Pandemic. Plague. Call it what you will, but it spelled stay-at-home isolation for Leo and his neighbors. Except the new neighbor. Interesting looking but probably not gay and already hauled off to the hospital. That’s how Leo ended up with his cat, and mail, and food packages. A caretaker now, and he doesn’t even know the guy.<br><br>A major storm blows up, and people start piling in: the sick neighbor’s grandson and some other kid. The old lady neighbor with a tree through her roof and her long-lost flame. So much for social distancing, particularly when sex gets into the act.<br><br>Except for poor Leo. Odd man out. Until they decide to spring the sick guy from the hospital. What could possibly go wrong?

Love in Strange Times

“My goldarn fucking boyfriend left me for a woman! I have no place to live! And I lost my job because of, um, what I shouted at him in the emergency room.” He had the grace to blush.


Raven blurted, “What about Richard?”


“Fuck Richard! Well, not really. Say, you don’t happen to be looking for a boyfriend, are you? I’m sorry, I just need, sob, someone to hold me.”


Raven’s arms went out and enfolded him, whoever he was. He took about half a second to wonder if their masks would do any good like this close, then said the hell with it, pulled his down, and kissed the other’s eyes. I mean, here we are in the middle of a plague, whatever it was called, and who knew how long one had to live? It was like living in a war zone. He could die any time. He owed it to himself…the other guy pulled his mask down and after a while, that wasn’t all that got pulled down.


Chapter 9