I’m finally revisiting the characters from The River City Chronicles nine years after their original timeline. I’ll be running the series weekly here on my blog, and then will release it in book form at the end of the run. Hope you enjoy catching up with all your faves and all their new secrets!
Today, Sam takes Oscar back to the place where he and Brad got married…
< Read Chapter 43
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Chapter Forty-Four
The Monk’s Half Sleeves
“So this is the place, huh?” Oscar didn’t look impressed.
Sam stared at the glass doors of the restaurant. “Yup, this is where the magic happened.” He was strangely reluctant to cross the threshold into the place where he and Brad had gotten married, almost a decade before. That had been a joyful day. How had it been that long? Today’s anguish only made the memory of it burn brighter.
“You don’t have to do this.” Oscar put a warm hand on his shoulder.
They’d spent the last couple days crisscrossing the city, visiting places that Sam remembered from when he’d lived in Sacramento with Brad. Many of them had disappeared or been drastically changed, including the LGBT Center where Brad had worked, which had moved twice from the charming but somewhat dilapidated Victorian house on L Street next to the railroad tracks. First to a temporary home on K Street next to Faces, the mega gay bar at the heart of Lavender Heights, and then into a beautiful brick building that had once housed Electronic Arts, on the main part of 20th Street just around the corner.
“No, I want to see it. I need to see it.” He had many fond memories of the place besides the wedding. Dropping Jason off for the work-study program Brad had crafted with the Ragazzi boys. Learning to cook Italian recipes with his friends. Dinners out with Brad after a long day working.
“If you’re sure…”
“I am. Come on.” He took Oscar’s hand, pulled open the door, and stepped inside before he could change his mind.
The place was nearly unchanged. It still had the same comfortable, understated elegance that he remembered—none of the jarring red and white checkered tablecloths and dripping candles on wine bottles that he remembered from Italian restaurants in Tucson that he’d visited with his family as a child.
Instead, it was painted in a warm cocoa, with cherrywood accents, including the long bar along one side. Immaculate white tablecloths were set with burgundy napkins wrapped around silverware, and the lights were hand-blown glass, probably from Murano in Venice. Matteo and Diego had exquisite taste. There were a few diners, but it was still early for lunch.
The only difference he could see was the new door near the back, and the sign that announced a “cooking class fantastico.”
Sam grinned. Diego’s work, clearly.
A perky blond woman in a white shirt and black tie, with tattooed sleeves of bright green leaves and golden trumpet flowers on each arm, greeted them at the host’s stand. “Lunch for two?”
“No…” Sam glanced at her neatly-lettered nametag. “…Aimee. We’re here for the cooking class.” He didn’t recognize her. She must be new. At least since he and Brad had moved to Tucson.
“Ah sorry. That’s next door. But you can go through the door in the back.” She pointed the way. “Chef Diego should be in there already.” She flashed them a smile, and then went back to organizing menus.
“Thanks.” He grabbed Oscar’s hand again. “Come on!” He led his friend to the back of the restaurant, but before going through the door, he stopped and turned to look back toward the front windows.
“What?”
“Give me a sec.” He closed his eyes.
He could still see that day, as if it were yesterday. The place had been magical. Candles everywhere, silver stars hung from the ceiling, twinkling lights on the bar… and that perfect moment when Brad had kissed him after they said ‘I do.’”
“You see it too?”
Sam blinked. That voice…
Sure enough, Brad stood there next to him, taking in the same view.
“You… you’re not really here.” He looked around. The whole place was deserted. Oscar, the hostess Aimee… even the patrons seemed to have taken their leave. “I’m losing my mind.”
Brad laughed. “Maybe.”
Sam snorted. “You’re no help.” Here I am, talking to a ghost.
“Sorry. I’m only here because you’re not ready to let go of me yet.”
“Is that so?”
Brad nodded. “I’m already in greener pastures. Or I would be, if you would let me go.”
“I can’t.” It was too painful. He needed Brad. Needed not to be alone.
