Beijing, Tokyo, Sydney -- these exciting cities are standard fare in the life of flight attendant Todd Eisenbraun, and he chases a romance with sexy-but-straight Josh through them all. Closer to home, a new neighbor in his San Francisco apartment building has a huge crush on Todd. His friends -- Katie, a flight attendant-turned-small appliance repairwoman, and Marzipan Q. Thespian, a man-dangling local philanthropist -- think Todd should at least give Chris a shot. Sure, he’s overweight, but he’s also handsome, a hilarious playwright, and a great cook ... what’s not to love? Todd and Chris become quick friends, but Todd’s idea of the perfect man is skinny and straight, and Chris is decidedly neither. Josh may have a fiancée and a teenaged son, but Todd just knows he’s “the One.” But if Josh is straight, the road to love is not; Todd is jostled by internalized homophobia, body image issues, exotic locales, the glamorous world of sewing machine repair, and a community theater musical salute to the life of Judy Garland before he arrives at the realization that he’s been looking way too hard for something he may have already found.

Kiss Me, Straight

“And my fiancée lives in Oakland,” Josh casually announced.


“Oh, yeah? Where’s the wedding going to be?” asked Bobby, whose mind is firmly set on the same one track as mine. “Massachusetts? Denmark?”


Again with the grin! “Nope, in California. I’m getting married to a woman,” Josh elaborated, not even bothering to raise his voice to be heard over the sound of my heart shattering into tiny, brittle pieces. 


Bobby, however, seemed to have heard the crash within my chest and, satisfied that at least if he couldn’t have Josh, no man could, he soon sashayed back to coach, taking a handful of the dripping sorbet cups we had set out on the mid-flight snack cart.


Chapter 38