually. I know this is our home, but just think about it. I have no challenges over here. And I'm a young chef. We're just twenty-six years old for crying out loud!"

"And it isn't good enough for you where we are now?"

"Yes…"

"Because it doesn't seem like it, Wayne. I don't think that you think it's good enough for us to be successful here. I don't think you think it's good that I am one of the most prestigious and acclaimed play writers here and I don't think you think it's good enough that you are one of the most loved chefs around here."

"Blaine, I…" Wayne started, frustrated.

"Tell me what you want, Wayne. Because we're at the top here and I –"

"We're trapped, Blaine!" Wayne yelled suddenly "I feel trapped and I am tired of it! I wanna expand my horizons, I want to go places, Blaine. And I want to grow. But most of all I wanna grow with you. I want you to be in all of these places with me. You are a writer, you'll find inspiration anywhere. I'm tired of his same living life, Blaine. I don't wanna feel caged anymore, I am just starting my life!"

"We can have a different life." Blaine started, now a bit more comprehensive "We can change our ways, we can make it better..."

"No, Blaine. Everything is ruined. Here is ruined for us. We are doomed if we stay here."

"What do you even mean–" Blaine asked, confused.

"I slept with someone else, Blaine." Wayne said. His voice harsh like steel. He looked at Blaine's eyes, waiting for a reaction.

At first, nothing came but silence. Blaine blinked both his eyes slowly like what he heard was just a joke, just something he misunderstood. He waited the catch but it didn't come. It couldn't be true. Please, don't let it be true. But it was. And then it hit him all at once and he just couldn't believe it. He stared into Wayne's light blue eyes. The hole in his heart growing and becoming more unbearable to handle, burning and tearing him apart from inside out like acid.

"Why?" He simply asked.

"I don't know. I, I think I was just checking…"

"Checking?" Blaine asked, his voice distorted by the sudden lump that appeared in his throat.

"If I could still feel something. I am so sorry, Blaine."

Blaine didn't hear him apologizing. All he could hear was the first six words that came out from Wayne's mouth. And now he asked himself if he wasn't capable of inspiring feelings from his boyfriend. When did Wayne stopped feeling anything?

"You don't have feelings for me anymore?" He asked, and then he cleaned his throat and turned his gaze away from Wayne. He was terrified that the answer would be negative.

"I was out of my mind. I wasn't myself when I did it." Wayne replied.

Blaine did an annoyed mannerism with his hand and put it to support his forehead. Wayne recognized that mannerism. It was the mannerism Blaine had countless done whenever he felt despair. When he felt hopeless. And it torn Wayne's soul to see that the reason why Blaine was doing this was his' fault.

"I wanna go back to feeling the same way I did, Blaine. I want to sort things out, make it right. I wasn't feeling the same way anymore and it destroyed me, Blaine. How couldn't I feel any necessity of being close to you anymore? It's like we grew tired of each other."

"I'm never tired of you, Wayne." Blaine replied, his voice breaking when he said his boyfriend's name.

"Yes, Blaine! You are!" Wayne's voice also wasn't steady but he kept going "Tell me when was the last time that you stopped and thought about me, Blaine. We don't miss each other anymore and that breaks my heart! You were everything to me and yet we grew so apart that I even had the fucking will to sleep with someone else. I cheated! What does that make me? The villain of the situation? I wanna go back! We grew apart inside our own home! How's that possible?" Wayne was fully hysterical now and tears rolled over Blaine's face. But he just sat there, with his fist covering his mouth, looking desolated.

"Say something, Blaine! Please! Say anything if you care about me!" Now Wayne's tears streamed down his face.

Blaine stood up from the dinner table and walked into his direction.

"I obviously notice that we aren't the same way anymore. But I was expecting this, Wayne. This is the real time to show who cares about the other and who is serious about this. And yes, I would love to go back the way we were and it feels awful to know that you don't feel appreciated, because I honestly love you. I loved you from day one. When I got in your stupid restaurant and I met you and I was enchanted by you because you were funny, sensible and handsome and cult. And most of all I was fascinated by you, the way you speak, the way your eyes shine, the way you looked at me, Wayne. And all of those things I'm not giving myself the time to appreciate anymore. But I never, never ever had to sleep with someone else to make me feel valid again." Blaine walked towards the door and opened it ever slightly. "Please, go back to your apartment in Brooklyn. It's good that you kept it. And I hope someday I will be honorable enough to let this go. But today is no the day. So please, leave."

Wayne's eyes were static in chock and they gazed at Blaine's.

"Are you breaking up with me?"

"I don't know what I'm doing. I just need some time. Please respect me on this."

