Life's Illusion

Chapter 1 - Party or Pity

Hurt and angry (not the physical sort of hurt but the pain was just as

real) Paul James Thorn (PJ) 25 years old today, sat in the back of the

limousine taking him to his grandfather's New York City office.

He should be home now having birthday drinks with his partner of four years

Josh (Joshua Paul Hartnett) and their close friends, before setting out for

the ballroom at the New York Woodruff (Flagship hotel in the family

business) venue for his 25th birthday party, but he'd been AWOL for the

last 8 hours.

His day had started really well being woken by Josh a little after 7 am with

a fantastic birthday breakfast tray in bed including a beautiful red rose

in a crystal vase. They'd eaten and kissed their way through most of the

food before turning to more serious matters, it wasn't long before PJ and

Josh was entwined in passionate lovemaking bringing PJ to climax before he

lay back exhausted, his arms wrapped around Josh.

As PJ lay spent softly stroking Josh's firm pecs he was surprised when Josh

pulled away and headed to the bathroom, " Hey you didn't get off" turning

slightly as he entered the bathroom Josh blew him a kiss " No time now you

have a breakfast meeting in precisely 55 minutes, I'm taking an IOU which I

intend to collect tonight after the party" PJ sprang out of their super

king bed and followed Josh into the bathroom where the shower was already

running.

Grabbing Josh tenderly around the waist they kissed "Ok deal, I owe you and

I'll make sure to pay that debt with interest later, and how do you know

what meeting I have scheduled, you keeping tabs on me?" PJ was puzzled by

Josh's nervous answer and presumed Josh was arranging some surprise for his

birthday and didn't want PJ digging so he dismissed his boyfriends strange

behavior in favor of an intimate cuddly feely fun shower.

A little over 55 minutes later after making a slight detour to a Manhattan

Jewellery Store he was in his Grandfathers office awaiting the arrival of

his Father and Grandfather (Peter Thorn and Paul James Woodruff ) looking

over the performance reports of Woodruff European Leisure and Hospitality

which Celia, his Grandfathers PA, had informed him would be the focus of

today's meeting. The reports made pretty grim reading they showed a marked

and a steady fall in revenue from the European section and it took PJ no time

at all to drill down to the root of the problem, Spanish properties. He

suspected he was asked to attend this meeting because he'd dealt with a

similar problem here in the US and successfully placed this sector back

into profit.

To fill in time he dialed the number of the New York Woodruff and was put