The two men grasped hands. Tall, blond and striking, Ulric Adler, candidate for President, looked into a mirror image of himself in Dirk Schmid, anesthetist and head of The New Aryan Order.
The maître d’ arrived. “Gentlemen, as always, good to see you. Your regular table is ready,” he said, and led the way.
“Thank you Franz.” Adler followed. They heard the day’s specials, and ordered lunch and wine.
Adler sat back, laced his fingers and looked at Dirk. “It’s all happening.”
Dirk grinned. “It’s so close, I can taste it. With you as President, and the support of our Order, no one in modern history has ever been as close to saving America as we are now.”
They stopped talking as the waiter brought an expensive bottle of wine, Dirk tasted it, gave the waiter a nod and two glasses were poured.
Adler lifted his glass. “To making history.”
“To making history,” Dirk agreed and touched his glass to Adler’s. “Let’s talk business before we relax.”
Adler nodded.
“The latest figures from Thorsten.” Dirk pulled a sealed envelope from his leather bag and handed it over.
“How is your brother?” Adler asked.
“In good health. But you know Thorsten, he worries if he hasn’t got something to worry about.” Dirk sighed. “We’ve refined the campaign messages, plus we’ve got our next fertilization round about to begin.”
“Purity,” Adler said sipping his wine. “Well done Dirk, well done. And you’re balancing all this with your medical work?”
“It is my duty and my honor.”
“Do you ever think what it must have been like to have served with him?” Adler said, loosening his tie.
“Yes. It’s the reason I became an anesthetist … I imagine the work I could have done then, what I could have contributed.”
“And you will, now, in the Fourth Reich,” Adler said.
Mitch arrived in the kitchen in dark track pants and a light gray pullover. He smiled at Lyn who was wearing a panda-print onesie with matching slippers.
“Cute,” he said. “If only I’d kept my tiger print pajamas.”
“Really?” she asked, wide-eyed.
“No.”
Lyn laughed. “You know this is the first night we’ve actually been home together to cook for weeks; how exciting!” She grinned at him.
“Yeah, well hope you’re not relying on me to help create a culinary masterpiece. I’m good with pasta though,” Mitch said.
Lyn sighed. “Yes, that’s what all men say. Okay your pasta, my Bolognese sauce, we’ll be fine.”
“Just issue orders and I’ll comply. Red?” Mitch asked, reaching for two wine glasses.
“Please,” Lyn said, grabbing some tomatoes and herbs from the refrigerator. She set them up on a chopping board and pulled a sharp knife from the drawer.
“No Sandy tonight?” Mitch asked, placing the glass of red wine in front of her.
“No, we don’t catch up every night. And that wouldn’t be fair on you either to have her always here.”
Mitch shrugged. “I’m not fazed, I’m not around much.”
“I noticed. Will you chop the tomatoes into small cubes and finely dice the parsley and basil? I’ll put the pasta on, oil the pan and set the … shall we eat here at the bench?”
“Sounds good.” Mitch took the knife and began to dice.
Lyn moved to the ceramic glass top, selected the heat, grabbed a pan, and lightly poured in some olive oil. “I see Sandy here three nights a week, go to her place two nights a week and we have two nights apart,” she continued. “When you get a girlfriend, we can work out the nights if you like so you have the place to yourself. Ellen was very nice and very cute.”
Mitch looked up at Lyn and smiled.
“Yes, she’s lovely.”
“You would be good together; you have similar features and characteristics,” Lyn said. “You know they say good couples look alike?”
“Do they?” Mitch asked. “What’s in the water this month? Everyone’s trying to partner up. Do you want this straight in the pan?”
“Yes please,” Lyn said, grabbing a wooden spoon.
“Aside from the fact that Ellie and I work together and I’m her boss, we’re too alike to make it work. We both don’t need to socialize, don’t like big groups, think too much for our own good, can drive along for hours without a word … we’d end up being a little old couple on the couch with matching slippers drinking sherry.”
Lyn sighed. “Sounds divine. I don’t believe in opposites attract. I think it is good to have a partner who is like you. I was married once.”
“Really?” Mitch said, as he started dicing the onions and olives. He glanced at Lyn in her onesie and tied back hair and tried to picture her with a man.
“So you didn’t know you were gay?” he asked, swiping his watering eyes as a result of the onion.
“I think I always knew. But my father was an Episcopalian minister; I would never have been able to come out.”
Mitch frowned. “I thought they were okay with that, even had ordained gay ministers or am I thinking of the wrong crowd?”
“No you are thinking of the right ‘crowd’,” she grinned at him. “But my father was much more black and white in his views. He’s probably rolling over in his grave now. He was happy when I married Sebastian and it was good for a few years, but neither of us was really happy. Seb’s remarried now with kids.”
“Are you friends?”
“Yes, I love him, he’s one of my dearest friends and I love his wife and kids too. But we were opposites and so was the boyfriend I had before him. Both very social people and I struggled with being around people and having people over all the time. I thought there was something wrong with me, so I tried and tried, but I love my own company. Sandy and I like small groups and our downtime. So I think you and Ellen would be most suited.”
“Hmm,” Mitch said.
“That wasn’t actually a word.”
Mitch laughed. “Yeah, not going to happen.”
“Do you like her?”
“Of course, what’s not to like,” Mitch said pushing onions and olives off the chopping board into Lyn’s tomato mix.
“You know what I mean,” she grilled him.
“I’ve had better interrogators than you so that’s not going to work.”
“Well, I do have two single friends who have grilled me about you—Karen and Sarah—or maybe if you have some single male friends?”
“And if that doesn’t work out … at this rate, I’ll be moving every six months won’t I?” He reached for his wine and returned to the kitchen stool.
“But think on the upside. What if it did work out?” she asked.