Every week we post six lines from a work of ours, a work-in-progress or published or a recommendation of someone else’s work with at least one LGBT character. Posted at Rainbow Snippets here:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/963484217054974

My snippet this week is from my fantasy story “The Li’l Gay Dude.” https://authorjeffbaker.com/2024/01/12/the-lil-gay-dude-friday-flash-fics-from-jeff-baker-for-january-12-2024/#comment-4175 The picture above is of the display that inspired the story and yes, my Brother and I really call it that! Our hero is renting a house with his Brother and going on a series of disastrous dates.

Saturday arrived and I was dressed in my best jeans, a shirt that wasn’t too fancy for a sandwich bar (I hoped) and I headed out the door, giving a glance at the thermometer. 68 degrees. Good. It barely registered with me what the figure was doing.

It registered with Patrick. He took a picture of it with his phone and sent it to me.

The Li’l Gay Dude was standing there frowning, holding out his hand, thumb down.

Okay, snippet two is the post-date post-mortem…

The date went okay, but later that week I found that the guy had two other boyfriends, a girlfriend and a wife in another town. Open relationships I could probably deal with but not this blatant dishonesty.

Thursday at home I sat down on Patrick’s sofa with a bottle of beer and stared at the pic I’d saved on my phone. Had the Li’l Gay Dude had been trying to tell me something? Or was it some kind of glitch in the thermometer?

To my amazement, the original post got more response than any story I’ve posted in quite a while! Next week, the first of a few stories I forgot I wrote! And to borrow from an ancient TV show: “Here’s hoping you get the date you really want.” —–jeff