ODDS OF LOVE : What You See

Episode 4

Arlington, Virginia -  Nigel Hawthorne - Cyrus sat at the kitchen table in his very small kitchen. His one purple eye stared down at a letter he had tried to write so many times over the course of his four years of employment at the law firm for Richard Norland. He couldn't do it any of those times. But now he just couldn't stand getting up each day, getting dressed and going to work for the one man he loved.

The one straight man he loved. He laughed softly.  What a cliche he was. Just another gay man in love with a straight man who barely knew he existed outside of business functions. He just couldn't do it anymore. He couldn't sit behind his desk and smile politely as he watched Richard Norland drifting into another cold relationship with a woman like his third ex wife Sarah. He didn't want to be the loyal secretary any longer. He wanted to be more.

He wanted too much and the older man just couldn't give it to him. He knew it was time to move on. New job as the assistant manager of the Cafe J in Bethesda. He didn't completely trust the owner Joe Jacobs but the money was good although not as good as Richard had paid him , he acknowledged as he put pen to paper and began to write.

Dear Mr. Norland,

           I regret to inform you that this is my official letter of resignation.

                            ---------------

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - Andrew Norland sat behind the desk in his office at the bookstore he owned. A desk that featured among the mounds of paperwork and books two gold framed photographs. One was himself with his wife Glory on their wedding day six years ago. The other was one that had been sent by mail to him not long ago: his son Spencer and Spencer's husband DuBuis on their own wedding day.

He looked down at the envelope he held in his lined liver spotted hands. And he scowled as he saw who it was from. His ex wife Doris Van Burden. The bitch whose lies had kept him from his children for years.

How did that bitch find him?

What did she want now?

Shouldn't she be more busy trying to stay out of prison for trying to kill their son in law DuBuis?

He was still scowling fiercely as he ripped open the envelope and pulled out the letter.

My dear former husband,

         I hope this letter finds you quite unwell. I hear you reconnected with the sons who betrayed me.  Our son Richard and my son Spencer. Yes. You read right. Spencer is not your son. How could you even think he carried a drop of your common blood ? You're a fool. Look at him. He looks nothing like you. Maybe I should write him a letter too.

Andrew gasped in shock and literal horror as he read the letter. Then he reread it. He looked at Spencer's smiling face in the picture. His hands shook. A single tear ran down his wrinkled cheek.

No. No. Not his son. Spencer was his son. He had to be......

Andrew's hands still shook as he ripped the letter in half.

If the bitch dared tell Spencer, he thought, he would kill her.