Love Rules - Beach Reading 07 by Mark Abramson

Author:Mark Abramson
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: “Always toward absent lovers love’s tide stronger flows, ” wrote the Roman poet Sextus Propertius two thousand years ago. Tim Snow is faced with temptation and mystery in the latest volume of Mark Abramson’s Beach Reading series when his boyfriend goes traveling. But is it absence he’s feeling or hormones?
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

It was late Saturday afternoon when Ruth and Sam stopped for cocktails at Arts before going to Postrio for dinner on their way to the symphony. Ruth wanted to check up on her nephew without Tim suspecting that she was checking up on him. In Ruth’s mind, she and Nick were the only stabilizing forces in Tim’s crazy life and Nick had been away far too long. Ruth too had dreams sometimes and in them Tim was balanced on a tightrope with her and Nick holding up the ends. When Nick was around she didn’t worry so much, but Ruth’s dreams grew more frightening with each week that passed while Nick was in Europe. Tim sounded all right on the phone when she called, but she needed to see him in the flesh to make sure.

Ruth, Sam and Tim nearly collided in the doorway when they arrived. Tim was embarrassed by his clumsiness.

He moved the empty cocktail tray he’d been twirling on his fingers and tucked it under one arm so that he could shake Sam’s hand, but Sam’s right hand was holding the door for Ruth, who had stopped and knelt down to admire a tiny dachshund puppy on the sidewalk and chat with the puppy’s proud parents, a gay couple from Noe Valley.

Tim had grown unfamiliar with the formality of shaking hands lately, especially on Castro Street. People might wave, 135

clasp a shoulder, give a hearty pat on the back or that clumsy tradition known as the “high-five.” Tim didn’t like that one and usually ignored anyone who lifted one hand to slap his.

What were they trying to prove, how cool they were? Was slapping someone’s hand more macho than the firm grip of an old-fashioned handshake?

It turned out that Sam wasn’t planning to shake Tim’s hand anyway, but intended to give him a manly embrace. Tim checked himself from also giving Sam a peck on the cheek, but the habit was so ingrained that Tim had to force himself not to pucker his lips at all. Then he set the tray down on a table and his Aunt Ruth melted into his arms. All was well with both of them now.

When Ruth looked up again she was startled to see who was behind the bar. “Artie! What are you doing back there?”

“I’m working. What does it look like?”

“I thought your bartending days were in the past, now that your singing career is going so well.”

“The real reason I’m here is because I’m supposed to be training a new bartender tonight and he’s late! That’s not a good sign on his first day at a new job, but at least he called.

He said he was stuck in heavy traffic on the Bay Bridge.”

“I heard on the news that there was a crash.”

“Well, he should have taken BART, but he was worried about how he’d get home later. By the time he finds parking in the Castro it’ll be last call. Jake is late too and he didn’t even bother to call.

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