When restaurateur Hugh Neumann rebukes Oliver Nicholas’s very public proposal to his boyfriend during a Valentine’s Day dinner, the diverted Cupid’s arrow strikes Hugh not in the heart, but in the ass.<br><br>After a media storm of commentary, ironically pro and con, gains national steam, what Hugh begins to refer to as his personal “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre” begins to affect home life with his partner, Dominick Brodie.<br><br>Was Hugh’s overreaction pandering to his largely heterosexual clientele? Or did the incident trigger his own panic about same-sex marriage? Will the public scrutiny threaten his decade-long commitment to Dom?

Bended Knee

Mom heard the strain in my voice and softened. “Then maybe you go talk to someone?”


This represented a breakthrough for a woman who eschewed pediatrician visits as an extravagance and would pooh-pooh Elise’s wounded adolescent heart with “Let me tell you about a girl with real problems. Anne Frank was her name.”


Well, it wasn’t therapy Mom thought I should seek. “Call Abelard Schulz, if he’s still with the bank. You might need a temporary business loan to get you through.”


Dom’s father, Cyril, retired in Arizona, proved that family dynamics, no matter how far geographically apart, run along the same it’s-your-fault lines. He exclaimed to his son, “Holy shit, I turned on myCNN”—when did old people get so proprietary about everything?—”and I see Hugh’s mug and the first thing that came to mind was some Nazi tie-in.”


Presumably his pop was relieved when it turned out only to be a homo tie-in.


Chapter 9