I rolled my eyes at Cindy because she thought she was hilarious. “First of all, please stop using expressions like ‘hit and quit it.’ You’re my mom’s age and that just creeps me out. Second, I’m not talking about it.” I forced myself to make eye contact and smiled. Totally casual. “He’s a friend of Nesto’s. OuNYe’s owner.”

Cindy threw up her arms while rolling her eyes at me. “Like I don’t know who Nesto is. He and Jude are the Gay Power Couple in town these days. I must say it’s nice to see that us old Ithaca gays will be passing the torch to such good young people. Present company excluded of course.”

“I’m not good at being part of cabals. I tend to get twitchy.”

She shook her head like I was hopeless, then pointed in the direction Patrice had driven off. “Don’t change the subject. What’s up with you and that beautiful man you were just staring at?”

Cindy and I weren’t new at this game. I’d known her since she came to work for my father over twenty years ago. Teasing me about my love life was one of her favorite past times.

I looked at her more closely and saw that she was wearing jeans and a flannel shirt, her usual “out in town” look, but she was carrying something that looked suspiciously like a laptop bag. I pointed at it with as disapproving a look as I could manage.

“A better question, Cindy Brooks, is what are you doing here?”

Cindy was probably my closest friend in Ithaca other than Priscilla, Nesto’s cousin. She was also my boss, and was supposed to be on leave recovering from major heart surgery right now. I shook my head thinking that her wife, also a dear friend, would not be happy to know I was letting Cindy sneak into the office.

“Lorraine would skin me if she finds out you’re coming here to work when you should be at home resting.”

Cindy and Lorraine had kept me sane through a lot of ups and downs with my parents over the years, including when I came out. My parents hadn’t been awful, but they hadn’t been the most supportive either, and Cindy and Lorraine became confidantes over the years. That’s why when I finished law school, instead of going with the family business, I joined Cindy in the DA’s office. That still didn’t mean that she got to pry into every inch of my sex life.

After engaging in a stare-off Cindy shook her head and grinned as she patted her bag. “I’m just dropping this off. I’ll leave...as soon as you tell me who that was.”

I sighed as we walked into the county courthouse where our offices were located, resigned to the fact I was not going to get her to go home. “We had a thing last summer when he was out here helping Nesto with the truck. We just hooked up a few times, which was nowhere near enough for me.” I was very focused on not making eye contact with Cindy as I spoke. “He took a faculty job at Cornell. I was hoping we could pick up where we’d left off.”