Garner working as a waiter at an upscale restaurant with a growing attraction to a man named Alonzo, who always asks to be put in his section for dinner. One night after work, the man is assaulted while trailing Garner. Garner goes to his aid, but is shot for his trouble.<br><br>Taking time off from work to recover, Garner is resting on a park bench when Alonzo suddenly appears at the other end of the bench. Garner never saw him approach. He asks why Alonzo is trailing him.<br><br>After some hesitation, Alonzo explains he wants to recruit Garner to help fight against others who systematically hunt people like himself. Garner isn’t inclined to get involved in anything dangerous, but he does finds Alonzo more and more attractive, so he agrees to consider the idea. As he learns more about Alonzo’s bizarre and dangerous subculture, what Garner really wants to know is whether Alonzo is romantically interested in him at all.

Call to Love

He’d done that several times after the accident, on his bike—when he had been sent to the local corner store for items his aunt needed for a recipe but discovered they were out of. It had been painful, very painful, and he’d had to wipe his tears away before returning home. And he remembered those experiences ever afterwards, chewing over the painful lesson that it wasn’t the location that mattered, but the people that were there, sharing your life with you. The house had been like a dead body, a horrific object, bereft of life, only lookinglike the home he remembered.


So, no, he decided, he didn’t need to live that experience again.


Finally, he returned to the bus depot in the wee hours, and settled for the duration in one of the seats in the waiting area—and slept. He was so tired out that he almost overslept, and just caught the bus as it was edging out of the depot.


Chapter 70