Reunions - Josh and George: For Art's Sake #RainbowSnippets #LGBTQ

Brief explanation:
This is another snippet from Reunions (Hiding Behind The Couch Season Seven), which is currently a little under 230k, and I’m on the home straight! Woot!

I decided to go with six short paragraphs rather than six sentences, because I’d have had to make it seven sentences, and I felt the number was more important (the colours of the Pride flag) than the briefness of the snippet.

In this snippet, George is meeting Gabby—an art therapist and fellow student of Josh’s from their undergraduate days—for the first time, with a view to commencing art therapy to treat his dissociative attacks. Josh has just offered to make drinks in order to give George and Gabby time to chat. Zara Lederman (mentioned in the snippet) is a psychotherapist/art therapist who lives and works in George and Josh’s local town, and she rubs George up the wrong way, so he’s come to this introductory meeting with some reluctance.

Here’s the snippet:

“Be right back.”

George followed Josh’s progress down the stairs and turned back to Gabby. It was safe to say she looked nothing like he’d imagined. Zara Lederman’s presence was affixed to his mental representation of ‘art therapist’, and he’d expected Gabby to be a younger version in tie-dyed tunic and Jesus sandals, hair swirled up in a blondish prezel-shaped mess.

She was nothing like that. Apart from a stray daub of yellow on her sleeve, her wool dress was plain, pale smoky grey, worn over dark pants, and her shoulder-length hair was black and pin straight. Her cheeks rose in amusement, pushing her glasses upwards a little. George smiled, embarrassed for staring.

“Come and sit with me, George,” Gabby invited, gesturing as she led the way to an L-shaped sofa in front of a floor-to-ceiling window, he assumed from the draught sneaking past the blind. “Are you warm enough?” she asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine, thank you, but if you’re not, don’t worry about me. I can always take my shirt off.” George sat down where Gabby indicated, realised what he’d said and clarified, “I’m wearing a t-shirt as well.” He gave her a grin, and she laughed.

“I’m starting to understand why you’re the centre of Josh’s universe.”

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Rainbow Snippets is a group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week to share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation (no spoilers please!).

In this group you'll find anything from romance and historical fiction to mystery and YA. The common thread is that every story's main character identifies as LGBTQ+. The snippets could range from zero flames to full-on sexytimes, anything goes content-wise. The only rule is snippets will be 6 sentences long–one for each color in the Pride flag.

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Thanks for reading,
Deb x