After being kicked out of the Chicago condo where he and his boyfriend have lived together for over three years, Scott Parsons is forced to move back to the suburbs with his widowed mother because he's too broke to pay for a place of his own. Angry and humiliated over being dumped and kicked out, Scott tries to make the best of a bad situation by vowing to save enough money from his low-paying job so he can leave his mother's house and get a place of his own. His mother welcomes Scott back with open arms, but reveals she was secretly married her boyfriend during a trip to Las Vegas a month prior. Scott is surprised by his mother's news and even more surprised when he meets his handsome new stepbrother, Alex. Alex, a Stanford grad, has been living and working in LA, but returns to Chicago to pursue an MBA at the University of Chicago while working for a high-powered accounting firm. Scott and Alex initially butt heads, but soon discover there's more to like than dislike about each other. The first time Alex makes a pass at Scott, he ignores it. But when Alex makes a second attempt, Scott decides to take his stepbrother up on his offer and the two start a relationship. Even though Scott knows getting intimately involved with Alex is a bad idea, he also knows that sometimes a bad idea is just too good to ignore.

Fluidity

“I don’t have a set schedule of when I go to Dennis’s house, and I don’t intend to create one just because you’re living here, Scott. I’ve been more than generous in allowing you to live here rent free and Dennis has been very accommodating also. He rarely comes to my house anymore because he knows you’rehere.”


“I don’t care about Dennis coming here!”


“Well, hecares!” She sighed. “We’re both trying to make this…situation work and I suggest you do the same.”


“Oh, boo hoo. Pull up your big boy pants and deal with it!”


Being the “big boy” that I was, I stormed up to my room and slammed the door behind me.


When I got to work Friday morning, I was summoned to my manager’s office for an impromptu meeting. Sonya Driscoll had served as our managing director for the past two years after our previous director left for a job out of state.


“Scott, how long have you been working here?” Sonya asked.


Chapter 15