Wayne didn't discuss any further. He grabbed his black leather jacket from the coat hanger on the wall and walked towards the door, he stopped in front of Blaine and said "I'm so sorry. You didn't deserve any of this."

"No, I didn't."

Wayne glanced at him once more and closed the door behind himself. That night, everything Blaine could do was replay inside his mind the moment when Wayne admitted that he had cheated. Blaine tossed and turned in the bed that seemed so big without the boyfriend by his side. Finally, he got up and walked to the living room, sat by his laptop and wrote a tiny note:

"Love cuts deeper than razors, harder than steel.

Sometimes it is enough to sustain yourself but not the ones you wish it would sustain.

And people break your heart. Specially the people you'd never have the courage to break theirs."

Wayne stood outside his' and Blaine's apartment door, two weeks later he admitted he cheated on his boyfriend. Since it happened, Blaine had been weariless ignoring his calls and whatever effort he put on trying to get in touch with him. He had countless times left voice mails telling he was sorry but the boyfriend – or ex-boyfriend, since he didn't know where they stood – had simply ignored every single one.

But this morning, Blaine had texted him, asking him to meet at 3 p.m. at their apartment. And there Wayne was, waiting to talk to him. He rang the bell and a tall, dark-haired, blue-eyed man answered. Wayne recognized him as Blaine's brother, Cooper.

"Hello, asshole. Come in." Cooper greeted him with steel in his voice.

"Hi, Cooper." Wayne rushed himself to get into the apartment "Where's Blaine?"

"My little brother is at the shower." Cooper answered "Anyway, I have something to tell you now and I want you to pay attention because I'm being fucking serious. I told you that if you ever hurt my baby bro you would regret it." Cooper cracked his knuckles and stretched his neck "Now get ready for the pain…"

"There's no need to threat, Coop." Wayne heard Blaine's voice coming down from the hall, being followed by his figure, his voice was calm and he had wet hair. "We are all adults here."

"As you wish, Blainey." He smiled at Blaine "Should I leave you with this horrible, nefarious piece of man?"

"Yes. I would appreciate if you did that, Coop."

"Okay, little brother." He tapped Blaine's shoulder in encouragement, turned at Wayne's direction and signed the I-have-my-eyes-on-you gesture and left the apartment.

"Cooper is always something to see." Wayne breathed.

"That's what I say." Blaine joked "He's been very supportive. He came here to 'distract my mind by showing me the Coop lifestyle'. He's being a very good older brother."

A few moments of awkward silence passed between both, until Wayne spoke.

"So, um, hi." He said carefully.

"Hi."

"I really appreciate that you called me here today."

"Well, we needed to talk sooner or later." Blaine sighed.

"I know. And I am so sorry, Blaine. I am really, really sorry. I was an idiot and please, if you give me the chance I will never ever do this with you again. I know what I put you through. You trusted me and I just – I wasted that trust. And I hate myself for it."

"Wayne, it's fine." Blaine rested on the arm of the easy chair "I mean, it's not fine, obviously. And I still don't understand why you did it, but I get it. It's not like I don't have any fault on this either. I should have noticed that you were feeling like this. But I'm sorry that you made the choice you did. It will leave a scar on us and you know it. And I'm not like this. I want to trust you, but I'm afraid I will get hurt if I do."

"I understand. So where does that leave us? Where do we stand?" Wayne asked staring into Blaine's eyes.

"I think we should take a break. If that's fine with you, I mean – if you still want to try to fix this."

"Of course I do –"

"But for now, I'll be leaving."

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to take a vacation. Cooper convinced me on taking some time off by myself. It will be good. And you will be here and you'll get to do whatever you want. So this is it. I just wanted to let you know that and well, sort things out."

"When do you come back?"

"That's… undetermined. But it will not be a long time. Maybe a month, maybe less… I don't really know. But when I come back, we'll see where we are."

"Okay. Okay. I will wait." Wayne said and tried to hold Blaine's hand but the other faked distraction and pushed the hand away.

"So that's it, I guess…" Blaine complemented "I will see you soon."

"Yes, I hope so."

"Okay then. I should, um, I should pack my bags." Blaine said, standing up from the chair.

"Oh, sure. Yeah." Wayne said, rushed, and walked towards the door, he opened it and stopped turning again to stare at Blaine "Just one more thing: I love you Blaine. I hope that we can fix this."

"I wish you have thought about that before you've done what you did, Wayne." And there it was what Wayne was expecting, the harshness in Blaine's tone, the cold look in his eyes, and as quickly as it appeared, the normal, liquid brown-eyed Blaine was back "I just need some time for myself."

"Bye, Blaine."

"Good-bye."

