The Spindle’s Curse by TL Gehr
Greetings book-lovers!
Check out this gay spin on a classic fairy tale!
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Sleeping Beauty has insomnia and a habit he can’t shake. Can true love still break his curse?
Brian is fresh out of rehab when he receives a letter from his estranged mother, inviting him to meet with her in Manhattan. He wants nothing more than to leave his troubled past behind and build a new future, but that proves more difficult than he expected when his past is determined to follow him to the big city.
As one of New York’s elite, Philip is forced to hide his true passions from everyone close to him. When he meets Brian, he finds himself revealing secret after secret. He’s finally met a man who can see beyond his money, but will the curse Brian has to face prove too strong for them both?
Loosely inspired by Sleeping Beauty
Features: Slow burn, rags to riches, pretend boyfriend, size difference, sleeping with the boss, sexy billionaire, banter, wholesome fluff
Content warning for: drug use, explicit sex, strong language, some violence
Excerpt:
My blood is roaring as I press my way through the crowds and I am hard, hard, hard. Did Philip see? Oh god.This is awful. This is like highschool all over again. And like at highschool, the only thing I can think to do is hide in the bathroom until it goes down.
I find the corridor for the bathroom near where I found Philip and Chase earlier. Part of the conversation that I overheard is still echoing in my ears.
“…Once you’ve had your fun with your bit of rough. You’ll come back to me, because no one understands you like I do.”
“I’ll never come back to you. You broke my heart.”
He’s still raw, still hurting. That’s why he’s single. That’s why, as if there weren’t a million other reasons, he shouldn’t know how turned on I am by him.
The bathroom doesn’t have any sign indicating it’s gender specific. I push open the heavy wooden door and the first thing I notice is that the bathroom is full of people, but the people aren’t doing their business. Two are draped over a sofa, one is in front of the mirror.
My boner instantly vanishes, because the next thing I notice is the white powder that the person by the mirror is chopping. Then I see the syringe in the arm of the girl draped over the sofa.
“Hey,” she says, in a lazy, drugged-up voice. “It’s Arrigo’s new beau.”
She’s got black hair and a red dress. She’s not one of Philip’s friends. I’m frozen in the doorway, I can’t make myself move. I can’t make myself look away from the syringe as her friend withdraws it from her skin.
“You want some, handsome?”
Yes. Yes, I absolutely do. How much easier would all of this be if I was high? I could make a much better impression on Philip’s friends if I was pumped up with false confidence, light-headed, at peace with myself. And it would be free, no scrounging, offered up by this beautiful siren. These rich folk are handing drugs out like candy. And if I keep hanging around them, I could get more. I’d never have to quit again.
The girl shifts forward. “Hey, you okay?”
I turn and run.
* * *
I push through the claustrophobic throng until I find Philip. He’s mid-conversation with Triston when I grab his arm. “I need to go. I’m sorry.”
I don’t give him a chance to ask why. I only catch the “o” his mouth makes before I’m already fighting my way to the door. Even now my body is yearning for the stuff. My whole being wants me to go back into that room and shoot up. I’m trembling with the effort not to.
When I eventually get outside, icy air hits me in the face and I suck it in, tasting salt. We must be near the ocean. I pull my phone out of my pocket. The battery’s almost dead. I try to find the number for the cab that I saved earlier.
I shiver as I walk around the building and not with cold. The voices in my head are demanding I go back. Stop fighting. Just go back, get high, be with Philip.
I manage to find the number and call but it beeps loudly in my ear. This number does not exist.
“Shit!” I must have saved it wrong. With shaking hands, I try to call up Uber, but the app crashes because my phone is a piece of crap.
Okay, I’ll keep walking. Hail a cab. That’s a thing people do here in the city. I stalk ahead, look up and see… New York City. The buildings glitter bright orange across what must be the East River. The top of the Empire State Building is like a little Christmas Tree and the streetlights look like tinsel far beneath it. My breath catches at the magnificence of it. What a waste that we couldn’t see any of this from inside that dark underworld of a club.
“Brian!”
I turn. Philip is jogging up behind me, his cheeks flushed pink. When he comes to a stop, he’s panting. “You okay?”
I shake my head and turn back to the view.
“What’s up? Can I do anything?”
He stays beside me as I continue to walk along the road. I need to keep moving. The craving feels all-powerful. Worse even than the other night. I shake my head again.
“Did I do something…?”
“No,” I answer quickly. “No, Philip. I just needed to get away.”
“Did Chase do something?” He’s not going to let this go.
“No.” Even though the path we’re on is lit and skyscrapers stretch up in every direction, dark trees surround us and it feels like we’re the only people in the world. I swallow because my tongue feels heavy. “When I went to the bathroom… there were people using. I mean, taking drugs.”
“Oh.” Philip’s step falters. “I’m sorry I didn’t think… you didn’t strike me as the conservative type. I mean, that sounds bad. I just mean if I’d known that sort of thing would disturb you, I would have warned you there might be some of that.”
Par for the course at this type of event. I should have guessed without him having to tell me.
“Not conservative.” I pause. With a deep breath, I stretch out my arm and pull up my sleeve. I want to shrivel up with shame and disintegrate into dust. I can’t look at Philip. My eyes stay locked on the track marks. “I’m a recovering addict. I can’t be around drug use.”
“Oh…” he says again.
About the author:
T L Gehr is an author and artist living in Cape Town, South Africa.
Gehr has bachelor’s degree majoring in journalism and psychology, is an avid reader and believes in the power of love and happy endings.
