Chris Bottoms is glad to be home from undergoing the first of two surgeries that will free him from the ostomy bag he’s been wearing for more than a year. He’s anxious about the upcoming second surgery, but life is keeping him on his toes.<br><br>The bank hierarchy is clearly grooming Chris’s partner, Mickey O’Donovan, vice president of a megabank, for a promotion. That doesn’t help reconcile the family who turned their backs on Mickey for not going into the family business. To make matters worse, Chris's little brother's abusers are still out there, and that makes Chris angry. He and Mickey are raising Ted now. Between dealing with spiteful relatives and doing their best by a hurt ten-year-old boy, Chris and Mickey wonder how much more reality they can take.<br><br>Chris's second and final surgery can't come soon enough. Both men are looking forward its most important side-effect -- Chris will once again be able to enjoy prostate massage, but not until three months after the surgery.

Bottoms Away

“That’s true,” Chris said. “It’s a year away, but he’s already got a place secured in Episcopal High School, which is arguably the best in the city.”


“Are you boys Episcopalian?” Aunt Agatha said.


“Yes, Ma’am,” Mickey said. “We’re communicants at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd.”


“We should be talking about the event we’re here to attend, not us,” Chris said, and turned to the bride-to-be. “Jessica, how do you like Cedar Rapids?”


“I like it just fine,” she said. “I moved here a couple of years ago from Kansas City, and it already seems like home to me.”


“Which is why we’re having the wedding here and not in Kansas City,” Arnold said.


“Yeah,” Jessica said. “I don’t have much family left in Kansas City anymore—just my parents and one brother. The rest of them have scattered to the four winds over the years.”


“I’m a systems analyst in the headquarters of a small chain of stores.”


Chapter 68