Carlos Hazday

Perfectly logical. My dad's nickname was Polaco. Polack in Spanish. But his parents came from Turkey, not Poland. However, all Easter Europeans were called Polacos, like all Asians were called Chinos. It took me years to figure out why dad was Polaco instead of Turco. Hispanics and their nicknames.

I'm not even going to ask LOL

@dughlas See? Not only Cuban!!! Molly, is Phil's father named Roberto too? LOL For the record, when I asked Molly to beta read this story, I'd entirely forgotten her other half was named Phil. Serendipity!

Latin...

You're not far off the mark. I did mention somewhere this is my 4th Anglo-Latino couple and that those are a dime a dozen in South Florida. And since I'm dealing with stereotypes, the hot headed one has to be the Latino. LOL

My brother said the same thing and he lives in NYC. I still don't believe he can't get good Cuban food in Brooklyn.

We can thank Wikipedia and the NFL's website for the info on the combine. I now know more about it than I ever needed to, and all for a paragraph or two. Gotta love 'fun' research.

Me? My stories barely have a plot! LOL And I never write cliffies.

Thanks, my friend.

LMAO Have you noticed readers don't automatically assume my gay characters will end up together? You think I've tortured them enough? I may have to throw in a love-at-fiftieth-sight into the story. But time's running short. Only one more chapter coming up Sunday.

I think you just got a slam dunk.

Phil's lucky to have his father involved, and Riley's smart enough to latch on to a good thing.

“These are green plantains.” Phil pointed at the mound of tostones on one of the plates the server placed in the middle of the table. “You peel them, cut them into chunks, fry them until soft, smash them flat, and fry them again until crispy.” Phil’s family had welcomed Riley as if he was an old friend. “And the other ones are the same vegetable?” The previous evening, after gorging on Thai food, the football players had bar hopped, gotten drunk, and taken an Uber to Riley’s motel. The two d

I was thinking about this on my way to and from Miami this morning. Wouldn't those two be a spin-in from a spin-off? LOL

Hush! I'm working on Malibu right now for posting later this year. The caretaking will be explained. And you may encounter another similar situation in an upcoming chapter about a movie premiere at The Kennedy Center. By the time I get done, the web will make spider jealous.

@Valkyrie

I didn't make any of the main characters in the CJ series jocks on purpose. The cameos but 2 football players was a one off. If these two end up playing on the West Coast, their chances of meeting CJ will be small.

Thank you!! While I do write happy ending fiction most of the time, I try to make it as realistic as possible. I was recently reading a story with three instant relationships moments after the characters met and had to stop. In the CJ series I even had his say he doesn't believe in love at first sight, he told Ellen during an interview that it was really lust at first sight. Phil may have gone out looking for sex and instead discovered friendship. Anything else that may develop we'll have to wait and see.

This is quite a coincidence. I was thinking about the 'background color' just yesterday. New Year's Day wasn't on my list of stories to write. The concept popped out of nowhere and I worked on it while taking breaks from other stuff. I'm in a similar situation now with another story that doesn't want to leave me alove even though I have plenty other stuff going on. The one hassling me right now would be another short story (we'll return to this) starring Cesar and Brett. I have about 1k words written for the first chapter and that's not even 20% of what I see the chapter being at. Yesterday, I wrote a somewhat detailed conversation about wines between Owen and Chipper and questioned whether it was too much. I decided to leave it in and will also describe 3 meals in the chapter. Honestly, looking back at the earlier CJ stories, the details are sometimes excessive. Once I finished with CJ's presidential inauguration, there were so many things I wanted to write I shied away from long works. With short stories, there's little room for a lot of detail. I admit I've been in a hurry wanting to get work out; not wanting to sacrifice quality I instead reduced length. Singer was an experiment so we'll leave that one of the conversation. Ranger will be only 13 chapters, but word count will be higher than in Chipper's story. That means there's room for more details and emotional reactions. I have a few more shorties in the works, but I promise the longer works will swing the pendulum back on the color commentary. I just need to find the happy medium.

Tamer's right. Damn Riley won't even cuss for real.

Glad you liked it, bud.

I realize this is the fourth Latino-Anglo couple I use, but that's so damn common in my hood I can't help myself. Let's not count our eggs yet, I'm not into the instant/love at first sight trope so common in gay themed stories. We'll have to wait and see if anything develops between them.

Riley and Phil may seem like an odd couple right now, but there's enough common ground for the nascent relationship to become at least friendship. @Myr I can't seem to get nascent out of my head!

Thanks, Geron. I wanted Riley to be scared and resolute at the same time. A guy from a small Southern town thrown into a big city meat market better be careful. Let's hope Martinez isn't a douche.

I did consider having Phil attend Christopher Columbus High where CJ was a student for a year. Decided to honor my own high school instead.