Chapter 4

As she came in the door, she dumped her purse, not caring that a few things spilled out as she kicked off her shoes.  She made the distance between them in haste and wrapped her arms around his waist with a simple, “Hold me,” as her only explanation.  He quickly put down the spoon he’d been using to stir the red sauce and pulled her tight against him, knowing that she’d had a bad day.

“What happened?” he asked quietly, hoping that his voice was soothing.  Hoping that she wouldn’t just break down and cry.  He hated it when she cried.

She just shook her head, pulling him impossibly tighter into her embrace.

He made soft, soothing sounds and kissed her hair, wanting to hurt whoever had made her so upset.  Knowing Ash, it could only be one subject.  A subject that was becoming a note of discord between the two of them.  He knew that Ash wanted the same things he wanted.  But Ash was gentle and shy and quiet and non-confrontational.    While she might want the same things that so called “normal” couples had, she would never reach for them.  

Though it frequently risked his job at the school where he worked as a teacher, he frequently voiced his beliefs in public, albeit not at the school.  He went to protests.  He wrote letters to congressmen.  He signed petitions.  Everyone that knew him, even his coworkers, knew that he was heterosexual.  They knew that he thought that the current laws were wrong.  As he rocked her gently back and forth in their small kitchen, he vowed that someday they would have a real marriage.  A family even.