So how about you?" she asked. "Why did you and your" - she broke out the air quotes again - "'life partner' decide to move to Clam Bay?"

"Not really a good reason for it, I guess. Just bad judgment on... Wait. What did you call us?"

"Oh, I'm sorry." She blushed. "Was that the wrong term? I didn't mean to offend."

"You think... Uh, we're not gay."

She laughed. "Oh, it's all right. Nobody here cared about something like that. We're pretty tolerant of alternative lifestyles."

"We're not gay," he said with a little more force than intended. "We're just friends."

"Are you married?"

"No."

"Girlfriends?"

"Not at the moment."

"Confirmed bachelors?" She raised an eyebrow/

"Not confirmed," he replied.

"So two single guys from the big city move to our little town and open a bed-and-breakfast. But you're not gay."

"We're just friends," he said.

"Right. Because straight men open bed-and-breakfasts all the time."

"These straight men did."

"Straight men names Philip and Vance."

He wanted to argue, but he was suddenly beginning to question it himself.

Autore: A. Lee Martinez