Gabriel Morgan
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Snapshots of a long term relationship.
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On the first sunny day of April, he tells me he’s leaving me. You remember, don’t you, how gray April was that year. It was chilly and rained for days on end; we thought we’d never see the sun again. It was as if the gods were angry with us, and we needed to make amends somehow. Sacrifice a lamb. Or maybe something a little less biblical - floss more regularly perhaps, or give up coffee for a month. Then, finally, that last Saturday in April, we wake to pale yellow bars of light slanti
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“Hey…” Evan’s just-woke-up voice was a gruff whisper. I looked up from my book in time to watch him stretch like a cat, fingers spread and then clenched, twisting his back to get the kinks out as he sat up. “What are you doin’?” I shrugged slightly and held up my book. “Just reading.” He regarded me silently for a moment, then pushed to his feet and headed for the kitchen. “You hungry?” he asked over his shoulder. As I watched him walk away, I realized he was irritated with me. I
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Maggie’s oncologist had an office in Patterson, but operated in a hospital on the edge of the city, about 45 minutes away. Her surgery was scheduled for 8:45am, but she’d asked us not to come early, that she wanted only Don there. If Evan had been hurt by that, he took it well and assured her we’d be there around nine so that we could keep Don company during the several hours her surgeon had told them to expect. I’d walk through hell and back for Evan, but I couldn’t think of a worse way to spen
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The first part of September was warm and sunny, Indian summer weather, and we took advantage of it, playing hooky from work that next Wednesday after the fair to take a long ride up into the mountains. There was no traffic to speak of, so we really let the bikes stretch their legs up the winding roads. I rode slightly behind Evan most of the time because I enjoyed the view so much. Seeing his long legs braced on the highway pegs got me thinking about last night, when those same legs had been wra
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Sunday morning dawned cloudy, and with the window open, it was cool enough to make me sit up and reach for the blanket folded at the foot of the bed. Evan clutched the sheet to his chin and wiggled closer to me when I lay back down, pulling the blanket over us as I turned toward him. He burrowed his face into my chest and conked out again as I lay there dozing in and out of sleep, almost awake enough to get up, but not quite willing to leave the warmth of our bed just yet. Evan’s hair smelled fa
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“But there’s not a damn thing either of us can do about it,” I added, “so let’s put this stuff away and go get cleaned up for dinner.” We picked up the tools and stashed them in the barn before going inside to shower. I waited until I heard the water in the guest bath turn off before taking my own, and as I slid the shower curtain aside to grab a towel, Evan came into the bathroom, zipping a pair of cargo shorts. “Good timing,” he said, giving my drippy dick a quick squeeze. “I see
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“Oh, man – look at your leg.” We were in the shower Friday morning and Evan was staring at the enormous bruise on my thigh from where he’d shoved the desk into it. Yesterday evening it had been blue with a reddish center; today it had darkened to a grim purplish black with blue edges. “Yeah, and it’s a big knot,” I said, easing my fingertips over the tender swelling. “You really nailed me.” “Damn, I’m sorry,” he grimaced and then turned me around so he could scrub my back. “
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As I lifted my left arm to check the time, Evan beat me to it. “It’s seven minutes later than the last time you looked,” he said, then waved his hand around the room. “I don’t think the desks are gonna fit this way.” “They should, I measured. Push your end this way a little more.” The two of us were in my office on Wednesday evening, trying to squeeze in a spare desk we’d brought home from Kenny’s yesterday. I figured the one thing Brendan and I for sure had in common was a passion
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I’d never been fishing in my life and said so to Evan as I scrubbed my face, washed my hands, brushed my teeth, added a t-shirt to my shorts, and tugged on old sneakers. “Nothin’ to it,” he said, as he did the same. “You stick a worm on the hook, toss it into the river, wait till you’re bored to death, and then go home.” “Jesus,” I laughed, “Why the hell are we goin’ then?” “Cause it’s out at the river and we got nothin’ else goin’. Fishing’s a good time to nap,” he added he
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It looked to me like three quarters of Patterson was lined up along the curbs while the other quarter marched past in the Fourth of July parade. The parade had started at the east end of Main Street and would end at the high school football stadium, where there were bake sales and game booths, lots of food stands, and pie eating contest. When Evan first told me about the parade, I’d raised an eyebrow. “Patterson has a parade?” I asked doubtfully. It was a pretty small town and didn’t fit
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Evan took a hit off his beer, wiped his mouth on the back of his hand, and asked again, “Talk about what?” When neither Rafael nor I spoke up, he looked back and forth between us, studying our faces carefully until his eyes settled on mine. “You finally kissed him, I bet.” I jumped out of my chair. “Jesus, did everyone know about this but me?” “Yeah, pretty much,” Evan confirmed. His voice was calm, but when he moved away from me to sit on the porch rail, my face went hot with guil
