General Fiction - Stories

You never forget your first love.

Nor do you forget the traditions you shared.

Maybe that's all you need to bring you back together?

Or is it?

There’s an old adage that states, “It’s too late to close the barn door after the horses have gotten out.” Sixteen-year-old Neil Michaels learns this lesson on a summer afternoon when he joins his best friend on a biking adventure to the old barn on Engle Mill Road. A secret door opens, and his life will never be the same.

Michael appears to have it all—a successful career, a loving family, and a picture-perfect life. But beneath the surface lies a world of hidden truths and forbidden desires, threatening to shatter everything he’s built. As tension mounts and the weight of his secrets grows unbearable, Michael must navigate a dangerous path where every decision has consequences. Straightening Affairs is a gripping exploration of identity, deception, and the lengths one man will go to protect the life he’s desperately trying to hold together.

In spite of a serious injury as a youth, a college student makes his way through life.

When recently widowed Geoff discovers his seventeen year old grandson is in a relationship with one of his classmates, his suppressed sexual urges surface. When he discovers the world of porn, Geoff / Grandpa realizes he especially enjoys male porn. Eventually his grandson and boyfriend discover Grandpa’s interest in male porn. The boys came out to Grandpa and offered to assist in his quest to find Mr. Right.

It is August of 2004, the month that the Olympics were held in Athens. Will Schluter will be there, then he'll start his freshman year at Harvard with his cousin Marie. It's a bittersweet event because the man he loves, Travis Buck, has to remain in Hollywood to work on his acting career, and they'll have to deal with being separated by thousands of miles.

Meanwhile, Will's brother JJ is firmly established in New York City, trying to deal with the inevitable challenges life throws at him, while his father Brad will face a crisis that could ruin his marriage.

Ralph has a successful web-design firm, lovely twin daughters and an ex-wife with whom he is on reasonable terms, though his parents persist in regarding him as a disappointment, disliking his choice of career and general lack of ambition. But, in the wake of his divorce, he experiences a return of feelings and ideas that he hasn’t had since his teenage years when an affair with another boy at school left an indelible mark. And now, he has to decide, does he want to be that person who hides, lashes out at any suggestion he might be gay, or does he want to break free.

A straight friend, an artist who the narrator has known since college, compliments him on the definition of his muscles. The narrator has always considered the straight friend very attractive, The narrator is concerned his friend is not aware of his own good looks and is not keeping himself fit as they grow older. The narrator has a strategy for helping his friend.