Hello, everybody. I’m Marie Sexton, and I’m here today celebrating the re-release of my first novel, Promises.
Promises was first released in January 2010. This new edition has been re-edited. It has one slightly expanded scene. And, it includes a brand new Coda prequel called Meant to Be. Many of you may have read Promises already, so I thought I’d share a brief except from Meant to Be.
In hindsight, “I think I might be gay” probably shouldn’t have been the first words out of my mouth upon meeting my new dorm mate. I’ll never forget the look of horror on his face before he schooled it back into something cool and polite. He told me he was running downstairs to get a pop out of the machine—even asked if I wanted anything—before heading straight to the Resident Assistant’s office and asking to be reassigned.
Maybe I should have started with my name, or told him I was from a little mountain town named Coda, only about an hour away from the Colorado State University campus. Maybe I should have eased into the discussion of my sexuality. But it’d been eating at me for the better part of four years, and now that I was about to start college, far enough away from home that no word of my activity would reach my mother’s ears, I intended to find out once and for all. After all, it was the ’90s. The twenty-first century was just around the corner. There were at least two organizations on campus for gay and lesbian students. And what was college for anyway, besides drinking, smoking weed, and experimenting with sex?
Oh, an education? Well, yeah. I figured I’d get that too. But that’d take four years minimum. I intended to lose my virginity a hell of a lot faster than that.
Roommate number one—I never did catch the guy’s name—came back only long enough to retrieve the box he’d been carrying when I’d blurted out my clumsy confession. Two hours later, a new man walked through the door, looking like he’d spent the entire summer on a beach in California.
Which, it turned out, he had.
“I’m Bryan, with a ‘y.’” He dropped his laundry basket full of clothes and textbooks and held out his hand. “Bryan Nantel.”
Well, at least I’d be able to remember his name. It was the same as my brother’s, except for the “with a ‘y’” part. “Jared Thomas,” I said, shaking his hand.
I’d learned my lesson, though. I wasn’t about to blurt out the “I think I might be gay” thing again, even if it was the only thing I’d been thinking about for ages. But how long should I wait before dropping my bombshell? When was an appropriate time to tell your roommate that your number one priority for the first week of school was finding a guy to kiss?
Or would I have to lie to him all year, the way I’d been lying to my parents and my brother and everybody else I knew?
Luckily, he took matters into his own hands.
“My first roommate was all ‘born again’ and practically went into convulsions when I told him my boyfriend would be stopping by later. The RA seemed to think you’d be okay with it?”
I laughed with relief. “Yeah,” I assured him. “I’m totally okay with it.”
Bryan had to make a couple more trips to get all his stuff. Then he filled me in as we unpacked. He was from Houston. He and his California boyfriend had first met on the ski slopes of Vail, the previous Christmas, and had known at once they were meant to be.
He actually used those words. “Meant to be.” And if that announcement had me rolling my eyes a bit, well, I also had to admit I was more than a little jealous.
After spending Christmas together, they’d been so sure of each other that his boyfriend had immediately withdrawn his application from some college I’d never even heard of and applied to CSU instead. They’d spent the last half of their senior year sending letters and talking on the phone late into the night. Bryan had managed to convince his parents to let him spend the entire summer in Orange County, although he hadn’t told them until midway through the trip that the girl he’d gone to see wasn’t a girl at all.
“So why isn’t he your roommate?” I asked.
“He’s loaded. He paid for a private single on the other side of campus. Besides, my parents were already losing their shit over having a gay son. I figured I’d give them some time to adjust.” He shrugged. “Next year, though, we’re definitely getting an apartment together.”
Our room had a bunk bed on one side—Bryan let me choose the bottom bunk—and two desks crammed against the far wall. He plopped down onto the bed.
“So, you only think you’re gay?”
I kept my back to him so he wouldn’t see how embarrassed I was. I concentrated on arranging and rearranging my stack of text books on the desk that was to be mine. “Pretty sure, I guess. I just haven’t, you know, managed to confirm it one hundred percent.”
Somebody knocked on our door, and in flew a whirlwind in human form. Skinny. Tan. Cute. So obviously gay, it could only be Bryan’s boyfriend.
“There you are! I had no idea where you’d gone. I had to track down the RA to find out where they’d moved you to. And of course she was all in a huff, dealing with one thing after another. Everybody on the floor either wants a new room or a new roommate or both. I don’t know how she stands it. Thank goodness you’re not still rooming with that Puritan, though. He was horrid. Oh, hello there. Who’s this?”
“That’s Jared,” Bryan said.
“Is he…?”
“Probably gay. Still a virgin. Desperate to confirm the former by changing the latter.”
The boyfriend smiled at me. “Oh, honey, no problem at all. There’s a club on the east side of town. I already checked it out. It’s eighteen and over, so you won’t even need a fake ID. It’s packed full of sexually frustrated college students and horribly repressed cowboys. By the end of the night, you’ll have a line of men begging to deflower you.”
“Uh—” was the only thing I managed to say. I wasn’t quite ready for a full-on “deflowering,” but I wasn’t quite sure how to tell them that. Not that he gave me much of a chance to speak.
“Excellent. It’s all shaping up nicely, isn’t it? By this time tomorrow, your virginity will be yesterday’s news. But good lord, where are my manners? Bryan never did properly introduce us, did he? I’m so happy to meet you.” He held out a slender, delicate hand for me to shake. “My name’s Cole.”
***
Thanks so much for hanging out with me! Don’t forget to check out the re-release of Promises. You can also find me in my private FB group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/MarieSextonFans/.
Also, I’d like to extend a huge THANK YOU to Love Bytes for having me here today
Can a man who loves his small hometown trust it to love him back?
Jared Thomas has lived in the mountain town of Coda, Colorado his whole life. He can’t imagine living anywhere else. But Jared’s opportunities are limited—the only other gay man in town is twice his age, and although Jared originally planned to be a teacher, the backlash that might accompany the gig keeps him working at his family’s store instead.
Then Matt Richards moves to town.
Matt may not be into guys, but he doesn’t care that Jared is. A summer camping and mountain biking together cements their friendship, but when Matt realizes he’s attracted to Jared, he panics and withdraws, leaving Jared all too aware of what he’s missing.
Facing Matt’s affair with a local woman, his disapproving family, and harassment from Matt’s coworkers, Jared fears they’ll never find a way to be together. But for the first time, he has the courage to try… if he can only convince Matt.
**Meant to Be**
Jared has simple goals for his freshman year of college: make friends, lose his virginity, come out, and maybe fall in love. He doesn’t anticipate getting caught between his friend Bryan and Bryan’s flamboyant ex. Through the awkwardness, Jared learns love doesn’t always mean sex and the most meaningful connections might have nothing to do with romance.
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