His Steadfast Love and Other Stories by Paul Brownsey

Author:Paul Brownsey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gay, short stories, romantic, gay romance, gay fiction, scottish, gay humor, scottish author
Publisher: Lethe Press

DECEMBER 30TH: COMMITMENT

After we’d made love this morning he said, “I’m going back to sleep. I can’t sleep properly, two in a single bed.”

“But we have breakfast together. I like passing you the marmalade and things.”

“Mikey, that won’t get me through the day when I have to go to work. I’ll need sleep.”

He asleep in his flat, me in my bed here. Our home broken up.

I curled away.

No connection between us was possible, of any kind.

He kissed the back of my neck. “The sales are on. Let’s go out and buy a double bed.”

It was the beginning of the world again, and glory shone around.

In the gloomy discount warehouse smelling of paraffin heaters, a redundant church, we sat side by side on beds, testing them. I said with naughty loudness, “We need to make sure the springs are strong enough to stand lot of bouncing up and down,” and was rewarded with a glare from a passing stately fat woman. Her tartan-trimmed green coat was poised open to show a jumper of the exact-same green and a tartan skirt matching the trim. Lipstick, gloves, glasses were the same orangey-red as her hair.

Under her disapproval Conrad put a defiant arm around my shoulders. My protector.

I pronounced, “Bridegrooms always feel panic at the altar. Yesterday was merely the last gasp of uncertainty before commitment.”

We each wrote a cheque for half the amount, challenging the assistant to make difficulties. Just the naming of the delivery date, in the second week of January, seemed to guarantee our commitment to each other.

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