About Persistence Pays
by Mara Ismine
28 pages / 11400 words
ISBN: 978-1-60370-951-4
Available file types -
html, lit, pdf, prc, epub, Sony Reader pdf
Asa Hartvigsen has his life arranged to his liking. He has a tolerable
job at the University Library, his apartment arranged the way he wants
it, and his parents live four hours away, which isn’t quite far enough
in Asa’s opinion. Asa has nice sensible plans for the evening, and he's
not that happy to have his reading disrupted by the arrival of Tan
Gordon, a self-admitted party boy who reminds Asa of a stray cat.
Freelance journalist Tan has decided to be Asa’s friend despite Asa’s
opposition to the plan. Tonight Tan comes over to remind Asa about a TV
special, only to arrive soaked to the skin and wanting to spend the
night. Asa is sure that his day off is going to be horrendous when his
parents arrive for a surprise visit. Especially as Tan is still asleep
on the couch and Asa’s mother, who wants to be supportive since Asa
announced he was gay, has been researching the subject. Asa is sure that
disaster is looming.
Sample
I was drying my hair when the door bell rang. Again.
My door bell doesn't ring that often. I scowled and rubbed at my scalp
as I marched over to the intercom with the intention of letting the
idiot who was disturbing my morning know just how I felt about it.
"Yes?"
"Good morning, Asa, I told your father that it wasn't too early to
call!" My mother's voice issued brightly from the speaker and then
continued with less volume as she turned to speak to my father. "See,
dear? I knew he would be up."
I heard my father mutter something in reply as I numbly pressed the
entry release. What were my parents doing here? It was Friday morning.
They never visited on weekdays. They had my schedule and knew when I
would be working and when I was off. Today was a scheduled work day; I
just happened to have taken it off as vacation time. Dropping in was
rather foolish if they really wanted to see me, not to mention the
four-hour drive they’d have to make before they could drop in.
I was still standing there trying to make sense of their visit when
there was a light tap on the door. I hastily opened it to let them in.
"Caught you at a bad time, did we, son?" Dad looked me up and down and
chuckled.
"What?" I suddenly realized that I was standing in the hall in my
bathrobe, still rubbing a towel over my wet hair. I could feel the
inevitable flush building. "Come in. I'll get dressed."
"No rush, dear." Mom kissed my cheek and patted my shoulder. "I'll just
make some tea."
I escaped into my bedroom, ignoring my parent's cheerful bickering as
they headed for the kitchen. Dad was claiming that he'd been right and
they shouldn't have dropped in like this, and Mom was saying that it
didn't really matter because we were family. I groaned and shut the
bedroom door.
I scrambled into my clothes and headed back to the kitchen to find out
what they were doing here.
"Asa, dear? Did you know you have a naked man on your couch?" Mom asked
as soon as I stepped into the kitchen. She was bright red, and I could
feel my face heating to match. I had forgotten about Tan. Somehow.
"I told her she shouldn't go poking around," Dad said with a straight
face, but I could see his eyes dancing with amusement. I shot him a
glare that just bounced right off without effect.
"Do you think your young man would like tea?" Mom asked without waiting
for any reply from me about Tan's presence on my couch.
"I'll be your slave for life if you made some coffee," Tan spoke from
right behind me, his morning voice rough and gravelly. I whirled round
to glare at him and found myself glaring at his rather impressive and
very naked chest.
He wasn't even decently draped in the blanket! There was a squeak from
somewhere. I breathed slightly easier when an involuntary glance down
showed that Tan was at least wearing his briefs. Not that they left much
to the imagination, but at least they were better than nothing, I hoped.
"Morning, Asa." Tan put his hands on my shoulders and turned me back to
face my parents, who were looking very interested. "Aren't you going to
introduce me to your parents?"