”“This isn’t like choosing between Heather and Jennifer is it?”“Nope.” Cheerfully. “But the most difficult approval is with the third na...e.”“Okay.”“This is the name that Macklin will use to market the product commercially. As its own brand. The FDA is a stickler on brandnames.”“And that’s where you come in. Your company.”“Actually, long before the brandname process. We’re a turnkey operation. A hand-holder from start to success. Brand strategy, name creation, trademark screening, market. We might be in a Mexican standoff but I’ve made precautions for just such a power play from you to take away my half of the company. You made uncle rich, I made uncle popular.oOoIt was after midnight when a car entered the unlit and trashcan strewn ally. The driver got out and removed a barely conscious female from the back seat. He placed her against a brick wall, then gave her another shot from the needle and left it on the ground. He used a mirror to see that she was still breathing, then. I know what it’s like to be haunted by thoughts and feelings. There was once a time where I was scared of the dark because, in the dark, there was no telling where my mind would go or what I could possibly think or confirm to myself. You not wanting to go home is the same. That house haunts you.”Luca sat down next to Owen, placing a large, muscular hand on his thigh.“I’m proud of who I am, Luca. Being gay does not define me, it doesn’t define anyone. I’m still the same person. People are. “Besides” he said, “We’ve got lots of time to get to know each other. Let’s get to the house and we’ll have a drink.”As if on cue, we took a quick right turn off the freeway, and a few minutes later pulled up into the long driveway of perhaps the largest home I had ever seen. It looked like a small hotel or maybe a country club. Big double door entry way and a brick and marble exterior. A total mansion of the type I’d only seen on television, all of it just minutes off the freeway shielded from.