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

“Reassuring you when you aren’t cast, running lines with you, putting you on Platte health insurance.”


I’d gone a stairway too far. I suddenly needed a handrail.


Damn him for being an actor, able to pluck eloquent alliteration out of his props satchel.


“I have this marginal, unreliable profession, as you’ve made very clear time and again. Dominick Brodie doesn’t keep up. Do you know how many times I’ve felt like our income disparity was going to be the deal breaker?” Dom asked.


Chapter 13