Misdirection (Borealis: Without a Compass, #2)

by Gregory Ashe

The Unicorn Trough wasn’t officially a gay bar, but with a name like that, it had a hard time being anything else.

“That’s elbow-macaroni Emery Hazard,” Shaw said. “He’s my best friend.”

“I’m going to write you an acrostic poem. North Magnanimous McKinney. ‘N is for navel piercing, which I wish he would get. O is for orgasm, the best I’ve had yet. R is for—’”

“Just keep walking,” North told Countee. “You’ve got to maintain escape velocity with Shaw. I didn’t, and look what happened.”

“Nobody’s perfect,” Shaw said. “I used to think North was perfect, and then I saw his toenails.”

North was quiet for a long time. Then he reached out and took Shaw’s hand, lifted it, kissed his fingertips.

“I composed eighteen erotic haikus about it.”

“Dear baby Jesus, in your infinite manger, please deliver me to a shrimping boat.”

“Let’s sit down,” Shaw said, not really thinking about what he was saying, just slipping into the kind of patter that worked most of the time in these situations. “Come on, let’s sit down on your bed. Good job. Yep, I’m just going to hold your elbow because you hit your head pretty hard. You’re doing so great. Ok. Hey, look at that. Perfect.”

Fury for Francis, for making Shaw see that. Fear for Shaw, who never grew calluses, who never stopped getting hurt, who couldn’t stop feeling no matter how bad things got.

every grief was the first one; Shaw had no scar tissue to desensitize him.

Then he gave a long, meandering speech that dealt with such topics as the time Shaw had met an erotic ghost in the Palace of Versailles, the American steel industry, and recreational use of peyote as a civil rights issue.

The jazz sounded like somebody was hitting a cat with a bagful of violins.

Because Tucker treated me like a worthless fucking nobody. But at least he wasn’t ashamed of me.”

“Nothing hurts more than realizing someone doesn’t love you the way you love them. North has had a lot of that in his life. Maybe you should think about that.”