Canuk

Why? Do you dislike Carlo already?

Great to see the new story. Lots of opportunity for drama on the west coast at least! Speaking of east/west coast what's this thing the US has with distance? It's a 5 ish hour flight. Given their resources flying to the other coast for a long weekend is doable. My partner and I comunted trans Pacific for 3 years, my son flew Australia Chile for a year or so and a friend from Uni flew to Spain regularly (bloody hard when there were no direct flights back then). So 5 hours? Piece of cake! However to get to the main point of this post; Jeremy's tasteless, middle class, nasty, cheap, (add in other adjectives as required) Roll Royce Phantom; "hand brushed silver two tone" yuk! Rolls are about understated class unless you are tateless, middle class, nasty.... you get the picture. Surely some member of his family can work to make him respectable...

My life gets more vanilla each chapter....

Comparative newly, only been following MA since 2010 ( second longest relationship aside from family!), but 15+ years of amazing entertainment and interactions with people, some of whom seem to be as mad as me! Thanks!

I'd suspect that once on his back with knees around his ears, language was somewhat irrelevant....

Aside from managing the miracle birth, I would have thought that the Ambassadorship would be Graingers idea of a hideous role/ position. Even back then when an Ambassadors " plenipotentiary " powers really were exactly that, the role involves a lot of vacuous socialising, and I would have thought once he's slept with every man and selected women of the court he'd be bored to tears!

Even by Mark Arbour's stratospheric standards, this is a complicated chapter. Like Travis, I am going to have to finish (in my case) breakfast before I reread the last part of this chapter to try and work out what sly hints have been dropped that will become "a-ha" moments in future chapters. As an aside, the Preston issue is interesting; my husband of 26 years is the least jealous person I have ever known, yet there is one acquaintance of mine that really rattles his cage, regardless of what I say or do -interesting human trait... Well, Mr Arbour, you have disturbed my Saturday morning, so I think I'll take it out on the above mentioned husband, before breakfast and sleuthing. With luck my husband will not work out who his true rival is!

My feelings re JJ/Jeremy are probably well known, and as much as I'd like the uber-priviledged narcisstic princess get his comeuppance, cornering the runt with a "Princeton or Poverty" option seems cruel; it's as if our beloved author wanted to create maximum drama.... and / or make me (almost) feel a modicum of sympathy for the character.

Lord Byron: "Mad, bad and dangerous to know".... something that could apply to many of the characters in this story, but not, of course, to our beloved author....I presume....😘

If you want "predictable ", find another author...... 1. Simple solution re Jack is he has run off with someone else's wife 2. Mark Arbour solution? Smoke, mirrors, Serbians who are secretly based in Brooklyn, James Bond's second cousin once removed and an unexpected guest at Halloween..... and Jeremy in polyester... I'll let you pick the more likely.....

And, fellow readers, is our beloved author's signing off on Jeremy's death, dismemberment or dressing in polyester..... There is nothing more dangerous in the entire saga to be "at a good place"!

"Solid conclusion"? Wildly optimistic! Given our "crafty literary wizard's" history, I'd suggest we are more likely to be lead into a swamp with several exits half of them blind the other half guarded by alligators!

Well, knock me down with feather! The contortions of the plot against Travis just got contorterder! The mind that creates this Gordian knot, is.... different! 😘 And given that it's the same mind that has rehabilitated Jeremy 🤦‍♂️, we are in the presence of someone a few centuries ago would have met their maker by being burnt at the stake!

Desecration... as if the US doesn't have enough challenges.

Jeremy and fisting.... Yes, they both exist however (much classier than "but") neither are my favourite thing.... I did read this chapter over breakfast some 12 hours ago, but as you may imagine I prefer my porridge without the above images.... As it's now Sunday evening and I have had my second gin Martini, I feel I can comment..... Next chapter, please...😘

So while everyone is twisting their knickers over Serbian/Big plots, I am getting all misty eyed over Will and Travis on the bed (the second time, not the first, I am not just a voyeur). They do seem to be settling into a deep and mutually fulfilling relationship.... in saying this I hope I haven't given our beloved author any smart arsed ideas....

“He is from a poor Corsican family with some pretense at aristocracy, he and his wife have absolutely garish taste, and he dominates those around him by humiliating them,” Granger responded. “His military genius has lifted him above his station, his position in society, so he only fits in with his boorish generals.” No comment needed.......

A three part post gets a three part response The"mystery" story. No idea yet, but I have read a few that came no where near your standard! The freshmen being freshmen: all that talk about who was or was not banging whom when where and why.... you certainly know your freshman psyche! I have vague memories of myself at that stage, and vivid, way too vivid memories of my two sons going through it. Hopefully they will grow up....soon Travis Buck..... hmmm the inscrutable author does it again. You do like keeping your readership on tippy toes at the edge of our seat.... Many thanks...your efforts are not unappreciated.

I'd suggest that the vast majority of us would commit the scene to our memories so the fantasy could be where we fucked him. For those that did leap up in an effort to pursue him, we would fall as we forgot that whatever our teenage minds wanted, our ageing bodies couldn't keep up..... 😜👍😘

Or, to look at it another way, straight men are so shallow, vacuous, simple and Neanderthal that one woman can completely mess with them. We can but thank our lucky stars that we are gay....

Amber is the sort of woman that gives straight men a bad reputation...

It's all in the a n t i c I p a t I o n!😜

“This place is almost like a bathhouse for straight people,” Kris whispered back. awesome line! Also v true! 🤣

Between Jeremy and Marie we seem to have a master-class in duplicity and deviousness, covered by a veneer of sincerity. Mr Arbour, you certainly know how to mess with my psyche, especially when you dismember all my neatly fixed prejudices! Thanks, great read!

The last Will/Travis discussion was an interesting comment on communication while in a relationship. While I am sure most couples have secrets, having secrets about each other's needs and wants is ultimately self defeating. When this "secrets within couples" conversation occured in my own life, my partner of almost 30 years described me as "not so much an open book as an exhibitionist", so perhaps my views on privacy are not mainstream!