"You're a real pain in the butt," Brigid Santino-Osman said, and the six-foot-tall, curvaceous, blonde-haired young Canadian woman looked at her husband Farouk and smiled, shaking her head. She got up from the bed and walked to the nearby washroom, stark naked. Farouk Alexander Osman watched as Brigid sat down, and unceremoniously took a wiz. They'd been married for almost two years now, and were comfortable with each other.
"Okay," Farouk replied, and his smile vanished as Brigid farted loudly, several times, and did not get up from the toilet seat. Instead, she lingered for a while because she had some other business to attend to. Farouk resisted the temptation to wrinkle his nose, for Brigid's lovely blue eyes were locked onto his. The things a man does for the woman he loves, Farouk thought, forcing himself to smile.
"Bae, I'm eating for two now, and those farts just kind of slip out," Brigid said, smiling nonchalantly after flushing and washing her hands. The tall curvy blonde rejoined her husband on the bed, and Farouk gently kissed Brigid's round belly. She was carrying his son or daughter. This was an extremely exciting time for the two of them.
Farouk thought of the days before he and Brigid got together, and how lonely his life had been. Brigid was the first and only person to accept him as a man who swings both ways. The one entity that the racially progressive, sexually liberated world still could not accept. Farouk still hadn't had 'the talk' with his parents, and he wasn't sure he ever would. Life was tough enough as a man of color, why add the burden of being bisexual on top of it?
In the Islamic world, if one happens to be gay, lesbian or bisexual, it's a really good idea to keep it to oneself. Farouk was born in the City of Ottawa, Ontario, to a Somali Muslim immigrant father, Yousef Osman, and a white Canadian mother, Renata Campbell. The brother grew up to be six-foot-one, lean and athletic, with golden brown skin, lime-green eyes and kinky hair that he styled into a decent-sized Afro.
Farouk had a devil of a time as a young Muslim man living in Canada, and the fact that he was mixed-race also complicated things. To white Canadians, he was an unwelcome reminder of what happens when one of their precious white women gets together with a black man. To the Somali people, he was something of an oddity since Somali men rarely married women of other races, although a few Somali women married men from other communities, primarily Arabian or Caucasian men.
When Farouk became aware of his bisexuality, he didn't know what to do with himself. According to the Islamic teachings of his favorite Imam, the honorable Ahmed Hassan of the Grand Mosque of Ottawa, homosexuality and lesbianism were strictly haram. Farouk kept his doubts and fears about his sexuality to himself, and focused on his university studies. He studied civil engineering at the University of Ottawa, intent on making his parents proud. Celibacy was the way to go, for the young bisexual Muslim man.
While at the University of Ottawa, Farouk met a young man named Fahd, a newcomer by way of Kuwait. One look at Fahd, who was big and tall, with a deep voice, and a macho swagger, and Farouk knew that he was either gay or bisexual. It was just something he was learning to do, read other men and gauge their sexual identity, regardless of how masculine they looked or sounded.
For Farouk, the evolution of his ability to spot gay and bisexual men, those who weren't obvious, this was the icing on the cake. It seemed to be an inborn trait that came with being who and what he was. Anyone could stop a girly-voiced, effeminate gay male with womanly mannerisms. Spotting masculine-looking and masculine-sounding gay and bisexual men was more of a challenge.
"Are you down or what, brother?" Fahd asked Farouk, during their first conversation inside the University of Ottawa library. Fahd saw Farouk working at the reference desk and from the way he looked into Farouk's eyes, Farouk knew that the Kuwaiti stud was on the prowl. They talked and flirted for some time, and then exchanged numbers. Two days later, Fahd invited Farouk over to his place for some fun.
