50 EXCERPTS: #1

"...I can't even begin to tell you how many things I get invited to. Openings, benefits... Most of them are very tiring. I don't even bother opening half the envelopes that come in the mail."

"Then why are you inviting me? Aren't there going to be any eighteen-year-old Armenian sailors in port that night?"

He glared at me unpleasantly. "If you'd rather not go..."

"Sorry."

He brightened again. "I'm inviting you for three reasons. First, because I've come to enjoy your company despite your puzzling habit of biting the hand that feeds you. Second, because I'm hoping that an appearance by the author of Allentown Blues and The Brewster Mall might generate a little interest and publicity and help make both of us some money. And third, because maybe you'll meet your next lover there."

"That's very noble of you."

"Nobility has nothing to do with it. If you meet a nice upstanding white-collar man, maybe you'll stop moping and rediscover your muse. Then you can write me a best-seller."

I realized with a jolt that we were headed toward Ted and Nicky's love nest, so I gently took hold of David's arm and guided him around a corner. He never even seemed to notice.

"This place is going to be great!"

"Who owns it? Who's Benedict?"

"Benedick," he corrected.

"Oh. Now I understand."

"No, you don't," he said, shaking his head. "Benedick. Remember your Shakespeare? Much Ado About Nothing? Although I can't be sure there's not an intentional double entendre at work."

"Classy. There's nothing like a bunch of Shakespeare-quoting homosexuals in spandex dancing to Madonna to give me hope for the future of our sexuality. And anyway, wasn't Benedick straight?"

"As far as I'm concerned, the jury's still out. Remember, he was a confirmed bachelor in the beginning of Much Ado About Nothing..."

"And almost a married man at the end," I pointed out.

"Details," he snorted. "Even Oscar Wilde was a married man. Maybe you're still too bitter to go out in public."

from The Night We Met

Kensington Publishing Corp.
September, 2002

Buy it at Giovanni's Room

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