Previously, in Bearbay County…
In the last chapter, we met Esteban Lynch in the quiet rituals of his mornings: his meds, his dogs, his fireplace, his morning coffee, the steady choreography of a man who has survived enough to value stillness. Life in Bearbay County suited him; it was contained, deliberate, and protected from excess and risk. Then Oleg showed up—a redheaded Ukrainian refugee. A firefighter turned handyman.
Oleg Danylenko arrived not with noise, but with gravity—a man carrying displacement, loss, and a heart that moved faster than Esteban’s carefully guarded life allowed.
What followed was not a romance, but a collision. When Immigration sent a letter, fear cracked something open. Oleg came looking for reassurance. Esteban answered with distance. What could have been tenderness turned into refusal. Esteban, shaped by surgeries, solitude, and hard-won autonomy, mistook desire for danger.
What follows is a love story interrupted by biblical bigotry.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Yours,
Adriano Selvi.
Credits: Two Naked Young Men Embracing, Close-up, taken by artist Ed Freeman.