Fathers and Law: Lom and Fah Book One

Chapter 3

"What did you think of Manao?" asked Fah.

"She's polite, attractive in a small-town way...a bit boring though."

"Boring?" Fah's eyes widened and his mouth hung open.

"Well, I didn't spend much time with her. She only made small talk and kept a fake smile on her face. I could lie and say she's fantastic, but we decided to be honest from now on. If she's the one for you, wonderful, I'll stand by you. I hope you don't regret it. She better be amazing in bed because I can't imagine spending the rest of your life with her otherwise."

"I wouldn't know. We haven't had sex."

"Wait, what? How does that happen? Didn't you say you've been dating her for three years?" Lom ran his hand through his hair and stared, unblinking.

"She asked me out the first week of school. I didn't want to say no and hurt her feelings, so we went out to dinner." Fah smiled at the memory. "She informed me between dinner and dessert that she would not have sex until marriage. After she told me that I relaxed. Soon we were viewed as the perfect couple on campus and everyone, including Manao, expected us to marry."

What Fah didn't admit was secretly he had hoped he would fall in love with her and the feelings he'd had for Lom in high school would disappear. He thought he had succeeded until Lom's arrival. Nervous about seeing him again, he had first changed his clothes, fixed his hair, and used cologne before cleaning the apartment. Manao would be horrified to discover he'd only invited her to dinner to act as a buffer.

"You haven't had sex with her and you're talking about marrying her? What's wrong with you? You do know not everyone is talented in bed, don't you? Some people aren't interested in sex. You wouldn't buy a car without taking it for a test drive, and you only keep a car for about five years. You're willing to spend the rest of your life with someone who might hate sex? Or suck at it? Do you like sex?"

"I'm not sure. I don't want to think about it right now if that's alright with you."

"Sure, no problem, I'll drop it. I'm worried about you, that's all." Lighting another cigarette, Lom lay down on the sand and gazed at the night sky. Fah laid down next to him.

"Remember when we used to go up on the roof and look at the stars?" asked Fah.

"Yeah, you knew every constellation and got mad when I couldn't remember any of them," said Lom. "I still can't tell you what's up there."

"It's okay. Knowing the constellations never helped me in life."

They turned and faced each other. Their eyes locked and Fah's heart began to beat faster. He pictured himself reaching out and pulling Lom in for a kiss. Once he realized what he'd been thinking he became paranoid that somehow Lom could read his mind. Quickly he looked back up at the sky.

"Do you think you could escape the family business if we ran away together?" He turned to face Lom.

"What? Now you want to be my knight in shining armor and save me? Nothing can save me. I'm my father's son. As I said, if I tried to leave, I'd either be killed by another family or my own. Dad might love me but if I betray him, or the organization, if he doesn't put out a hit out on me one of our cousins would."

"What if we went to America? We would be safe."

"How will we go there without Dad finding out we plan to leave? Even if we make it there, we'll be killed in one of those mass shootings they have every day—you know our luck."

"Okay, not America. How about Sweden or Norway?"

"Too cold."

"South America?"