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

I turned out the light. I watched his shoulders gradually melt downward into sleep. My head had a jackhammer in it and my pillow was as hot as a cooktop. I spooned without spooning—not touching was another spat rule—waiting for him to shift just enough that I could have the cool part of his pillow. Impatient, I finally nudged him. He was immovable.


It wasn’t the season for crickets, but I swear I could hear them.10


Basically “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was reinstated in our household and a truce, shaky as it was, held.


Dom smelled daily of cigarettes, but I said nothing more. He was preoccupied with the show and especially opening night. After being trod upon, I wasn’t about to snuff out his pacifier, much less step on his victory.


Chapter 14