"This gentleman would like to see the special collection," Gabriel said. "There's someone up at the front desk who wants to buy. Could you see to this gentleman's needs?"
Kurt Chase had been on a ladder shelving books high in a case midway down the depth of the Hanson Street Bookstore in the old town of Easton, Maryland. The corridor narrowed here midway down the depth of the bookstore, with rooms on either side before opening up again in the back. It was a traditional-style bookstore, with wooden bookcases set against wood-paneled walls, white- and black-checked tiles on the floor, and soft classical music in the background. Looking down from the ladder, Kurt focused on the man his older partner, Gabriel, had brought to him for the first time. Suddenly seeing him like this almost made Kurt swallow his tongue. He always assessed men as possible sex partners and even more so of late as his sex time with the fifty-eight-year-old Gabriel Lockwood had been tapering off. At twenty-seven, Kurt was at the height of his sexual needs.
This man was gorgeous in the way Kurt liked the best: he was dark--East European or Arabic?--handsome in a rugged, dangerous sort of way, and heavily muscled. Beyond that he already was carrying a book on sailboat construction. Kurt was very much into sailboats. He had one at the Miles River-shore house he and Gabriel shared.
"The special section is just over there," Kurt said, looking around the store to make sure there weren't any customers watching. "I'm sure you realize that in a small historical town like this, we keep the existence of this collection on a close-hold basis," He said.
The Mideastern man smiled. "Yes, I'm surprised you have such books on offer at all" he said.
"The truth is that these are what keeps the bookstore afloat," Kurt said. "Men come from the three surrounding states just to see this collection. Most of such offerings are in e-books. But there still are people who want the visceral enjoyment of turning pages and appreciate these for their collection value."
"I'm more curious about the collection itself--and those who would maintain one," the man answered, giving Kurt a look that indicated that he was interested in other men as well--and had a definite interest in Kurt. "Where I live is not a good place to collect books."
"Alas, that's the way it is with most men," Kurt said. "That's why the e-book revolution caused a burgeoning of offerings in this book category. The books could be kept in secret files on computers. They didn't have to be put on bookcases or discarded."
Kurt stumbled coming down off the ladder and the man caught him, holding him perhaps a couple of seconds longer than he needed to before releasing him on his feet on the floor. Both men looked flustered.
"The door to the special collections room is just across, over here," Kurt said.
"Where?" the man asked, not seeing anything but bookcase. But Kurt reached over and pushed a button on the side of the frame of a bookcase in the corridor between the shop's two main rooms, and the case opened to show that the space across from the office in the center of the shop was another bookroom.
"Ah, clever. Another display room," the man said, surprised.
"Yes, but not just any display room," Kurt answered, gesturing for the men to enter and then closing the door behind them. This side of the door was a bookcase as well. Books were displayed on the shelves, but there were DVDs and photo collections as well. There also was a collection of sex toys. The man picked a glass dildo up and ran his fingers over it as he walked around the perimeter of the room. His attention went from a book here and there and back to Kurt.
"I hardly know what to look for," he said. "It seems extra taboo to have an actual paperback of a gay male novel in hand. I think I'd like to buy one. But I don't know what to buy. Perhaps you could give me a recommendation. Or aren't you?"
"What do you like to read in general. The sex part would just be an add on to what you already like to read. Scifi? Extreme BDSM? Gay Romance? Historical?"
"Historical, I think. But beyond that..."
"You've already picked out a book on sailboat construction. Do you like nautical books?"
"Yes, I guess I do."
"Here's one you might enjoy, then," Kurt said, picking up a copy of the novel
Shores of Tripoli
, with a setting of the Barbary Coast pirates of late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century Mediterranean, which the United States fought during Thomas Jefferson's presidency. "This combines sailing and history. It's by an author, Dirk Hessian, who specializes in gay male historicals. Have you heard of him?"
"A pen name for the prolificate novelist, habu, isn't he?" the man said. "Yes, I have heard of him. And, yes, I'll take that one then."
The bookcase door opened at that point, and Gabriel was standing there with another customer--a middle-aged man, on the hefty side, who could be anything from a banker to a high school principal. In an case, the man was a bit nervous about being there, but he wanted to be in that section of the bookstore badly enough to tough it out.
"Perhaps you can show this gentleman around the special collection, Kurt." Then, seeing that the man Kurt already was helping had a copy of
Shores of Tripoli
in hand already, he said. "I see you've found a book. One of our bestsellers. If you have, I'll be happy to ring you up."
And with that, the man was moving to the front of the store with Gabriel, and Kurt had someone entirely different--a rather skittish customer--who needed to be introduced to the collection.
When Kurt had shown the new customer around and disengaged as quickly as he could to come to the front of the store, Gabriel was alone at the cash register.
"He's gone," Kurt remarked.
"Who? Oh, yes, the Turkish hunk. Yes, he's gone. Quite good looking, wasn't he?"
"How do you know he was Turkish? Did you get his name? Did he use a credit card?"
