Chapter 1

The lights flicker and then go out, TV, everything off, and Zack isn’t surprised. It’s been snowing heavily since the night before. Zack gets up and puts his coat on. He’s worried about his neighbor, Richard. He doesn’t know him well, but he knows he has severe asthma and weak lungs. The month before, when it had first gotten cold, Zack had seen an ambulance trying to get to the house and had used his truck to help it.

Pulling on boots, a scarf and a hat, Zack puts his hood up and heads out into the snow to check on Richard. When he gets close, Zack is surprised to see lights shining from Richard’s windows. His power doesn’t seem to be out. Zack looks down as far as he can to the next snowed in house, and it is lit up too. He curses. Of course, he loses power, and no one else does. This is just not his day.

Zack trudges through the snow to get to Richard’s door and rings the doorbell. After a few minutes, Richard opens the door. He’s wearing an oversized sweater and lounge pants and fluffy slippers. He looks relaxed and great, and Zack feels a little silly for worrying, but in the short time since Zack moved to this street he has grown to care about Richard. The forty-something year old is handsome and kind with a delightful sense of humor.

“Hey, Zack. What are you doing out in this horrid weather?” Richard asks, his breath blooming in the air like ice flowers.

“My power went out, and I wanted to check on you, I know without the heat your breathing might act up. But I can see your lights are on, so I should leave you be,” Zack fusses. He doesn’t want to show his hand. He assumes Richard is bisexual from the pride flag sticker on his car, but he doesn’t know if Richard is involved with anyone or if he’s single if he’d want to date his thirty-year-old, divorced, late to come out, demiromantic bisexual neighbor.

“That’s so kind of you. Disabled rule one for living in an area that gets snowed in: I have a backup generator and an open fire, so if my power does go out, I’ll be warm. I’m guessing you don’t have those things, coming from the city?” Richard doesn’t sound judgmental, more concerned

Zack cringed anyway “You guess right. No power, no backup, no fireplace. And even my truck isn’t getting to the main road to go to a hotel.”

“Why don’t you come in till your power comes back on? Warm up a bit,” Richard suggests.

“Really? That’d be awesome.” Zack knows Richard is a nice guy, but he’s still surprised. Before Zack inherited some money and decided to move to the country, he’d lived a few places. His neighbors were never awful, but none of them would have invited him in to stay for who knows how long during a snowstorm.

“Yes, come on in. My book and whisky club had to cancel, so the company will be nice for a bit.” Richard opens the door a little wider in offer.

Zack stamps snow off of his boots and steps inside. “Thank you. Book and whisky club?”

Richard closes the door behind them. “Pretty much how it sounds. A group of us have a book club. We read a book, meet up to talk about it, but when we do, we all chip in for some good whisky to drink while we talk.”

“Okay to take my layers off? And that sounds really cool. Back in the city I used to go to poker nights. Those were fun. Gonna start one at my house, have my friends come up and stay, cook, drink too much.” Zack smiles. He’s been thinking about it a lot. He doesn’t want to lose track of his friends now that he’s moved.

“You can hang everything on that post. Poker, you any good?” Richard asks.

Zack starts stripping off layers. “I’m not bad. Do you play? You’re more than welcome to come join us for a game.”

“I do play. Been a while since I had a proper game. But I’m sure you and your friends don’t want an old man hanging around and taking your money.” Richard winks at the last part.

Zack laughs. “You make it sound like I’m eighteen and you’re seventy. You’re not old enough I’d feel bad about taking your money.”

“Come warm up by the fire, and we can argue about who’d take whose money.” Richard leads the way over to his sitting area, and gestures to one of the seats close to the open fire.

Zack sits down and looks at the photos on the mantel. There’s one of a wedding, Richard in a suit kissing a beautiful plump woman in a white wedding dress.