Involved in separate accidents. Russel and Finn end up sharing a cubicle in the ER on a busy night. As the hours pass, separately and together, they face issues of life and death, human nature, addiction, perceived shortcomings, love, romance, and sexual arousal.<br><br>Both men are feeling flirty and friendly at first, until they end up in a heated argument about what feature in a man is more important, his face or his body. After some time alone to think, Russel is eager to apologize for losing his temper and to explain where he was coming from. Unfortunately, Finn never returns from surgery, leaving Russel both sorry and worried.<br><br>Is Russel’s chance to make amends really gone? What will happen if the two ever do come face to face again? Can Russel win Finn over or will the need to prove his point screw everything up again?

An Arm and a Leg

Tick tock, tick tock. Shortly meant different things to different people, it seemed. Twenty minutes passed. I watched the second hand count off four hundred and eighty of them for the last eight. Carlton hadn’t handed me the remote and bed control. I could see it on the table with the Kleenex box and some cotton balls he’d pulled from his pocket. TV would have maybe gotten my mind off the pain. I tried to find him and his canary yellow sneakers and light turquoise scrubs in all the commotion out in the hallway, but he never really stayed in one place very long.


I understood. The joint was jumping, to quote Fats Waller. Beyond the glass wall that separated me from a beehive of noise, swiftly moving shapes, and soft hurried footsteps, voices spoke over one another. I’d have sworn I heard my name once or twice, but no one came in for thirty-six whole minutes.


Chapter 3