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

Instead, I pulled her ponytail out of the buffalo sauce and, although only two blocks away, insisted on shuttling her back to her office. As we wobbled through the cavernous parking garage, Ruby wondered, “So what does Dominique have to say about all of this?” She apparently liked the stony echo so much she said it again. “What does Dominique have to say about all of this?”


“Which one of those do you want me to answer?


“Dom’s not saying a lot. He’s deep in rehearsal. I think he was a little afraid the theater’s executive director would replace him, that an audience wouldn’t see past the controversy and he’d be a liability.”


“How would this contaminate him? Ninety-nine percent of the public wouldn’t even put you two together.”


I opened the passenger door, bent her in half, and shoved her in. “What does that mean?”


Chapter 10