Armed and Ready for Love

 We live obsessed by fiery passions. Still, we wait outside ourselves, so far from satisfaction.

Jonathan Wren survives growing up in the South amid extreme homophobia and the ravages of a deadly pandemic.

When he enters college, a whole new world opens up. He meets Neil, an out but not-so-proud gay man who has, himself, received quite the education from the oversexed Dr. Driggers. He takes Jon to a bathhouse, where Jon falls head over heels for a bathhouse queen.

Well, he was warned: Bathhouse romances tend to end badly.

Along the way, Jon realizes that full disclosure may be a very bad idea. The first major error in life that Jon commits is sharing his truth with his best friend, Andre. That goes sideways in a hurry, and Andre becomes an enemy who will haunt Jon for many years.

After college, Jon finds Ryan, the man who may well be Jon’s perfect match. But Ryan lives a whole state away, and he has his own business there. As circumstances begin to work themselves out, Jon makes a discovery about Ryan. Things left unsaid return to haunt Jon as he grapples with the crisis his discovery creates.

A final showdown arrives.

Andre, the soul-crushing hater that he is. Ryan, fragile in his compromised condition. Neil, on the cusp of death.

And Jon, whose life remains in the intersection of the people he cares for most. Can he put his life back together again?