“I'm a thirty-something gay man with a dodgy heart. I sell books for a living. Who wants to read about that?”

“I noticed you right away.” She gave me an approving look. “I like quiet, polite men. And men who wear Hugo Boss. I was hoping you weren’t gay. Or that you were only half-gay. Like Paul.”“Uh…sorry,” I said. “It’s pretty much full-time now. The pay’s not great, but the perks…”

“I was hoping you weren't gay. Or that you were only half-gay. Like Paul.""Uh...sorry," I said. "It's pretty much full-time now. The pay's not great, but the perks...”

“And I thought maybe I didn't need to worry about my heart anymore because it had stopped beating a couple of seconds earlier, and I was still sitting there living and breathing-though admittedly I wasn't feeling much of anything.”

“You don't look so hot, Adrien." "Yeah, well I'm having a bad heart day."His upper lip curled in a semblance of a smile. "Tell me about it.”

“He needed fresh air and sunshine. A walk in the woods and afterward a good book to read by the fire.Yeah, that was the life.”

“Everything a gay man does makes a political statement. Everything matters: where you bank, where you shop, where you eat. When you hold your lover’s hand in public”