clear cut

About Temporary Absentee

by Laney Cairo
18 pages / 6500 words
Available file types - html, lit, pdf, prc

Mark and Logan meet in the hustle and bustle of an Italian square, and it's lust at first sight, or at least it is for Mark. Recovering from a recent break-up, photographer Mark is drawn to Logan's youth and beauty, and the two of them embark on an adventure that leads them across Europe. Mark thinks he could find happiness with Logan, but what he actually finds might just be more important, and more lasting.

Sample

The fountain outside of Castello Sforzesco gushed jets of white water thirty feet into the air, and Mark sat down on the limestone surround, camera in his hand. He pushed his hair out of his eyes and settled back to watch the people around him.

Two women walked by with cropped hair and baggy clothes, and Mark decided they were German. Or dykes. And dykes perhaps? He could never tell, not with the women’s solid posture and short haircuts. Another woman flicked her skirt as she walked past him, giving him a glimpse of her thighs, her legs long and smooth. She was probably Italian. The Americans he could pick out too, because they ignored him; he was just another wandering European to their eyes.

A young man sat with his feet in the fountain across from Mark. He looked Scandinavian, his skin gorgeously tanned and smooth, his hair buzzcut and blond, with matching stubble, face hidden behind sunglasses, and Mark let his eyes wander across this young man’s body, safe behind the screen of his own shades.

The young man took his shirt off and lay back, and Mark watched him covetously. The man was slender and lean, his ribs showing, his belly concave, his skin achingly smooth. Desire uncurled itself from Mark’s groin and slid into his bloodstream, spreading warmth and need through his body, urged on by the sunshine. He welcomed the feeling as a sign of returning life. He hadn’t felt real desire, above and beyond a mechanical need for release, for about six months, not since he had split with David, and he realised it felt unbearably good.