a taste of the frozen moment: BOOK CLUB

[the book is THE FROZEN MOMENT. the publication date is DECEMBER 17th. here's a little TASTE of one of the stories...]

OK, so I keep forgetting to do one for myself. Here's a piece of my story Book Club.

I figured the whole thing with the affair was okay, because, when it came down to it, I wasn’t doing it for myself.

Kimbo was the one who wanted the sex.  Oh, I’m not saying I didn’t get anything out of it, but mostly I was doing it for him.  He really, really wanted it, and I didn’t like disappointing people.

That day, I have to say, I wasn’t disappointed either.  It was a Monday, of course, and he was always better on Mondays than on Thursdays.  Sometimes I thought about asking him why he was good on Mondays, but I figured that would be like saying he wasn’t good on Thursdays, so I didn’t.  I just lay back against the lumpy mattress of the fold-out couch—he liked using his fold-out couch because, he said, that way he wouldn’t be disturbed by dreams of yearning for me when he slept alone in his bed at night.  Now, he lay long down the length of the mattress, tipped up on one side, elbow in the pillow and his chin in his hand in a way that said his smile was so heavy he had to concentrate to keep his head held up.

Kimbo looking at me, Kimbo beautiful in the way I figured that guy who played Alfalfa was probably beautiful when he grew up—little boy eyes and too many freckles.

“So, here’s what we do,” he said.  “We seal our secret love with a tattoo.”

I'll will be reading along with contributors Kevin Meyer, Kathleen Lane, Christine Calfas, Gage Mace, Nora Robertson, Dian Greenwood, Elva Redwood and Holly Goodman at Crow Arts Manor on January 15th. You can also order The Frozen Moment through Publication Studio here.