The moment Wayne left; Blaine subconsciously put his hand inside his jacket pocket and grabbed a tiny metal object from inside of it. And in his hand there it was, the gold watch he received as a gift from a man he never saw again in his life. But somehow, through the hard times when Blaine held that watch it gave him a sense of comfort. He opened the tiny cover of the watch and looked at the numbers on the display. And then turned the watch in a way he could see the date it was made – 1925.

"You sure are old. Aren't you? I bet that you'd tell a lot of stories if you could talk." He said looking at the watch in his hand "Like, who's your owner, for starters." Blaine snorted "Look at me, I'm talking to a watch. I'm going crazy, I'm sure of it."

"Squirt! I'm home!" He heard Cooper shouting from the living-room.

"How many times do I have to tell you to not call me this?"

"Sorry. I'm just used to it." Coop smiled "So, how did it go?"

"Better than I thought."

"I'm happy. Are you ready for your trip tomorrow?" Cooper said while he threw himself on the sofa.

"Yes. I just have to pack some things I forgot."

"Okay, then you should do that. After all, you're leaving early."

"Yeah, I know."

Blaine was walking to his room when Cooper said:

"Little brother, you never told me the story of how you got that watch."

"It's a bit odd, and long. Maybe someday I'll tell you."

"You are strange, Blainey. You are."

Blaine smiled and went to his room to finish packing his bags.

The following day, Blaine jumped the door of his Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet.

"Okay, are you ready to do this, little brother?" Cooper rested on his shoulders at the driver's door, he took off his sunglasses to look at Blaine.

"Yes."

"Then go on, little brother. Have a good rest. See you." He walked away from the car "Don't worry, I'll water your plants."

"Okay, thanks Coop."

"See if you find a cute boy. This time one who actually is a good guy."

"I'll see what I can do. See you soon, Coop."

And Blaine stepped on the pedal. Suddenly the car was smoothly riding away from the Upper East Side, leaving his apartment, his brother and New York behind.

Blaine had to drive several hours and then catch a plane from Michigan to the Mackinac Island and finally he arrived at the Grand Hotel.

"Mr. Anderson, it's good to have you here." The old bellhop named Henry received him "Long time no see. You have changed a lot. New York did good on you."

"Hello, Henry." He greeted the man "Yes, it sure is. The last time I came here I was fifteen years old, I guess."

"Yes, you were. What about that older brother of yours? The other Mr. Anderson?"

"Oh, he's fine. As flashy as ever."

"Good to see things didn't change. Do you want some help with these bags?"

"Sure."

Henry picked Blaine's luggage and with patience he started to pull the cart accompanying the boy.

"How are things, Mr. Anderson?"

"Oh, and there's no need to call me Mr., Henry. You know me since I was a kid. I'm not my father."

"Understood, Mr. Anderson – I mean, master Blaine. And don't say that near the ladies, or they will know that I'm old."

"Oh, I'm sorry, it's not like your hair accuses you of something, right?" Blaine laughed.

"I think the kids call it 'grey style'."

"Oh, I'm sure they do."

"Master Blaine, I don't understand why you stopped coming, you came here every summer."

"Well, I just drifted away from my family a little bit."

"How's your father, master Blaine?"

"I wouldn't really know. I haven't talked to him in a while."

"So that didn't change much, I'm afraid."

"No, that's still in the same path."

"Oh well. Here we are master Blaine." The bellhop opened the door of his suite "This is where you'll be staying."

"Alright. Thank you, Henry."

"Don't forget, the dinner is served at 8 p.m. as usual."

"How could I forget? I'll see you later."

Henry left his luggage at the room and left him alone. Blaine texted Cooper to let him know he got there safe and all. He got his notepad out to see if he could write something. Half an hour went by and the page was still blank so he decided he would go outside to find some inspiration.

The boy took the stairs out of the hotel and went to the deck, he sat down and looked at the water and at the little boats in tied to the poles.

Blaine and his family would come to the Grand Hotel every summer. Well, technically the whole family took vacations but in fact, he and Cooper would go to the hotel and their parents would go somewhere else. Blaine would get sad every once in a while so Cooper asked their father for a sailboat and sailboat classes and took Blaine with him. Cooper found out to be an awful sailor but Blaine was a natural. While Cooper felt seasick and would hate to go sailing, Blaine loved the splashes of water and the wind driving them forward. And that became their past-time on the summer. By Blaine's teenage hood he had become a skilled sailor and the boat would seem like it was flying through the waves, when Blaine was sailing, Cooper often didn't felt seasick anymore due to the smoothly guiding of his younger brother.

