Imaginary Boyfriends: Short Stories

In Hassan and Sylvia, a former boy toy navigates a new world after the loss of his longtime lover. He meets a glamorous, mysterious couple, Hassan, a handsome young Moroccan and Sylvia, an elegant older woman. In Tiago, My Love, Joe, a lonely middle-aged restaurant supply salesman wins a trip to Lisbon, Portugal where he stumbles up Lisbon’s joyous Gay Pride celebration and falls in love with his handsome, unhappily married tour guide. Lovey is the upper half of a beautiful, bald mannequin “Ribs” finds in a garbage can as he drives the recycling truck for his town. She becomes his companion, confidante, and sometimes judge. Inside Chateau Arbogast finds Ribs in a new job as a bartender at an ornate catering hall. With Lovey still his companion he connects with a series of younger boyfriends and discovers the wholesome charms of the local gay sauna. In Egghead Payne two boys, one black, one white, have their unlikely friendship tested in the tense, pre-riots Newark of the early sixties where the adults are as dangerous as the streets. In The Little Trooper Frank is a gay police officer in suburban New Jersey who meets Ed, a handsome gym teacher, at a bathhouse Christmas night, 1978. The story tracks their passionate, unlikely relationship in the sexually charged time before AIDs, when there were few rules and fewer limits. Brett, an actor, gets a temp job at a financial magazine in Madam Cluzet. His tough, stylish boss confesses her big secret: she is married to a famous French actor while Brett struggles to hold on to his partner who suffers from RDS (Restless Dick Syndrome). Inside the Show Business is the story Elijah, the lonely only child of Baptist ministers in Oxford, Mississippi. On a class trip to New York, he falls in love with the theater and gets a job as a publicist where he meets an untalented singer and her adorable piano player. “Imaginary Boyfriends is bursting with intoxicating characters and unforgettable stories, featuring gay men caught between their dreams and desires and their working-class lives and struggles to survive. With witty, handsome prose Igrejas transports us to bars, baths, beaches, businesses, and bedrooms where these clever fools search for passion and deeper emotional connections. A marvelous debut!” Jameson Currier, editor Chelsea Station, author Why Didn’t Someone Warn Me About Prince Charming?