“I know.” Brad exhaled sharply. “He likes you, you know.”
“Who? Oscar? No he doesn’t—”
“He followed you all the way here, took time off work, and has been with you the whole time. I’ve seen the way he looks at you.”
Sam shook his head. “It’s not true. And even if it was… it’s too soon.”
“Maybe.” Brad stared at his feet. “I just want you to be happy.”
“Then you shouldn’t have died.” It came out far more sharply than he’d intended. “I’m sorry, Brad.”
But his husband was gone.
Sam took a deep breath and then let it out, echoing Brad’s gesture. “We were so happy that day.”
“I know. I miss him too. Every day.” Oscar squeezed his hand, and for just a second, Sam saw what Brad had told him, something in the way Oscar looked at him.
I’m not ready. He pushed the feeling away, and Oscar with it, letting go of his friend’s hand.
“Sam?”
He spun around to see the chef standing in front of him. “Diego?”
“Eccomii! Ciao bello!”
He embraced his old friend. “It’s good to see you again. Sorry I couldn’t spend more time with you the other day at the funeral…”
Diego shook his head emphatically. “Nonsense. There was many people. You were busy. Are you here for the class?”
Sam nodded. “And my friend Oscar. But only if you have room?”
“We has always room for you.” He ushered Sam and Oscar into the new teaching kitchen.
It was sparkling and bright, all the surfaces fresh-cleaned and smelling of bleach and Pine-sol. “This place is amazing. When did you open it?”
“A couple years ago. It was an American bar before Covid.” Diego led them back to his own station at the front of the class.
“I remember.” One of those old-school places, dark and moody, where you might meet a good friend for a quick drink after a long day at work. “But this… it looks great! What are we making today?”
“Una cosa moderna. A modern dish. I show you.”
It was as if a shadow had lifted from his vision. Somehow, in crossing the threshold from the place where he and Brad had been married to this new place, full of possibility, he had crossed another threshold inside his own heart. He didn’t understand it yet, but he knew it was true. “Sure. Show us.”
“Well, you start with some onion, a little purple cabbage, and a pasta from my home region of Emilia Romagna called mezze maniche dei frati, or ‘monks’ half sleeves’…”
Sam flashed Oscar a smile, and settled into a stool next to him listen to Diego’s wayward and entertaining explanation.
Oscar’s hand found his, the man’s warm palm encompassing his.
This time, Sam didn’t let go.
Monk Sleeves With Cream of Cabbage and Crunchy Bacon
Ingredients for 2 people:
7 ounces of pasta (mezze maniche or similar)
5 1/3 ounces of purple cabbage
1 onion
2 slices of bacon
1/3 cup grated parmigiano
1/2 of a lemon
Salt
Oil
Chop both the onion and the red cabbage into small pieces. Use a large, flat pan and add a drizzle of oil. In a smaller pan, add the bacon. In the pan for the pasta, add water and a little salt.
Allow the water to boil while you prepare the cream of onion and purple cabbage.
Add the chopped onion and cabbage into the large pan with the oil and put it on medium heat. Stir it from time to time until the leaves of the cabbage have wilted. At the same time, chop up the bacon into small bits and fry it over low heat, turning it periodically until it is well-cooked and crunchy.
When the onion and cabbage are almost ready, add half of the parmigiano and stir it until it’s blended well without sticking to the pan. Meanwhile, put the pasta in the boiling water.
Squeeze out the lemon juice and remove any seeds. Put the fresh juice into a blender, and add the rest of the parmigiano. Put the onion and cabbage cheese sauce into the blender, along with a ladle of water from the pasta pot, and blend it all until you get a purple cream sauce.
Put the purple cream back into the big pan and strain the pasta. Add it into the pan too and mix it together so the sauce coats the pasta entirely.
Put the pasta and sauce on the plates, and sprinkle the bacon bits over the top. Serve hot.
< Read Chapter 43
Like what you read? if you haven’t tried it yet, check out book one, The River City Chronicles, here.