Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 8

he made eye contact with one man after another. Not a glimmer of interest in any of them. Burke let his gaze roam up one body and down another, shocked and in some cases appalled by the array of swim wear (and lack thereof). Suddenly his bright green trunks seemed so... inadequate. He couldn't help looking towards the crotches, assessing the size and shape of the various lumps and outlines. One guy looked like he had a whole trout stuffed in there.
    Burke shuddered. He didn't want to go near any part of Trout-crotch's body, nor have any of it touch him. He asked himself for the zillionth time why on earth he'd come.
    Family, that's why. Burke's well-meaning sister, Janalyn, had bought this trip for him and staged an intervention to get him to the airport. She'd lured him with an invitation to his favorite restaurant and driven him to the airport instead.
    Bitch .
    But she had his best interests at heart, even if she had a sucky way of showing it.
    "Burke, you've been working too hard. You need to take a break, " she said the day before when she picked him up, ostensibly for a dim sum at a popular place south of San Francisco. He had a week off between consulting projects and she wanted him to relax and enjoy himself.
    "This last project was huge. I couldn't take any time off. The client was on our asses the whole time."
    "I don't just mean time off. I mean 'time off .'" Janalyn made some gesture which was probably supposed to be sexual but she didn't do it correctly and it just made Burke laugh. He didn't even realize she'd missed the restaurant exit and had taken the one for San Francisco International Airport until it was too late.
    "Oh, you'll have to drive through the whole airport to turn around here."
    "Not turning around," Janalyn said cryptically as she pulled through to the Departures lane at SFO, put the car in park in front of the United Airlines terminal and set the emergency blinkers before forcing him out of the car. "Time for a real vacation. You'll thank me for this!" she shouted.
    He did not want to go on a vacation. He wanted to eat dim sum and go home and watch some movies on Netflix. "Ha. I can't go anywhere. I don't even have a suitcase." He thought he might have won on this account, even if he had to take BART home.
    She popped the trunk, got out of the car and hefted out a pink-and-blue flower-print rolling suitcase. "Sure you do. Bon voyage, mon frère ." She flashed an "I already thought of everything" grin at him and folded her arms across her chest. "Go on." She waved him away like she was shooing a pesky dog.
    Burke glanced at the suitcase, then back at Janalyn. He shook his head.
    "Oh yeah, the most important thing!" She thrust an envelope at him.
    He noticed the stylized outline of a white bird and groaned before he even opened it up. A printed itinerary showed a flight to St Croix via Miami and courtesy van transfers to and from the resort.
    "Cockatoo resort?" Burke didn't even like the name of it. " Cock atoo?"
    "It's a gay beach resort. You'll love it. Plenty of opportunities for 'time off.'" She made the crude gesture again and Burke burst into laughter. It tapered off to a near whimper. He'd heard about the place. Nothing good. Him at a gay beach resort? He was a computer engineer, not a beach stud. Who was going to notice him there?
    "No. No way. No fucking way."
    She stood in front of the car door as he lunged for it. Blue flashing lights crept up behind them and an airport security patrol shouted out the window "Move this car or I'll ticket you."
    "Sorry, Officer!" Janalyn shouted.
    She made a mock salute and zipped behind the wheel while Burke's attention was focused on the security guy. He looked pretty handsome in his guard uniform, even in the dim artificial light of the airport driveway.
    Maybe Burke really did need some "time off." There would be plenty of guys to choose from at Cockatoo, all-male, clothing optional resort. He hoped like hell his sister hadn't taken the "optional" too literally and sent him away with an empty suitcase.
    He watched Janalyn speed away, shrugged and wheeled the pansy-covered suitcase inside.
    ****
    The flight to Miami was uneventful. No one talked to him. He got the window seat and stared out as they ascended through fluffy white clouds until the sun blinded him and he had to shut his eyes, bright orange circles dancing painfully on his inner eyelids. He had been inside too much lately. Maybe this little vacation wasn't such a bad idea.
    Then