Sunday, 22 December 2013

Jacob Campbell ~ Holy Xavier

Release Date: December 22
Available: JMS Books


Blurb:
Every year, my long-term partner Rusty has to travel back to his family home for Christmas, leaving me alone. It’s difficult being on my own at such a festive time of the year -- I grow lonely and start cruising New Orleans, looking for someone to love.

A chance meeting with Stephen introduces me to his roommate, Xavier, who is beautiful and irresistible. What starts as a holiday tryst turns into a lengthy affair between us, and even Xavier’s graduation can’t end it completely.

What Rusty doesn’t know won’t hurt him, right? Or does he know? What happens when my infidelity comes to light? Will we ever be able to have a merry Christmas together, or have I ruined it for all of us?

Excerpt:
I walked to the end door of one of the buildings on the quadrangle where the music was loudest. I entered the building and the music was even louder. It was thunderous. I wandered down a hall and through two wooden doors into what appeared to be a chapel. It was pitch black. In the darkness, only the one red tabernacle lamp was burning, and the chapel was filled with real pipe organ music.

It was no longer just Bach, but my favorite piece, “Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring.” It filled the pitch-black emptiness of the chapel. I knelt down in a rear pew. I’d entered from the rear into this large modern chapel. When my eyes adjusted to the light of the sanctuary candle, I could make out the organist playing at the keyboard. Immediately I thought I’d like to go meet him.

I knew he was probably gay.

Why would an ordinary person be out at midnight on the Loyola campus in Xavier chapel playing a pipe organ?

It seemed gay to me.

I walked over to the elevated bench where a tall thin man was playing. He paused and we greeted each other. For some reason, we didn’t play any games at all and immediately we had rapport. I guess our gaydar was at high pitch because I asked if I could sit next to him while he played. He patted the bench with his palm.

I sat and he played. Mostly church music, but he did venture into a few popular songs. Our legs pressed against one another and when he finished a medley, we whispered to one another in the empty chapel. One thing led to another and we were kissing on the organ bench.

I told him, Stephen, that I was trying to take a walk and not get into sexual situations, and we laughed and kept kissing. I felt him and he felt me, and there was no doubt both of us were hard as rock, and yet we did not think it appropriate to do it in church, especially with a tabernacle and a sanctuary lamp burning, announcing the presence of God in this very room.

His apartment was a wreck. His mattress was lying on the floor, and he had a homemade electronic organ he’d built sitting on some bricks on an unpainted board. “It’s where I do my homework, and where I practice. The keyboard is much better quality than I can find in the practice rooms, but it is lonely sometimes.”

“Do you live alone?” I asked.

“No. I have a roommate.”

“Lovers?” I asked.

“No. Friends. We did it one time when we first met, but he’s not my type and I’m not his.”

“Where is he?”

“Gone to Biloxi, but he’s coming back for Christmas.”

“Is this his photo?”

“Yes, that’s him.”

That was when I realized I was going to have to have sex with the roommate.

No comments:

Post a Comment