When Blaine got to the age of fifteen, he and his father had a big fight. It was also the time when Blaine had decided to come out. His father couldn't really accept it and his mother wasn't headstrong enough to stand by her son's side. Only Cooper had taken Blaine's side. But what could he do? Their father decided to buy Blaine an apartment in New York and sent him there to study whatever he wanted to study. Blaine, at first, thought that it was actually his father encouraging him to grow, but it turned out to be a way to isolate him, putting him aside. As further as he could be from his family. Cooper would often visit and check on him, but he and his father's relation became more and more outworn. Blaine grew in anger at his father for pushing him away and that resulted in no more family holidays together or whatsoever. And so, he never returned to the Grand Hotel again.

Until now, when he was already a grown-up who had his own fill and could sustain himself. He missed the comfort the Hotel gave to him, and he wished he didn't sell his boat. Blaine took out the ancient gold watch from his pocket and looked at the time; 7:30 p.m. the clock showed, he got up and walked to the lobby to dinner.

There were a few things he enjoyed about the old Hotel but nothing was quite comparable to the food. Blaine loved the food, it was sophisticated but at the same time, it was simple. After he felt stuffed enough, he stood up to take a walk around the great lobby.

He enjoyed seeing the photos of old famous guests they had hanged all across the lobby. There were some movie stars here, singers there and Broadway stars too. Blaine had always taken a particular interest on Broadway and that's why he made it his objective to write a play to be known as a Broadway classic. He saw photos of Patti LuPone, Julie Andrews, Humphrey Bogart… But one in special caught his eye. One that had been hanged very recently, because Blaine didn't remember of it from the time when he spent his summers here. It showed a young, light blue-eyed man with delicate features and a carefully styled tousled hair. Blaine was breathless for a moment due to his beauty. He was the most beautiful man Blaine had ever seen.

Blaine had to know who he was. He just had to know. So he went to dig something about the man. So far he knew he was a Broadway performer. So he went after Henry to discover who this man was. He had to know who he was. He felt a connection to that man.

"Henry! Henry! I need to ask you something." Blaine stopped by the central hall desk and rang the bell repeatedly.

Henry, who was inside the stock behind the desk appeared soon, alarmed and flushed.

"Master Blaine" He gasped "I came running to attend you. I thought you were having a heart-attack. What is the urgency? Did your room caught fire? Because once you brother, master Cooper, almost put your room on fire and –"

"I need to ask you something." Blaine said with urgency.

"Okay, what is it, master Blaine?"

"You know a lot about those old pictures on the wall on the great hall, don't you?"

"I sure do. I hang most of them, actually."

"Great! Can you please come and tell me who someone is?"

"I sure can, master Blaine."

Henry got out from behind the desk and accompanied Blaine to the spot where he saw the picture. Blaine rushed his steps, almost running across the hall.

"Master Blaine, while you are older but still in your 20's I can't say that I have the same luck over here…" Henry gasped and forced himself to keep going after Blaine.

"I'm sorry, Henry. But let's keep going."

"What is the urgency?"

"I don't know. I just need to know who he is."

"Who who is?"

Blaine stopped by the picture's side. And pointed at it.

"Who is he?"

"Oh! That? He's not particularly famous, you know. He's sure dashing and all." Henry breathed trying to send more air into his lungs "His name is Kurt…" Another long breath "Kurt Hummel. He's a Broadway performer from the early 1930's."

"He's gorgeous."

"I understand your fascination, master Blaine. But I still don't understand why…"

"Which kind of Broadway star was he?"

"He was a musical performer."

"Does he have a tape that I can listen to?" Blaine was frantic.

"No, I'm afraid there isn't, master Blaine."

Blaine was looking at the picture and felt suddenly disappointed. That man, Kurt Hummel, should sing fantastically. Something told Blaine that he was just fantastic in all aspects.

"However, master Blaine, we are paying a tribute to him in the museum hall. You can see it, if you want."

"I want!" Blaine toned his excitement down a bit, he had to know more about Kurt Hummel "Will you come with me?"

"As you wish, master Blaine."

They entered the museum and Blaine saw it was not a tribute to Kurt Hummel in particular, but to several others Broadway 1930's stars. Henry led him to Kurt's picture, the same one he saw on the other hall, only bigger. And there was another one, from when Kurt was thirty years old, Henry explained, and a last one from when he was 85 years old, the most recent one.

Blaine looked at it and his jaw dropped when he saw the photo. He recognized him. He recognized this man. That was the very same man that gave him the watch. There he was, the same wrinkles, the same eyes. That was him. He had met Kurt Hummel. However, older since he met him on 2008.

That was him. After so much time later – four years – he finally knew who the man was. And yet, he couldn't figure out the reason why he said 'Come back to me'. They had never know each other. At least, Blaine didn't know him. But now he did. And now Blaine would go further to find out why Kurt Hummel had gone after him.