Men at Play

By R.W. Clinger

When video game designer Brett Bett attends a New Year's Eve party, he reunites with friends and foes. Happily single with no intention of discovering a "possible" boyfriend, Brett meets the private party's handsome bartender, Nevin McBane. The attraction between them is immediate.

Through an assortment of party games, the two become quite acquainted with each other. Numerous drinks are shared, histories of their pasts are learned, and dancing becomes necessary.

Frankly, Brett thinks he’s met a great guy, a charmer. Someone he can maybe fall for. As midnight approaches and the clock counts down to the New Year, Brett must make a decision. Does he want to go home with Nevin after the party, or stay single and unencumbered?

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Jan 26, 2018
• ISBN: 9781634865401

R.W. Clinger

R.W. Clinger is a resident of Pittsburgh. He has a degree in English from Point Park University of Pittsburgh. His writing entails gay human studies, and includes the novels Just a Boy, Skin Tour, Skin Artist, Soft on the Eyes, Pool Boy, and The Last Pile of Leaves. He has published many stories with Starbooks Press as well as The Weekender, a novella with Dreamspinner Press. His gay mystery, Cutie Pie Must Die, is published with Bold Stroke Books. For three years he has held the position of managing editor for the literary magazine, The Writer’s Post Journal. For more information, please visit rwclinger.com.

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Men at Play

By R.W. Clinger

Published by JMS Books LLC at Smashwords

Visit jms-books.com for more information.

Copyright 2018 R.W. Clinger

ISBN 9781634865401

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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 to the fullest extent of the law.

No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher, with the exception of brief 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.

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Men at Play

By R.W. Clinger

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Crafton Avenue.

The Pennsington Building.

Floor Seven. Flat B.

It’s close to nine o’clock in the evening. The New Year’s Eve party at Tony DeAngelo’s is one of the better ones I attend. Festive, colorful lights decorate his twelve-hundred-square-foot flat. Some of the lights flash a bright red, screaming yellow, and blue. The buffet in the dining room looks expensive with its lobster tails, Russian caviar, and imported treats from his family in Sicily: artichoke pâté, sweet tuna bottarga, and busiate pasta. Holiday decorations are still in place, and festive music plays down from overhead speakers: an assortment of pop songs, some country ones, and Tony’s favorite tunes by the one and only Diana Ross. An open bar with a handsome ginger bartender sits to the right of the living room. Ginger smiles as he makes the signature drink: Kamikazes with a coconut twist.

Most of Tony’s guests are strangers to me: a handsome baldy named Roger Dellafold, who plays the piano for a living; the film producer, Evelyn Bish, from California; a power couple in New Hampshire real estate, Jack and Kyle Needle; the novelist, Robert Riley; the poet, Faye Worthington; Mitchell Slander, a journalist for the New York Times. There are a variety of actors present, a painter, wealthy brokers, two architects, too many doctors to count, and Tony’s close friend and lawyer, Dash Harding. There are other guests, too: blonde bombshells, his pastor, slinky models, his older brother Andrew, his dentist, and a slew of beautiful women he has dated off and on throughout the last year. These people dance, smoke pot, pop pills, drink, and stand in circles, chatting. They all seem to be having fun: mingling, kissing, and getting to know each other. People who party. Happy.

The flat is stunning, expensively decorated with a handful of Asian silks and linens. Nothing looks cheap or skimpy. Tony has obviously spent a fortune on his decorator, Cecille Marque—his current lover of two months, possible marriage material. There are two bedrooms and two baths, a reading room filled with hardback mysteries, living room, and kitchen.

Tony has been thinking about moving away from the Ohio River, inland we say, often telling me, It’s cold near the water during winter. I hate it.

My take on the situation is simple: Tony doesn’t like to stay in one place for very long, just as he doesn’t like to be with the same woman for more than nine weeks. Typical Tony.

I think Tony’s a very attractive man because of his Sicilian looks: high cheek bones, tight jaw, thick black hair, smoldering brown eyes, chiseled frame, and a toothpaste commercial smile. The guy is drop dead gorgeous. If he weren’t straight, I’d be all over him, inside him…whatever it takes to be his man. I want his life over mine. He’s a silent business