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

“I needed this,” Mickey said. “It gets hot here in June. Not as hot as Florida but hot enough.”


Chris was silent for a few minutes. “Okay, Mick, out with it. What’s bothering you?”


“I was just thinking about how seldom we get to do something just for the two of us. This trip is nice, and it’s important to you personally. I just wish it wasn’t quite so… regimented. We talked about having a date night once a week, but somehow we never got around to it.”


“I know what you mean, but just think—we’re not that far away from our Fourth of July weekend trip, and you know what happens then.”


A sly grin appeared on Mickey’s face. “Yeah.”


DINNER AT CHRIS’S other aunt’s house was pretty much a repeat of the lunch at Aunt Agatha’s. Chris’s cousins were there, and everyone was on their best behavior, but Mickey detected an undercurrent of something he couldn’t quite put his finger on. Later, when they were relaxing in their hotel room with glasses of wine, he said as much to Chris.


Chapter 70