For more than a year, Reggie Mitchell has been sitting at the end of the bar in the Sunset Club waiting for Mark Randall to see him as something other than a customer. He's been in love with Mark for close to two years, but Mark only sees him as a rich college kid trying to go slumming with a bartender. Then Mark gets in trouble helping Reggie's friend Bobby.<br><br>Now a violent ex-lover is threatening Mark. Reggie offers Mark the safe haven of his basement apartment. Can Reggie convince Mark that his safe haven is his arms instead?

Waiting for Mark

Mark was astounded when someone buzzed the phone telling them it was Reggie’s turn. He realized that Greg had skillfully coaxed the highlights of his life story out of him in forty minutes in such a way that Mark was not overly stressed by telling it.


“We need ten minutes.” Greg clicked off the speaker. “Now that I have your background I can answer the question uppermost in your mind. You are not responsible for what happened to you or to Reggie. You couldn’t stop your mother’s drinking no matter how hard you tried. Her alcohol problem led to you taking on too much responsibility at a young age. That resulted in you attempting to shed it with Billy. It was a burden you carried for too long, a burden no child should ever have to carry for their parent.”


“It wasn’t the burden, I was used to that. It was the way I shed it that was wrong.” Mark rubbed his eyes to prevent tears from falling. Finally, he took a tissue from the side table and wiped them away.


Chapter 47