Book Title: Butterflies I Have Known
Author and Publisher: Kristoffer Gair
Cover Artist: Kris Norris
Release Date: June 6, 2023
Genre: Contemporary M/M Romance, Comedy
Tropes: Destined to be together
Themes: Trust, destiny
Heat Rating: 3 flames
Length: 72 728 words/271 pages
It is a standalone story and does not end on a cliffhanger.
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Even time cannot stop love.
Blurb
Even time cannot stop love.
University professor Matthew Richter hates complications. Planning his every day down to the second leaves no opportunity for a social life, which he doesn’t feel the need for anyway. Jian Wei helps run his family’s business. The only thing he enjoys more than tormenting his parents and siblings with endless pranks is plotting his next trick on a certain uptight customer.
Though so different, chance inexplicably draws them both to a World War II photography exhibit, and the aging photographer Milton Glass. Milton shares the story of two soldiers brutally cut down on the battlefield—which has haunted him for the better part of his life—and his suspicions that the soldiers shared a bond they never fully realized.
Now, in the twilight of his life, Milton can’t help but wonder if Matthew and Jian share a potential bond of their own. Could they possibly be the same men from so long ago, returned for a second chance at being together?
Milton can hope.
The staff really needed to stagger the people better, preview night or not. Jian nearly bumped into more people than he cared to count, and actually got bumped into more times than at the last gay club he’d gone to nearly five years ago. He finally managed to cross the second large room and zero in on the smaller exhibit when he bumped into yet one more person.
“Pardon me,” Jian apologized. After all, this time had been his fault. He reached out, braced the other person, then peered up and did a doubletake. “Or should I say pardon me, Your Majesty? You’re an important man if I recall. An important professor.”
“I never said that.” Professor Richter turned and made a beeline in the opposite direction.
Oh, no you don’t. Jian powerwalked and caught up. “You really don’t like confrontation, do you?” No answer. Come on. Give me a reaction! “In all fairness, you’ve never really said much of anything until today when you surprised the heck out of me and Buddha himself, launching into Cantonese and Mandarin. And yet you claim not to be a big talker. You must have learned to speak those languages somewhere. Or did you practice in front of a mirror using Rosetta Stone?”
“I speak when I have something to say.”
Yeah, yeah. You’ve said that before. You’re going to have to do better than that. “So, then tell me what you’re doing here tonight. Why aren’t you home making Thousand-Year-Old-Eggs or Hand-Pulled Noodles? Or flying over to southern China and picking lychee out of the trees instead of waiting for our shipment?” The professor continued walking. “Hey! You know, it wouldn’t hurt you to stick up for yourself once in a while. You might even get to like it.”
Professor Richter exhaled, then slowly turned and glared at Jian. “If I wanted this kind of grief, I’d have brought my brother with me.”
“There are two of you?” Jian didn’t know if he was fascinated or horrified at the reality of two Richters. Did the rest of the world know? How had they coped?
“My younger brother is nothing like me.”
“Ah, our youth a picture of what might be, that never lives up to what should be.”
The professor’s expression softened, and his eyes opened wide, but only for a moment. Covering up surprise? “That sounds familiar.”
“I do read, you know.” Just because one was a professor didn’t mean the rest of the world couldn’t read literature or poetry. Jian wondered for a moment where he’d first read the line he’d just quoted. Clearly from a poem. But, if he was honest, he hadn’t read any poetry since high school. Okay, he’d also barely read any novels since high school. Magazine articles and news? Yes. General reading for pleasure? Not so much. Professor Richter didn’t need to know that, though.
“I’m sure you do.”
“Oh, for the love of Stephen Chow movies.” Jian rolled his eyes. “Would you please stop acting like the oldest Chinese son—which I clearly am—and being the peacemaker—which I clearly am not? Be more like me and say what you feel, all right?”
“Look,”—Professor Richter eyed him evenly—“you clearly enjoy badgering people, and in case you haven’t gotten the hint, I don’t enjoy being badgered. There just doesn’t seem to be any polite way of telling you to—”
“Good evening, gentlemen.” The voice, somewhat soft and raspy, came from behind them.
Jian and Professor Richter both turned their heads.
An older man stood a few feet away, dressed in a white suit and holding a white cane in his right hand. And by older, Jian guessed the immaculately dressed gentleman to be well into his nineties. His face appeared slightly gaunt, and his skin weatherworn from the years, yet a light still burned in his eyes.
“Good evening,” Professor Richter greeted the newcomer. Relieved for the diversion? Most likely.
“Hi.” Jian smiled politely. The man was probably someone looking for the bathroom.
“I’m Milton Glass, the photographer.” Milton gestured with his free hand towards the walls around them. “I hope you’re enjoying the preview of my work so far. And you are?”
“Doctor Matthew Richter.” Matthew shook Milton’s hand.
All eyes turned to Jian.
“Doctor Jian Wei.” Jian shook Milton’s hand next.
“He’s not a doctor,” Matthew muttered.
Milton chuckled. “You’re not a doctor?”
“I’m not a doctor,” Jian admitted. “It just sounded better than saying my name without a title.”
“You can borrow my title if you like,” Matthew offered. “It’s big enough for the both of us.”
“You can suck my left—”
Kristoffer Gair grew up in Fraser, MI and is a graduate of Grand Valley State University. He is the author of 10 novels—some written under the pseudonum Kage Alan—been a part of 6 anthologies, and currently lives in a suburb of Detroit.
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