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

Knowing Jeff was attracted to Chris partly because of his weight, I was amused to watch him pile brownies, cheese, and chocolate-covered strawberries on Chris’s plate. They had been together for four years, so a certain degree of intimacy was unavoidable, but they weren’t acting like enemies, I couldn’t help but notice.


“So are they or aren’t they?” I finally asked Katie and Benji, once Chris and Jeff had met up out on the terrace overlooking the Marina and the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance.


“What do you care?” Francisco asked. “You looked pretty comfortable with Josh tonight.”


“Oh man, I missed Josh?!?” Benji lamented. “He sounds so dreamy. I’m dying to meet him!”


“Yeah, Katie,” I enjoined. “Is he dreamy?”


“Well,” she hesitated, loath to encourage me. “I don’t know about dreamy.”


I gasped in mock affront. Well, partly mock.


Chapter 73