Alex & Clayton by John Simpson

remain in closer contact as brothers and sisters should. When they were gone, Clay locked up and went upstairs to “his” part of the house. He had so much to think about, and one thing stood out clearly: there was nothing now that tied him down to his hometown in New Jersey.
    Clay inherited his mother’s entire estate, along with her life insurance. This left him well enough off to be able to do almost anything he wanted. He could either retire immediately, or move on from the library and do something more satisfying to him. His brothers and sister were of course angry that their mother had cut them out of the will, and they blamed Clayton for the snub. It was no use trying to explain that was something Clay’s mother did entirely on her own. She’d finally realized her youngest son would more than likely never have a family like the others. He would need all the money she could leave him, and besides, he was the one who had stayed with her and cared for her.
    A week after the funeral, he put in his early retirement papers, which allowed him to leave his position with just over twenty years of service to the county on a reduced pension. Since he didn’t have to rely on the pension to live, the amount was of no concern to him. He made the decision to retire when he came across an ad in one of the gay papers that he now received at the house. The ad was simple.
    “For sale: One small bookstore carrying books and magazines catering to the gay community. Store is located in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Available immediately with all stock included. For inquiries, please call this number.”
    Clay called and found out the sale price of the store was forty-five thousand dollars, and it was located just a couple of blocks from the beach. He contacted a realtor in Rehoboth and made an offer on the bookstore. At the same time, he asked about available houses or condos. He was directed to the one major condo operation in the beach resort, and after a couple of weeks, and two trips down to the beach, he bought his new home.
    He was scheduled to move in four weeks and listed his family home for sale. He would move and close on his new purchases and start a new chapter in his life that he hoped would be a happy one. He also saw this as a chance to make up for all the love and sex that he had missed out on in the early part of his life. He was eager but couldn’t help being concerned about such a dramatic shift in his life. After all, he was going from virtually living in a closet to a gay resort town. And he would own the only gay bookstore in the area. He was kicking down the closet door in a big way.
    So far, the only things that he had shipped to his new condo were a few paintings that he could not part with under any circumstances. Those were carefully packed by the shippers along with some very expensive crystal, dinnerware, and the silver. A few lamps and odds and ends of furniture were also selected to be shipped to the new home. Everything else he would purchase new in Delaware.
    He said his good-byes to his few friends and drove off to his new home, scheduled to close on both the bookstore and his condo the next day. He stopped at a decent-looking bed and breakfast just outside Rehoboth and spent the night.
     
     
    T HE next day was a busy day for closings in the city of Rehoboth Beach. At ten o’clock the next morning, the Anderson closings were scheduled one after the other, and at one in the afternoon, the Winston closing was scheduled to conclude. By the end of the day there were two new permanent residents in Rehoboth Beach.
    Moving vans pulled up to two separate addresses, furniture was delivered, and the occupants made plans to scout the furniture stores the next day for a few more necessary pieces. But for Clayton, even more important than furnishing his condo was the need to get into the bookstore—his bookstore.
    The shop was located at one end of a small plaza, near a coffee shop where you could order lunch and