Rain

By Ernestine Coleman-Dupree

Richard Forrest is just going through the motions. Childhood baggage keeps him in line but away from some of the things he truly wants. His friendship with Adrian -- or Rain, as Richard calls him -- put him in constant conflict with the path in life he thought he should be on. After nearly two years of separation, Richard bumps into Rain, and their incidental meeting results in old emotions flaring to life for both of them despite everything in the way.

Rain’s free-spirited nature led him down a road of bad decisions that included drug use. This was ultimately the thing that separated the two of them in the past. Now a recovering addict, Rain is trying his best to put his life back together. When Richard finds out Rain is drug free, he welcomes him back into his life and embraces who he truly is in the process. Their friendship moves to romance until all too familiar behaviors start to resurface.

Can Richard and Rain work their way through this latest set of trials and tribulations? Will suspicion and fear tear apart what their love has stitched back together?

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Jan 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9781685500313

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Rain

By Ernestine Coleman-Dupree

Published by JMS Books LLC

Visit jms-books.com for more information.

Copyright 2022 Ernestine Coleman-Dupree

ISBN 9781685500313

Cover Design: Written Ink Designs | written-ink.com

Image(s) used under a Standard Royalty-Free License.

All rights reserved.

WARNING: This book is not transferable. It is for your own personal use. If it is sold, shared, or given away, it is an infringement of the copyright of this work and violators will be prosecuted.

No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission from the publisher, with the exception of excerpts used for the purposes of review.

This book is for ADULT AUDIENCES ONLY. It may contain sexually explicit scenes and graphic language which might be considered offensive by some readers. Please store your files where they cannot be accessed by minors.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are solely the product of the author’s imagination and/or are used fictitiously, though reference may be made to actual historical events or existing locations. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Published in the United States of America.

* * * *

Lisa, Ayla, Greg, Teresa, Katrina, Diggs, you guys always believed in me and kept me writing, and I love you all dearly—never change. The universe is a better place because you all are in it.

* * * *

Rain

By Ernestine Coleman-Dupree

As he stood in line at the grocery store, Richard Forrest could not help but reflect on how much of a flaming disaster the current day had been. He couldn’t wait to get home and was more than ready to settle down on the couch with a sandwich in one hand, a beer in the other, and forget about it all. From waking up late, to pissing off his boss, today was one of those days that could go straight in the damn wood-chipper as far as Richard was concerned. As soon as he paid for his groceries, his plan was to head home, and he didn’t want to be bothered for the rest of the day. Richard planned on locking his door, putting his phone on silent, and hiding from the world until further notice.

He was in line furiously punching out the text message that would let the few people he considered friends know his desire to be left alone for the weekend when he took notice of the lady in line in front of him. He didn’t know her personally, but he knew her kind, and it didn’t take much to figure out that she was a diva amongst divas. Watching her make the cashier’s life unnecessarily complex had him fighting not to roll his eyes. She had a royal buffet in her basket, and she was making sure the unfortunate clerk treated her prized produce and hand-selected seafood with the respect they deserved. You wouldn’t want to bruise that lobster before dropping the poor bastard into a pot of boiling water; you might hurt it, right? The thought processes that some people had perplexed Richard on many levels, but they provided him with free amusement, so he didn’t squawk. If nothing else, it gave him something interesting to blog about later if the mood struck him.

Once the total is given to Diana the Diva, everything from her penciled-in eyebrows to the hair on her faux fur coat stood on end. She balked at the number as if she didn’t have a basket full of organic produce, imported spices, and fresh seafood. When she demanded to see a manager, Richard gave in to the urge and let his eyes roll without shame. In the end, she had to pay the stated price, causing Richard to smile at the turn of events. Score one for the underdog. He loved it when the pampered and spoiled didn’t get their way. He knew it wasn’t his place to judge, but if a person needed two different bank cards, a credit card, and a check to pay for their groceries, maybe they needed to eat cheaper than fresh lobster and bacon-wrapped filet mignon. Richard was no finance guru, but he thought that was a damn fine line of logic all the same.

Richard finished his text message, hit send just as his turn to check out came up. He was so engrossed in the replies he was receiving, he didn’t even give the poor sap ringing him up the time of day. When the man told him the total, he inserted his card and keyed in his pin number on autopilot. He had grabbed both of his bags and was moving away from the register when the cashier spoke.

Thank you for shopping at Bernstein’s. Have a nice day, Richie.

Richard was ten strides toward the door when it hit him.

That cashier knew his name. Not only that, he had called him Richie. At six foot three and two hundred and ten pounds, no one was bold enough to call him anything warmer than his given name of Richard or the occasional Rich. No one went for Richie…well, almost no one. There was one individual bold enough to do that, but Richard hadn’t seen Adrian in almost two years.

Whirling around, he focused his eyes on the person behind the register that was now checking out a little old man with a cane and a story to tell. The cashier was the right height and build, but nothing else about him matched Richard’s last memory of Adrian. There were no facial piercings, no guy-liner, no spiky bleach blonde hair, and no painted black fingernails. He was just about to move on when the cashier wished the older man a nice day, and the voice rang a bell. When Richard stepped closer to get a better look, the movement must have caught the other man’s attention because Richard was suddenly looking into violet eyes he would