Sacred Hearts (Tarnished Souls) by Bentham Dev

Author:Bentham, Dev [Bentham, Dev]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Contemporary, Gay, Erotic Romance
ISBN: 9781623000721
Publisher: Loose Id LLC
Published: 2012-12-17T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

After a month in Mexico, Portland felt cold to me. On New Year’s Eve, Papa and I watched a movie and went to sleep early. The next week the rain beat incessantly, and my father’s backyard turned into a muddy swamp. I sat at the kitchen table and called every restaurant I knew, people I’d spoken with every year at the Bite of Oregon, whose restaurants I’d visited and who had visited mine. I got a frostier reception than I had the month before. Some were polite, others dismissive, but no one had a job for me. Before I’d left I had a few who thought there’d be something after the holidays. While I was sweating in a tin kitchen, those possibilities had somehow dried up.

In between rejections and organizing my paperwork for bankruptcy, I watched daytime TV. I went to bed early and got up late and was sometimes rewarded with dreams of John. The only thing good in my life was elusive, mysterious, and over two thousand miles away. Time crawled. I felt suspended like a mandarin orange in one of those hideous retro gelatin desserts. There was nothing I could do but wait for the end of the month and my official insolvency. And after that, my best bet looked like Los Angeles and a job I didn’t like, working for someone I did. Or I could keep sitting in the rec room at my father’s place, only getting off the couch to make dinner.

* * * *

My court date finally came. Abe had told me to meet him in room 223 of the Gus J. Solomon Courthouse at a quarter to nine. He also assured me it was a formality.

“They do five or six of these things an hour,” he’d growled over the phone the night before. “You have to show your face, answer a few questions, and that’s it. Your creditors all got notice of the meeting. Don’t worry. They never attend.”

My best slacks and white cotton shirt had wrinkled in the suitcase, so I’d spent the evening ironing.

Papa offered to give me a ride and keep me company, but I wanted to keep the humiliation to a dull roar. The fewer witnesses, the better. Gray skies, forty degrees, and light rain—a mild winter day in the Pacific Northwest. Quite a shock after sunny Mexico. I shrugged on my raincoat and caught an early bus crowded with people on their way to work. The rain let up, and I got out at Burnside to walk.

People passed me, their work clothes peeking out from under shiny raincoats, their shoes clicking purposefully along the pavement. Everyone on their way to a job except David. I almost stumbled over the mound of dirty blankets covering a cluster of bodies sleeping in a doorway and decided to quit feeling sorry for myself. I might be back at my father’s house, but at least it was warm and safe.

Charmaine was working the early shift at one of the carts up on Alder, which is why I’d come down early.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.