AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter One
Alone.That’showI’dfelt for so long until I met Jeffery. We met in a leather club in Denver, a huge place I’d found soon after moving there. I liked the atmosphere and the people were engaging, but I was hooked when I saw the dark Dom with the wicked green eyes.
My name’s Kanan Pavra, the son of movie stars. Deceased movie stars from my home country of India. I got my looks from them, tall, caramel skin, my mother’s almond-shaped, nearly black eyes, and my father’s fine but masculine features. They were famous for their dancing in Bollywood movies and taught me everything they knew about dance. I had other dreams, however, moving to attend boarding schools in Britain when I was ten, then America for high school. Vermont, to be exact. While I was in boarding school, they died in a car crash along with twelve others on the same crowded highway. It was all over the news for weeks, the entire country mourning for people they only knew from their movies. For me, it had sunk me into a dark place.
I was a mess all through school, then tried college and dropped out in my second year, losing myself to drugs, alcohol, and sex. Somehow, I became a citizen of the US, but I can’t remember most of that process. I was drunk or stoned for most of those few years.
Then I discovered something that helped me more than therapy, drugs, and drinking, once I began to frequent Chaps, the leather club in Northern Denver. That’s when things became clearer and better. I had fun for a change and got up each day looking forward and not back. It was heaven. I even went back to school.
Jeffery was sweet topping on that cake. At least, he had been. Life had been good with him, but that didn’t last. After a couple of years, his eye wandered and he lost interest in me.
“Kan? You okay?”
Gwen Statler, my co-worker at the diner, had quickly become a friend. She was sweet as the pie we served and had a personality that made it hard for me to sink back into my depression. “Lost in thought,” I said as I leaned on the wall by the serving window, waiting for my orders.
The diner wasn’t hopping; it was only three in the afternoon, that glorious time of day when the hostesses and waitstaff could breathe. “Well, if you need me to find you, here I am.”
She had a long ponytail that reminded me of how my mother had kept her hair; instead of the sleek black, Gwen’s was reddish brown and curled at the ends. Her bright blue eyes always smiled with her, and she was so hyper most of the time that she couldn’t gain weight for anything.
She split an éclair with me as she glanced over her shoulder to assure we wouldn’t get caught eating the diner’s desserts. “These are made by Satan, I swear. Nothing Godly could come up with something so tempting.”
“How would you know? You’re a witch.”
She giggled and confessed, “Raised in the Baptist church, babe.”
In the center of the diner, an older couple were having an early dinner. They came in twice a week, and always took the center table, but they didn’t do that to be seen. They only had eyes for one another. The woman, Claire, would stare into her husband’s eyes and he’d stare back into hers. Their smiles told the stories of their long life together, one where they were true partners.
“Stop,” she said, shaking her head. “Stop longing.”
“I’m not longing,” I said, but it was true. I longed for that.
It was likely seeing how happy my parents were. They lived and worked together, so some would think they would tire of one another, but like Claire and her Henry, they worked well, having the other’s back, lifting the other up from any low place.
I longed for that, yes.
“I had a boyfriend once that liked fucking in the barn.”
“You live in the country. Why’s that so strange?”
“It had to be in front of the horses. For some reason, he couldn’t get it up if the horses weren’t watching. That’s the other side of that happy couple you see over there, and all the others. No matter how great they seem, one has some weird fetish or grossness the other has had to deal with.”
I barked a laugh at that, gaining the attention of the cook, Claire, and Henry. “That is so not true,” I whispered, pulling her into the hallway leading to the bathrooms. “People can…be compatible with weirdness.”
“Yeah, you’re kinky, but ever fucked in front of a horse?”
“No!”
“Yeah, it’s…not kinky, it’s just creepy.”
We had a good time together. I hated the move to such a small place and figured I’d stick out badly as a gay man from another country. Between Damon, Burke, Joel, who were generously putting me up for the time being, and all their friends, then the diner and Gwen, I felt as if I belonged. Maybe for the first time in my life, I really did belong.
I bussed as well as waited tables when the diner wasn’t busy, so the owner could save a few bucks. That was okay with the staff, being he paid us well. Gwen filled the salt and pepper shakers while Claire and Henry slipped a twenty-dollar bill into my pocket each.
“We’re so happy you’re here, young man,” Claire said, and Henry nodded with her.
“Thank you, but you don’t have to do that.”
“We have money and nothing much to spend it on now. You take that and put it toward getting your own place.”
