Hey You
She called it a 'roughhousing place of sin, Juli-boy - just your cuppa, eh?' and shooed him off at the tender age of nineteen. She knew him so well that she didn't even bat an eye when he grinned and winked at her and told her he'd find a nice boy. She just smirked back and said he'd better.
The O'Connell house was a downright liberal house in a time when liberal meant something completely different.
When he went, he didn't find himself a nice boy - but he found himself a foot into the papes business, and that was that.
Jonas Gregson was a crotchety old man who kept his marriage alive by having multiple affairs with younger men in clubs twice a month. He said it was fine, when Julian asked him about it; his wife knew, and his wife actually approved. It allowed her to find some men more to her tastes while continuing to aggravate her parents who had never approved of the marriage in the first place. Gregson said they were 'more screwy than half the dancers in that goddamned club', but it worked.
Julian started working for him the day after they met.
It was a small paper - just a little gossip rag that talked about local celebrities. Gangsters, sometimes, if the big papes hadn't gotten the story first, but mostly local singers and store owners who had done something somewhat remarkable. Julian always hunted around for good stories, and Gregson said that picking up his 'pansy ass' was the best thing he could've done for his business.
When Julian was scouted for a bigger paper, Gregson let him go with a grunt and a glowing recommendation.
Julian's career got big as he wrote bigger and better stories for bigger and better papes. He interviewed the big stars, and met up with the big gangsters, and eventually met a handsome boxer with ice-cold skin and ice-cold eyes and fell in love with him.
But Julian never forgot that little 'pansy club' - and he thanked his aunt for pushing him to it until the day he unexpectedly died.