Free FanningtheFlames by Eden Winters Page A

year. His boss has him in Montréal for three weeks, and to be honest, after being a single parent for going on eight days, what I'd like most is a little girly time. I love my boys, but I need a break to relax, you know? We haven't even been to see Mom and Dad in a month."
    A month? Barry counted back, shocked that he hadn't seen his folks either. Living three hours away was a poor excuse not to have visited since New Year's Day, the only time he'd gotten together with his parents since they returned from a holiday cruise. They'd probably Fanning the Flames - 4
    neatly arranged all their photos into thematic slideshows by now, and were waiting for a chance to share them. Of course, he'd been busy himself, seeing as much of Adam as possible without crossing any boundaries.
    He wondered what his parents were getting each
    other for Valentine's Day and if he could steal their ideas.
    As if reading his mind, his sister asked, "What are you getting my new brother-in-law?"
    Barry cringed, hoping Adam didn't find out Karen called him that, or that Barry occasionally slipped up, referring to him as "my better half." Slow, slow, we must take it slow . "I haven't a clue," he confessed.
    "Well, you better get cracking! It's only a few days away." Karen blew air kisses into the phone. "Speaking of which... I need to go if I'm gonna pick the kids up from school. It's Monday; family night at Paulo's Pizza."
    She singsonged, "I don't have to cook, I don't have to cook!"
    Barry hung up the phone, disappointed that Karen hadn't said, "I know exactly what you should get; Adam will love it!"
    He'd lucked out with the perfect Christmas present, tickets to see Tutankhamen and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs at the Denver Art Museum. Adam had loved it, leaving Barry with the need to top his previous gift-giving efforts. And he couldn't repeat that gift because, even to a little-experienced dater like Barry, three-thousand-year-old dead bodies didn't seem that
    romantic.
    He paused a moment, considering. Who did he know who excelled at giving presents? Ah ha! A wedding photographer should know all about the perfect romantic gift, right? His hope rebounding, he called Pat, a lesbian friend he'd met when the online dating service
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    mistakenly paired them up. Once they stopped laughing, they'd become good friends. Surely she'd have some answers.
    "Hey, Barry, how's it going?" Pat's greeting lacked its usual cheer.
    "Did I call at a bad time?"
    "No." A heavy exhale wafted from the phone. "I'm sorry, Barry. It's Kit."
    Barry swallowed hard, feeling somewhat responsible for his friend's current woes, since his suggestion had prompted Pat to contact Kit in the first place, after another of GetaDate.com's "We've found the perfect lesbian for you!" blunders. Trying for a light, I'm-not-prying tone, he stuck his nose firmly into his friend's business. "Trouble in paradise?" His sister often used that phrase to nudge information out of reluctant people, with great success at times -- especially with Barry.
    "Oh, no!" Pat quickly assured him. "Things are perfect. It's just that I looked forward to Valentine's Day now that there's someone special to spend it with, and Kit left this morning for Cleveland to repair some smart-alecky hacker's damage to a department store's security system. I don't expect her back until the sixteenth."
    A problem easily enough fixed, or so Barry thought.
    "Why not go to Cleveland? Surprise her?"
    "Are you kidding? Valentine's is a hectic time in the matrimony business. I've got three weddings to
    photograph this weekend."
    Out of practice in the romance department, if he'd ever even been in practice, Barry wondered if he'd earn a smack for suggesting, "Wait until she gets back, then do something special. It's the thought that counts, not that actual day, right?" He didn’t get a lecture on "It's Valentine's Day! You can't postpone Valentine's Day!"
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    so he soldiered on. "Did you have