Bill, a young gay man living in California, returns to Boston in the summer of 1987 to visit his old college roommate and briefly lover, David. He, David, and their buddy Lou drive to Provincetown for a week's gay vacation, where the old ties of friendship among them deepen. But their good time is threatened by increasingly volatile personalities and a growin AIDS epidemic encircling them in an ever tighter grasp.<br><br>Their emotions explode one evening with the unexpected arrival of George, whose added presence brings to a head the simmering anxieties, fears, and resentments these friends have long harbored but have not openly shared. Will their friendships fall apart? Or will they discover a deeper love that binds them together?

Maid Service

“I’m telling you, the back is back. Lou, wake up!”


Lou stirred briefly, then was motionless again. David shuffled back into the living room and went to the oak dining table. He picked up Lou’s gin bottle—two-thirds empty—and shook it in Bill’s direction, offering a wordless explanation for Lou’s disinclination to get out of bed.


“My, she’s in a state this morning. Stuff that bitch with a rag. She’s menstruating. Can’t you smell it?”


Bill got off the day bed and helped David put his mattress back on its frame. David had dragged it onto the floor sometime during the night, trying to make it firmer and less uncomfortable


The three of them had coffee in the suite’s small kitchenette. Lou sat on the counter, while David leaned against the refrigerator, and Bill stood in the door jamb. None of them said much. They had gotten up too early, which Lou blamed on David’s theatrical cries of feigned back pain.


Chapter 8