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Sunday dawned hot; I could feel it even before I opened my eyes. The sheet and cotton blanket we’d gone to sleep under now felt like a pile of quilts – heavy and oppressive. At some point in the night, I’d rolled onto my stomach and Evan had followed along, lying on his side with one arm flung across my back. I pinched a fold of the sheet between my feet and tried to pull it down off us, but Evan must have been laying on part of it, because just as I gave a harder tug, he dug his fingers into my
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Evan and Raf arrested. Great, just great. As Kenny shifted into Sharon’s front seat, we peppered her with questions. Kenny – “Arrested for what?” Me – “Were they fighting?” Kenny – “Are they actually in jail?” Me – “Where’s the Jeep? I’ll need my wallet to bail them out.” Kenny – “Are they ok?” Me – “How much is bail?” Kenny – “Who arrested them?” Finally Sharon broke in. “God, just get in the car – I’ll tell you everything I know on
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The next morning - Saturday - the day - I half expected Evan to be up early, unable to sleep, but when I woke up at 7:12am, he was still sacked out next to me, on his back with the sheet shoved down to his waist, one hand spread over his chest, his mouth open slightly. I lay on my side, head propped in my hand, and watched him for a while, following the slow rise and fall of his ribcage as he breathed, watching his eyeballs flicker under his eyelids, wondering if it was too weird to have sex on
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“So how are the tomatoes doing? You’re watering them, right?” Callie and I spoke every week, and every week she grilled me on how the garden was coming along. “Yes, I’m watering them, whenever it doesn’t rain,” I assured her, as I stood in the middle of the garden on Wednesday evening, surrounded by lush foliage and ripening produce. “Come see for yourself, if you don’t believe me.” “Good idea... how about Saturday?” “Only if you arrive with a pan or two of cinnamon rolls. I
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Friday morning I ran Evan into town, dropped him at the office, made a quick stop at the donut shop, then went back home to wait for the insurance guy to show up. Kenny and I talked on the phone for a bit, debating whether to unload a customer who was becoming a total pain in the butt, demanding more and more of our time for programming tweaks that made no sense. Kenny wanted to keep the guy, saying who cares what he wants us to do – he pays on time, but I was all for dumping his ass and spendin
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As I made three trips from the car to the house in the driving rain, I cursed the lack of an attached garage; it was the only thing about the Farm that was less than wonderful. One trip in with groceries, a second with a big stack of blankets and quilts I’d borrowed from Maggie, and a third with a large box of candles and holders that Sharon had lent me. Then one more run through the rain to move my car around the drive a bit further so that Evan could park as close to the porch as possible when
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“… 13… 14… 15.” I steadied the bar as Conrad settled it back into the bench supports. That was his last rep, so we picked up our towels and headed to the locker room. As we changed, I kept my back to him, but he ignored me until we were out on the sidewalk. “Why don’t you come back-” he began, but I didn’t need to hear the rest. “No way am I going some place private with you. Forget it. There’s a deli a couple doors down. I’ll buy you dinner.” He studied my face brief
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“Do I look ok?” I turned away from putting the finishing touches on my hair to give Evan my full attention. Tonight was awards night at Patterson High and Evan had been getting ready for what seemed like hours. This suit? That suit? Which tie? Wing tips or loafers? I was about to throttle him, but when I turned around, my irritation vanished at the somber expression on his face. He looked fabulous – tall and lean in a charcoal suit – but it was his eyes that held me. As dark as his suit in
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“On three – ready? One… two… three!” We’d spent Saturday morning working in the barn tidying up odd corners and sorting through all the stuff Ed and Becky had collected in the fifty-plus years they’d lived here. I’d done some work in Ed’s carpentry room, but the rest of the barn was still unexplored. Under ten year’s accumulation of dirt and clutter we found three huge beams – twenty feet long and a foot and a half square – and were foolishly trying to pick up one end to see if we could pos
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Friday morning I woke up before Evan, as usual. He’d flung the sheet partway off and was on his back, mouth open slightly, one arm curved up around his head, the other out of sight on the far side of his body. In the dim morning light, his skin was the color of milk, white and smooth on the inside of his upper arm and the side of his chest. In his armpit, dark hair was visible, blacker than the shadows. As he breathed, his diaphragm rose and fell in the depression between the lower arcs of his r
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The following Thursday, a week before the Family Law Center was set to open, we lit up the website. Over the weeks we’d been working on it, the site had grown into an excellent tool for families in need, with a comprehensive list of FAQs, commonly used forms, links to various federal, state and local websites, agencies, shelters, free meal programs, etc. Evan, Kathryn, and I met in the office at 9am. They opened a bottle of champagne while I stood at the desk, logged into the server, and prepare
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Saturday morning while Evan picked up the house, I went out to the barn and dug out all the miscellaneous lawn furniture I could find, which turned out to be a lot. After I hosed it all off, I left it out in the sun to dry while Evan and I ran into town to get groceries. As we rounded the corner from the cereal aisle to the dairy case, we almost ran Sharon over. She had a sack of potatoes in one arm and three jars of baby food in the other. Evan eyed the baby food before asking cautiously,
