The Big Apple // Knox X Lirim

If one more woman slipped her phone number in his pocket or in one of his books to sign he’d scream. The publisher in New York told him to keep his sexual orientation on a lower profile while in town, but really from his tone of voice, his body language to the blatant obvious messages in his body art and sketches, it couldn’t be any more barefaced that he was gay. Still, the women saw him as a challenge or disregarded this completely. Money was money and it was all the same to him, but what he really wanted was to see the art galleries in town and call Ailbe Lynott as soon as he got back to his hotel room.

He leaned back in his seat, grateful that the book signings were almost over and he could finally explore the larger than life store he had only seen a fraction of.

Spring was well on it’s way and the weather in New York was unlike the stifling heat of Louisiana. As much as his Southern counterparts complained, he loved the humidity and missed it. He had only returned from a field trip to California with his boyfriend before his publishing company demanded he meet them in New York for ‘very pressing business’. This was as far pressing as he could imagine and he sulked openly. He wasn’t so much interested in his writing anymore as much as he was his art and he was easily distracted by the books around him more than answering questions and signing his name a hundred times.

“Someone please rescue me,” he mumbled to himself as he rubbed his eyes.