A group of strangers meets at Ragazzi, an Italian restaurant, for a cooking lesson that will change them all. They quickly become intertwined in each other’s lives, and a bit of magic touches each of them.
Meet Dave, the consultant who lost his partner; Matteo and Diego, the couple who run the restaurant; recently-widowed Carmelina; Marcos, a web designer getting too old for hook-ups; Ben, a trans author writing the Great American Novel; teenager Marissa, kicked out for being bi; and Sam and Brad, a May-September couple who would never have gotten together without a little magic of their own.
Everyone in the River City has a secret, and sooner or later secrets always come out.
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Three people stared at Marissa from across the restaurant, looks of judgment on their faces.
The redheaded woman was frowning. The old guy’s eyes narrowed as he looked at her. And the man behind the counter said something unintelligible and pointed at her.
She knew when she wasn’t wanted.
Marissa turned and ducked out the door, letting it slam behind her. She’d find something else for dinner. Better than being stuck in that stuffy place with a bunch of assholes all staring down at her. If she walked back to Midtown, she could use her Rapid Transit money to get a little something to eat.
She pulled the flier out of her pocket and crumpled it up, throwing it into a trash can.
* * * * *
Marcos stared at the girl in the yellow jacket who had just entered the restaurant. He knew her.
She glared back at him, all rough edges and teenage attitude under her spiky yellow hair. Then he remembered. She was the homeless girl he’d given five bucks to the day before.
He was about to say something when she sniffed and then ran out.
“That was odd.” Carmelina shook her head. “Poor thing looked frightened.”
Marcos made up his mind. “I’ll be right back.” He flashed his companions a smile.
Diego nodded. “Ti aspetteremo.”
“I think he means we’ll wait,” Carmelina translated.
“Thanks.” He ran after the girl, stepping out into the warm afternoon sunlight, glancing left and right. Then he saw her bright-yellow jacket about a block away.
He dashed after her.
She threw something in the trash. It was the green flier.
He pulled it out. “Hey, wait,” he shouted, jogging after her. “Girl with the yellow jacket.”
She spun around, frowning. “What?”
He stopped, a little out of breath. “Just give me a sec.” He waited for his breathing to slow. “Sorry, I’m not as young as I used to be.”
“What do you want?”
“I know you.”
“What?”
“From yesterday. I gave you five dollars, over by the Everyday Grind.”
She blinked. “Oh, yeah. Thanks.” She turned to walk away.
“Wait!”
She looked at him over her shoulder. “I said thank you. What else do you want?”
He held out the crumpled flier. “You were coming to the cooking class, weren’t you?”
She looked at the paper, her eyes narrowed. “Maybe.”
“Look, I know what it’s like to be on the streets. I was there for six months when my parents kicked me out for being gay. I’ll bet you were kicked out too.”
She stared back at him noncommittally, but she didn’t leave.
“I’m Marcos.” He held out his hand.
“Marissa.”
“Come back inside, Marissa. At worst, you’ll get a hot meal, and at best you’ll make a new friend or two.”
She stared at her feet, fidgeting.
“Besides, you do kinda owe me.” He grinned at her. “For the five.”
“Asshole,” she said, but she pushed her way past him, heading back toward Ragazzi.
Marcos followed, still smiling.
Scott lives with his husband Mark in a little yellow bungalow in East Sacramento, with two pink flamingos by the front porch.
He spends his time between the here and now and the what could be. Indoctrinated into fantasy and sci fi by his mother at the tender age of nine, he devoured her library. But as he grew up, he wondered where the people like him were.
He decided it was time to create the kinds of stories he couldn’t find at Waldenbooks. If there weren’t gay characters in his favorite genres, he would remake them to his own ends.
His friends say Scott’s brain works a little differently – he sees relationships between things that others miss, and gets more done in a day than most folks manage in a week. He seeks to transform traditional sci fi, fantasy, and contemporary worlds into something unexpected.
He runs Queer Sci Fi and QueeRomance Ink with his husband Mark, sites that bring queer people together to promote and celebrate fiction that reflects their own reality.
Author Website: https://www.jscottcoatsworth.com
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