Mark is a man on the horns of a dilemma. He's in the midst of a five-year affair with a married man and he wants out ... but isn’t sure he can give up his lover.<br><br>Austin, who lives in the apartment building across the street from Mark, has his own problems. Two years earlier, the man he loved died in a horrible auto accident. Austin is still trying to come to terms with seeing it happen, and dealing with the aftermath.<br><br>After watching Mark from his balcony, making up stories about what he sees, Austin decides to meet him. Will the meeting help the two come to grips with their problems? And if it does, can they move on to something more than possible friendship?

The Man on the Balcony

“It might help if you talked about it,” Mark said quietly. “Whatever it is, keeping it inside seems to be eating you up, whether you realize it or not.”


“And relive it all again?” Austin spat out. “I do that too much as it is.”


“But only in your head, I think,” Mark replied. “Talking it out…”


“There’s nothing to talk about. He’s dead. I saw him…” Austin sprang to his feet. Crossing to the balcony door, he slammed it open, stepping out into the cold, snowy evening.


Nonplused, uncertain how to react, Mark sat there for a moment. Then, getting up, he went to the doorway. “Tell me,” he said.


“Tell you what? That I watched the man I loved die a horrible death? That there was nothing I could do but watch? That all my hopes and dreams died in that moment? Is that what you want to hear?”


Chapter 17