A Sweet Gentle Boy (and other stories)

Excerpt

A nude figure is lying upon my couch, face down. A young hustler. I am sitting in my armchair in my green velvet robe, looking through a magazine—Life.

I sneak a glance at him, his back, his legs. After I watch the furrow between his buttocks twitch, I continue reading my magazine.

I know that he’s waiting for me, that he’s mine—if I want him.

I don’t. Not right now, anyway. I continue to look at Life, at an article on birds and another about a philosophical taxi driver.