The phoenix's hypothesis - Book 1 (MxM 18+)

Chapter 2: Someone has been a naughty boy!

Ethan, Wed Jan 14th 2015

"Mr. Wells, I have your brother on the line."

I am reading the latest reports on last year's revenues when I am interrupted by a call from Jane, my personal assistant. My name is Ethan Wells, I am the founder and CEO of farmersmarket.com, healthy and organic food delivered straight from a farm to your door! – that's our slogan anyway. I started this company when I was fresh out of business school, seeing that New Yorkers had a growing interest for farmers market and were getting tired of the shit you can find in grocery stores.

Basically, it's a website where you can order food that we will deliver on your doorstep and that has been produced in handpicked farms that follow our strict guidelines. Consumers are prepared to pay a bit more for healthy and organic food, sustainably and eco-friendly grown, so we are able to offer our farmers more than the large-scale food retailing does in terms of wages. And we try to make it very practical for people who work crazy hours, with early morning or evening deliveries.

The company had a bit of a rough start, seven years ago, but it is now very profitable. The results from last year are amazing, and we have a growing number of clients. It should continue, since we planned an ad campaign in the subway for the beginning of next month. I will probably end up selling this business for a juicy price when I get bored of it, then start something else from scratch, but for now, I really enjoy managing it.

I close the reports I was looking at to take the call. It has been a while since I last talked to my baby brother. He is fifteen years my junior, still in high school. Why so much? Well my parents weren't really children persons. I don't think my mother ever took care of me, she was too busy partying and shopping. And I would have preferred my father hadn't paid attention to me as well.

So logically, they stopped at one child. Until I became such a disappointment to my father he decided he needed another heir, kicking me out and cutting me down from the family in the process. Unfortunately for her, my mother died giving birth to my younger brother. The true sad part, if you ask me, is that I think it was better for my baby bro not to know her at all.

I rarely saw him at first, my control freak of a father making sure I was always denied entry to their apartment, and then I went away for college. But since he became a teenager, it has been easier to meet him, unbeknown to my dad and we grew very close.

Why was I such a disappointment to my father? Well he had painfully groomed me into this perfect heir of his, and I was to take down some big position in his company, eventually taking his place when he would retire. The old man is the CEO of WFD: Well's Fashion and Design, a gigantic consortium that manages all the aspects of several brands, from the designers, the models, the advertising to the retail shops, all around the world. It is probably the biggest global company in the fashion industry.

What my father hadn't planned for was a "disgusting fag of a son" – his words, not mine – so when he found out that I was more interested in boys than girls, and hadn't any plan to change that – as if it was possible! – he decided that I wasn't to be part of the family anymore and threw me out of his home. Fortunately, my grandma took me in and paid for the end of my high school and college fees. I was even able to start my company with the money she left me when she died.

I hope you will notice the irony of a homophobic jerk managing a huge fashion firm! Without being too stereotypical, a lot of the designers – that he has to suck up to if he wants to keep them in the company – are gay, as well as a fair share of the models he employs. I, on the other hand, could not be because for one, it is just abnormal according to him, and then, my father had already planned my whole wedding, going as far as picking up my future wife. Yes, in the twenty-first century!