Cody Whitley teaches creative writing at Brockton State College in upstate New York. As he struggles to keep a few unruly students from failing, a larger dilemma hits close to home. His father Henry is in the last stages of his life, dying of liver cancer. Cody visits him everyday in the hospital, bringing him tea from the cafeteria and sitting by his hospital bed, sketching him in his notebook and watching the man he admired as a child slowly deteriorating. Having watched his mother die a few years ago, Cody is in a state of worry and flux, wondering how he will go on after he loses his father. When he receives a text message from a handsome man named Liam he met on a dating app, Cody realizes there is still hope for happiness and a promising future. Amidst the turmoil, Cody accepts Liam's offer to meet him for lunch the next day. Not everything goes as planned, but Cody learns that he is not the only one going through hard times. Will Cody allow the death of his father to alter his chances of finding lasting friendship with a complete stranger? Or will both men find comfort and romance in each other's painful pasts?

The Two of Us

I looked down at my watch. “How about now? I’ve got an hour left before I have to head back to the college for my office hours.”


“I’m out walking as we speak. How about I meet you at the hospital in, say, ten minutes?”


It was twenty minutes later when Liam strolled through the windy stone path leading around the duck pond and llama petting zoo to the customer parking lot. I was waiting for him next to my car, wiping sweat from my face with the back of my hand.


He was still dressed in his athletic attire and running shoes from earlier when I saw him at the college. “Have you been running all this time?” I asked.


He leaned his head back and laughed. He was boyish and handsome and I looked away, bashful, feeling guilty for staring at him. “I walk more than run,” he said, leaning up beside me. He smelled sweaty, musky. He was breathing hard.


Chapter 8