I flung open the hood of Goof, my VW Golf, and drive through the sun-drenched Dutch countryside with my hair flapping. The radio is blaring, I am on my way to meet Mark at his boat in Rijpwetering. I am nervous, I cannot hide behind the keyboard today and I am afraid I will disappoint him. Only Rose and Simon know that I am going to do this, and they both wished me a lot of fun. This is not the time to start doubting or f...

Jenny and I met outside my building one afternoon for our private rendezvous. Even though we were on the street, she greeted me warmly, hugging and kissing me. For once, I didn’t care if anyone saw us. Jenny was my special friend, and I thought female friends could demonstrate their affection for each other. “My sweet Chloe, it’s so good to see you today. I so much want to be with you right now.” We didn’t linger long the...

Chris had never met my friends, although they had heard about him from me for a while. I decided to have all four of us meet for lunch one day at the nearby diner. He knew very well that a new girlfriend’s female friends would inevitably vet him in some way. Gina and Jenny sat opposite us in a booth. I detected a certain coolness from them. Is he still probationary in their eyes? Jenny also was wearing her dark cap which,...

That week I started my part-time job behind the counter of an Italian bakery. I had to put on my uniform at home. It consisted of a light-green dress, a round hat of the same color, and a white apron. Since I had to be on my feet so much, I wore sneakers and ankle socks. They had excellent bread there, and I was given some to take home. The pastries were great too, but I limited myself to one cannoli per week. On my third...

That evening I got a phone call from Gina. She wanted to go to Mass with me the following day. She hadn’t been there in nearly three years, so I was surprised. “Why do you want to do that?” “I’m not sure, I just wanted to check up on my old parish.” That church on Gun Hill Road was called Immaculate Conception. I told her to meet me outside for the 10:AM service. She arrived a few minutes after I did. For a moment we chec...

In the week following that problematic Circle Line tour, my attempt to play hard-to-get failed. Margery had easily seduced me – more than once – on the following Thursday. I knew I was folding under the pressure of her charms. As a seventeen-year-old guy, and not a particularly physically impressive one at that, I was getting more sexual stuff than I had ever imagined I’d have at that point in my life. I doubted that many...

In the spring of 1981, when I was nineteen, a woman named Miriam Roston moved into my building. At least I initially assumed that she was a woman. In New York, people generally were non-judgmental and left other people alone. But this was in the East Bronx, not Manhattan, and after about a month, my family started speculating about her. They used terms like “tranny” and “shemale” to describe her, although they didn’t exac...

19:00 “I hate it when you are away,” Jacki confesses as she lay on her bed looking at a picture of Craig. He has been away for four days. All she knows is that he is a part of a classified tactical group that deploys more often than not. This time, she is grateful, he is not in some far-off place. The team is on base in ready status but even so, he is not home. When they had met, she knew he would be gone a lot. She often...

Why did I choose another woman over Mary? I asked myself this question frequently. On paper, Mary had all the qualities of a good partner. She was fun-loving, smart, an excellent cook and mixologist, and of course, offered incredible sexuality. Then, why did I then choose to keep her hidden from my friends? And equally as important, why did she allow this? While dating post-divorce, most women I dated never met my friends...