Not So Safe, Part Two

Title: Not So Safe
Author: J. Rosemary Moss
Genre: Contemporary Romance (Gay; Poly)
Warnings: Adult language and situations
Feedback: Welcome!
Summary: Zev learns that his crush on his straight boss isn't as safe as he thought . . .
LINK TO PART ONE


Not So Safe by J. Rosemary Moss is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

~oOo~

Marc didn’t say much as he drove us to Ralph and Karen’s. Funny, he was usually talkative in the mornings. But he was probably dying from shock and embarrassment. I tried to think of a way to set him at ease, but then I decided that I didn’t want to. My head was spinning; his should be too.

Not that I was angry, exactly, but--I didn’t know what I was. I’d worked for Marc and shared his house for two and a half years. I’d had a harmless crush on him the whole time. Now I didn't know where I stood.

Not So Safe, Part One

Title: Not So Safe
Author:  J. Rosemary Moss
Genre: Contemporary Romance (Gay; Poly)
Warnings: Adult language and situations
Feedback: Welcome!
Summary: Zev learns that his crush on his straight boss isn't as safe as he thought . . .


Not So Safe by J. Rosemary Moss is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

~oOo~

I had my jacket on and my hand on the doorknob, but I still turned around one last time. “Are you sure you want to be alone tonight?”

Marc, my boss and house-mate, rolled his eyes from his spot on the couch. He was ensconced there with his feet up on the coffee table and a bottle of Guinness in his hand, watching the Yanks on the ridiculously large flat screen we had mounted on the wall. “Get out of here, Zev. Go enjoy your date.”

“But I can cancel--”

“Go. Ross is waiting outside, right?” He was wearing a tired, exasperated smile, but those hazel eyes of his were warm and there was no hint of judgment in his voice. He might look and act like the stereotypical straight guy he was, but he’d never given me a hard time about being gay.

I nodded. “Yeah. Ok. Call me if you need anything.”

“Go!”

I sighed. Marc can be such a martyr.

Creative Draw of the Day: Two of Swords

"Your eyes can deceive you; don't trust them."

~Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars

Ah, as you might have noticed, I failed to draw a card yesterday. My apologies! I was occuppied with a new RPG (role-playing game) system that my group was trying out for the first time. More on that later--I think it has some bearing on creating characters.

Meanwhile, here's my draw for today: the Two of Swords. The traditional interpretation of this card suggests stalemate--a person trying to make a decision, but flustered and confused and unable to view all her (or his) options.

I don't agree. To begin with, I don't think the blindfold means this figure is flustered or confused. I think she put it on deliberately, just as Luke (with Obi Wan's help) put on the blinding helmet in Star Wars for light saber practice--letting go of his conscious control in order to allow the Force to work through him. Likewise, I think this figure has blindfolded herself so that she can better follow her gut and intuition.

I'm not even sure she's trying to make a choice--those two swords seem well balanced. In fact, balance-rather-than-choosing will be a theme of my NaNo novel, Not So Safe. The goal of my main character, Zev, is to convince Marc that he doesn't have to choose between Zev and Sean. They can both have a relatinship with him, without any pesky jealousy.

How well this will work out for Zev remains to be seen, but that's the direction he's going. And I think he's got enough chutzpah and determination to make a polyamorous relationship work . . .

Creative Draw of the Day: Two of Pentacles

I think I've found the card for Marc Jaffe, one of the characters for my NaNoWriMo. No, Marc doesn't wear a funny hat--he sticks with business casual wear. But this card exemplifies his state of mind as Not So Safe begins.

Marc is very much in line with the suit of Pentacles: he's down to earth, he has a good head for figures and he's a financial wizard. But, like the juggler in this card, he's off balance. He has been since his wife died three years ago.

I would usually interpret this card to indicate a problem juggling finances and debt, but I don't think that's the case for Marc. His finances are fine. True, he's a bit disorganized in his professional life, but that's why he has Zev as his administrative assistant. So Marc has a different problem.

Marc has never come to terms with his bisexuality; that storm-tossed sea behind the juggler matches his emotional turmoil when it comes to Zev. (Water in the Tarot is connected to our emotions.) He has an excellent working relationship and friendship with the man, but he's never taken the next step. He's left Zev to assume that he's thoroughly heterosexual.

But once Sean, Marc's ex-lover, enters the picture, Marc finds he can't put on a show anymore. That leads to all sorts of complications with both Zev and Sean.

The Two of Pentacles is a hard place to be. The card has promise--that green string surrounding the two coins is a symbol of infinity, a powerful symbol in the Tarot denoting holiness and eternity. If Marc can come to terms with his dualities, and his love for both Zev and Sean, he just might have a shot at finding happiness again.

Describing my NaNo Novel

Here's how I described Not So Safe (and my MC Zev) in the NaNoWriMo forums:

~~

Zev is my viewpoint character; he's the one driving the story. He's got a single minded crush on Marc, his painfully straight boss. Left to himself, Zev has no work ethic, but he has turned himself into a model employee to please the man. Marc is his perfect fantasy: a nice, successful Jewish guy who knows how to keep Zev in line--hell, if there were any way to make this crush a reality, even Zev's parents would be thrilled.

Finding out that Marc isn't as painfully straight as he thought changes everything. So does the fact that Marc has become re-entangled with Sean, a lover from back in high school. But Zev is undaunted, and sees no reason why he can't share Marc with Sean.

Zev is an optimist. He's also determined, proactive and good at getting his way. But sharing Marc with Sean may be more complicated than he realizes. If polyamorous bliss awaits the three men, it's a long way off . . .

~~

I'm happy with this description and I'm happy with Zev. He's damn pushy, though! He's insisting on narrating this story. That feels right to me--but I know a lot of romance readers don't like the first-person point of view. (Sigh.)

Meanwhile, I have to spend some time fleshing out Marc. And at least Sean--formerly known as 'high school fling' has a name! He's Sean Valencia; half Irish-American, half Columbian. He's a succesful therapist of some sort, but I have to figure out the details.

My Characters Want to be Polyamorous

Not So Safe, my NaNoWriMo novel, was supposed to be a Male/Male love story, with a bit of a triangle. But then I scanned the romance section of the NaNoWriMo forums, and I spotted a Poly Romance thread under the Romance topic. That's all my guys needed to see.

Now, instead of a triangle between Zev, Marc and an as yet-to-be-named high school fling of Marc's, Zev and High School Fling want to agree to a truce. They can share Marc--as long as they can convince him that this is a good idea.

I'm not opposed. But I don't know if Marc will maintain separate relationships with both men, or if the three of them will end up together. Zev and High School Fling will need more than a truce for the latter to work, so I'm thinking the former is more likely. (Plus it leaves the door open for more tension.)

Sigh. So this is what happens when you let your characters boss you around . . .

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