It's the summer break, and for the first time in his life, Mike would rather stay in the bloody classroom.<br><br>It's wedding season, and Mike is doomed to spend all summer sipping cheap champagne and pretending he likes tiny portions of posh food. From the passive-aggressive torment of Mike's mother-in-law to the insulting incredulity of his colleagues over what his mysterious husband actually looks like, Mike would voluntarily teach sex education to fourteen-year-olds for the rest of his life if it would only get him out of one more wedding. Even his husband in a kilt isn't going to save this one.<br><br>But there's nothing like watching someone else get hitched to remind him of where he's come from ... and where he's determined to go from here.

Married Ones

Mike had never been much for keeping secrets. He’d never had to in school, never had a secret worth keeping. University had been far more interested in Stephen than in who he shacked up with. The first time he’d ever come up against a problem had been teaching, when parents suddenly weren’t so okay with biology teachers married to other blokes.


“It’s not natural,” one had complained—to his face—and Mike had laughed.


“I have a doctorate in this subject, Mrs Bell, let’s not try telling me what’s natural and what’s not,” he’d said.


Stephen hadn’t been so lucky. He could have worked for MI5 by the time Mike had met him, the sly little sod. Had taken Mike months to figure out who the heck he was going out with. And over nine years, Mike had come to realise it wasn’t Stephen being a moody, antisocial little git—although maybe ten percentof it was just that—but it was out of necessity. People got funny about Stephen. Shacking up with a bloke hadn’t helped matters.


Chapter 18