His unwavering gaze was thrilling, no, enthralling in its intensity. A cobra soothing its prey before the killing strike. Centered in a handsome devil’s crosshairs, Kennet was both repelled and fascinated by this strange fire. The hair stood at attention on his forearms as he thought, And whose little boy are you?

Then all at once, the flame snuffed out, the devil vanished and only Boyd O’Hara was left, blushing a little as he looked away. “Sorry,” he muttered. “I was just wondering if I had any chops left.”

Kennet gave an involuntary shiver. “I don’t know much about chops, but you definitely have something left.”

“Too bad you’re not my type.”

“What’s your ty— Actually, never mind.”

“Never you mind.”

Kennet lit a cigarette. “Are you looking for love?”

“Love?”

“Yeah.”

“To be perfectly honest, at the moment I am only looking to get laid.”

“That’s fair. And say you get your fill of those moments. Then what?”

O’Hara’s eyes narrowed just the tiniest bit.

“This isn’t meant to be the third degree,” Kennet said quickly. “I’m just trying to participate nicely in a conversation.”

O’Hara looked away, shaking his head a little. “You’re way too easy to like, Fish.”

“So what are you looking for in the long run?”

“I don’t know, bud. I don’t know what kind of run I get. I don’t know what’s possible for guys like me, I don’t know what’s allowed. I don’t know if this damn war changed the rules, or if the general public prefers I were locked up in a shithole like Mauthausen with a pink triangle on my chest. I don’t know what I can get away with. I don’t know what I deserve. All I know right now is that I’d like contact with something that isn’t my hand, and I know a little about where to find it. I’d tell you more, but these are carefully-guarded trade secrets.”

“Then I will mind my own worried business.”

A few beats of silence.

“I will say,” O’Hara said slowly. “I like the idea of coming home at the end of a long working day. To a little place I own. And meeting up with someone who’s also at the end of a long working day, and going home to the same place. And we have a drink. We have dinner. We talk about our days. We play cards while listening to the radio. Maybe our song comes on and we dance. We walk the dog, put the milk bottles out and go to bed. Then go to sleep an hour later. All those things people do in their little someplaces with the someones they love. It’s just my someone is a man. And I don’t know jack shit about where to find that kind of contact, but a fellow can dream.”