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

Dr. Banzhof examined him thoroughly, and when Chris was again dressed and seated in the doctor’s office, he waited for the doctor to say something.


Finally, when Chris couldn’t stand the waiting any longer, he said, “Well? Am I cleared to have, for want of a better word, prostate massage?”


“You certainly are. It looks like everything down there has been totally healed for five or six weeks, now, so you guys can have at it to your hearts’ content.”


“Good. I’ve been waiting for this for over a year.”


Dr. Banzhof chuckled at that. “Are you going to be waiting for Mickey in bed when he gets home?”


“Not even close. Actually, we’re going to spend a long Fourth of July weekend in our new place in Maggie Valley. That’s where we’ll do the deed.”


“That’s a few days away—I must say I admire your restraint.”


“We wanted to be by ourselves when we celebrated my new status and decided that was the way to do it.”


Chapter 73