by John Hall
“They weren’t your girlfriends?” Anthony asked, confusion in his voice.
Roger leaned over Anthony’s hot chocolate and gave him an extra blast of whipped cream. “You and I are two of a kind,” he whispered into Anthony’s ear. “If you know what I mean.”
Anthony started choking on his cupcake while an open-mouthed Paige started pounding him on the back.
“You’re gay?” Anthony asked between coughs.
Roger nodded. “Yep. As gay as you are.” He stuck the tickets back into his pocket. “Let me know by Friday if you want to go to the concert. You know where to find me. If you can’t make it, we’ll rent some scary DVDs. You said we were going to do that some night, remember?”
Roger then gave Anthony a wink before heading to another table.
“He’s not straight,” Anthony said to Paige in stunned disbelief. “He’s gay. Roger is gay.”
“Yes, I heard,” Paige said. “I was sitting right here.”
“I don’t believe it. Roger is gay and he wants to go out with me.” Anthony gasped. “Roger is interested in me. He wants to go out with me! All this time he’s been right under my nose and I didn’t have a clue! How could I have been so blind?”
“You jumped to a conclusion. Like you did with Max.”
“Max?” Anthony asked. “Who’s Max? I don’t know anyone named Max. I only know the name Roger!”
“Does this mean you’ve got plans for Friday night? We were supposed to go to the movies, remember?”
“Get Paolo to take you. I’ve got a date with Roger!”
“I have to tell you something,” Paige said to Anthony, taking a sip of her hot chocolate. “And I’m only telling you this because I love you, so listen closely, okay?”
“Yes?” Anthony asked, his eyes glued on Roger, as if he was afraid he might disappear. “What is it?”
“You really need to get your gaydar checked out!” Paige laughed. “For months you’ve had a hottie like Roger totally into you and you didn’t even know it!”
“Okay, okay, you don’t have to rub it in! So I’m not perfect.”
“But Roger is,” Paige said, watching him walk across the bakery. “He’s so cute!”
Anthony licked a bit of frosting off his upper lip and grinned at Paige. “Isn’t he?!”
acknowledgments
First, a huge thank you to Abigail McAden, who called, pitched me a two-sentence premise and then asked if I could come up with an outline. Abby, did I ever tell you I thought you were calling to ask me for the name of one of my authors to write this story? I’m so glad I was wrong and that you were calling to ask me!
An even bigger thank you to my fabulous editor, Lexa Hillyer. Thank you for your superb editorial letter and all your great suggestions. You’ve made this book the best that it can be.
Thanks are also due to my terrific agent, Evan Marshall, who I love gossiping with, and all my wonderful friends and co-workers: Tracy Bernstein (who loves to bash Days of Our Lives as much as I do. Will they ever bring back Steve and Kayla?!), Libba Bray (yes, that Libba Bray, author of A Great and Terrible Beauty and Rebel Angels), Rosanna Chiofalo (who knows what it’s like to be Italian!), Paul Dinas (I miss having you as my boss!), Neven Gravett (aka the Office Cupid), David Korabik (you know you’re my best friend, right?), Kevin O’Brien (who loves good-bad movies as much as I do), Jim Pascale (my best friend from NYU), Elise Donner Smith (you will always be fabulous!), Aldo Palma (computer guru and my best friend from high school) and Justin Hocking, who helps me stay sane from 9 to 5 (and who I know will one day be writing an acknowledgments page of his own).
A big thank you, too, to Doug Mendini, for the champagne in P-Town and the Friday night margaritas in May 2005.
About the Author
JOHN HALL can still remember the first book he ever read. It was HARRY THE DIRTY DOG. Since that day, he's always loved reading. When he was in fifth grade, he decided he was going to be a writer when he grew up and wrote his first novel, THE MYSTERY OF THE LEOPARD’S EYES (unfortunately, it was never published, and to this day, it still sits in his desk drawer). But years later he did become a published author. John grew up in Brooklyn, New York, with a younger brother and twenty-one cousins (yes, twenty-one!), but now lives in New York City. You can visit John online at www.johnhallauthor.com.
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Credits
Cover art and design by Sasha Illingworth
Copyright
IS HE OR ISN’T HE? Copyright © 2006 by John Scognamiglio. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Adobe Digital Edition May 2009 ISBN 978-0-06-195734-5
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