James Rockton is ready to die. In fact, he plans on it. Having lost his life partner to AIDS, he books the South Pacific cruise Richard didn't live to share. James will spread Richard's ashes at sea, and then slip overboard to join him forever. He’s too old and too heartbroken to continue on alone.<br><br>But James doesn’t count on meeting a young man whose parents constantly put him down. Then there’s the obviously gay young art dealer who ogles a crazy young photographer traveling with an older gay man about James’s own age.<br><br>James and Herb begin spending time together, trying not to laugh too hard or get too involved with these young men, who circle each other in rapidly shrinking orbits. After all, James and Herb are old, with gray hair and less stamina. With time, talk, and martinis, will love manage to find them, too?

Fade to Gray

Get ready for this one, Richard. Are you sitting down? Well, lying down is all right. Wait, I’ll just set your urn here on the floor. You know my daughter was stillborn on this day, forty-two years ago, right? Well, guess who just proved her mother was a big fat fucking bitchpig of a liar! My daughter’s name is Emmaline, and she has a half-sister. Her mother lied to me, performing the devastated mother-of-the-year act! She told her brother and parents I had run off and left her. She told them I had beaten her. And they all believed her.


Chapter 10