It's night again and I am driving through the streets of Chugiak, a small Alaskan town. I've loved this town ever since I first came here a few years ago. Back then, I was new to the business world. A young black man, armed with a college education, out to make his mark on the world. I'm a native of the Bronx who found himself hired by a small Accounting firm all the way in Alaska. Life around here is so different from what I am used to. I like my life these days. A lot of it has to do with my professional accomplishments. I'm thirty five years old and I am the head of Human Resources at Brent & Madison, a very old yet powerful firm.
I am driving and I can't wait to get home. It's been a good day and I can't wait to be with my Sabrina. Sabrina James Valentine is my wife. We are so different. I am a tall black man. She is a pretty-faced, plump but attractive woman. She is a teacher and a writer. I am a no-nonsense businessman. She's a people person. I'm rather selective in who I have relations of any kind with and I have a penchant for isolation. We both have a lot in common, though most people wouldn't guess it by looking at us. Before I met Sabrina, I had relationships with both men and women. Yes, you've guessed right. I am bisexual. I am not one bit ashamed of my sexual and romantic past. My last girlfriend was this woman named Kelly Brown. She was a tall, curvy Jamaican woman who worked in New York as a police officer. We had an on-again, off-again relationship. Kelly was very attractive and I must say, spectacular in bed but she was one crazy woman. The dictionary should have a picture of her under control freak. We had fun but I had to let her go. It didn't go too well. She began stalking me. Yes, I had a female stalker on my hands. And to make things worse, she was a cop!
I ended up hiring a lawyer to get me out of the mess. My lawyer, Jodi Anderson, was a driven and ruthlessly efficient attorney. It turns out that Kelly Brown had been suspended from the police department before for use of excessive force while on the job and she also had a drinking problem. Once her record was exposed in court, she lost her credibility and we were able to obtain a restraining order against her. Man, I got lucky! So many psycho women out there use the law as a weapon against the men they hate. Nobody ever mentions the man's side of the story. I learned my lesson and got more careful in my life.
After my nightmarish relationship with Kelly, I didn't feel like dating another female for some time. I felt like exploring the other side of the fence. I began hanging out at gay bars and clubs a lot more often. I had my share of sexual encounters with hunky men and sexy women but I didn't meet anyone special until Leonard Morrison came along. Leonard Morrison was a tall, good-looking African-American stud from Boston. He was a graduate of Suffolk Law School and worked as head of Legal Research for a large firm in New York city. This guy had it going for him. He was a single black gay man who was deeply closeted at work but quite open with his close friends. We met at a club and things just clicked between us.
Leonard and I went into a two-year relationship. Leonard was simply awesome. He was so handsome and so smart. Totally easy to get along with and simply great. I fell in love with him. We moved into an apartment together. During that time, my life got some exposure. I felt comfortable in my skin as a bisexual black man. I told my father and mother that I was in a relationship with another man. They were deeply religious and conservative people. They weren't accepting of my sexuality or my relationship. In fact, they told me that they regretted having me. I walked away from them, holding hands with my lover in public and never spoke to them again. As far as I was concerned, they were dead to me. I felt hurt and betrayed but it's not like I didn't see it coming. Leonard was still in the closet to his family. One day, someone discovered his secret life and he got so scared of his parents finding out that he was living with a man. Even though Leonard was gay, he still took young women whom he was friends with to office parties. He even took Veronica, a woman we both knew, as his date to the wedding of one of his relatives. Yes, Leonard was closeted and terrified of coming out. In the end, he couldn't take it. Living with a man who was out and proud. That's what broke us up.
The loss of Leonard hurt like hell. I had been deeply in love with this man and it took me a long time to get over it. Still, life had to go on and in spite of the pain, I eventually moved on with my life. I saw moving to Alaska as a bold new step and did it without hesitation. I was through with my old life and on with the new. It was in Chugiak that my life changed. In Chugiak, I met a wonderful woman in Sabrina. She was an openly bisexual woman who, along with her husband had raised three children who were now grown. Sabrina lost her husband James Valentine to a car accident three years before we met. Before getting married and having kids, Sabrina had lived with Fiona, her childhood friend and lover. After her husband's death, she had a lover named Marianne but that relationship ended before I came along.
