Page 58 of Something Like Winter

woods, except something was amiss, because it wasn’t clear if the

woman was in front of the trees or behind them or entirely there at all.

“René Magritte’sLe Blanc-Seing.The bookshelves are trees, the

windows— Well, you’ve already figured it out. Here, sit down.” Tim was directed to a couch, its fabric the same color as the horse in

the painting. Eric took a seat in one of the comfortable chairs across from

him, cheeks warm and red as if he had enjoyed a glass or two of wine. “You have an artistic eye,” Eric said. “Do you draw? Or paint?” “Uh, listen,” Tim said. “I really need to get something off my chest.”

He stood enough to get the folded check from his jeans pocket and

stretched out his arm, handing it to Eric.

“What’s this?”

“Your check. You were right about the fraternity. Theyarea bunch

of homophobic assholes.” Tim sighed. “Well, not all of them, but they

don’t deserve your money.”

“I take it you heard the gruesome legend of Eric Conroy?” Tim nodded.

“Well, go on. No doubt it’s changed since the last time I heard it.” The idea of repeating the story made Tim uncomfortable, so he tried

to present it in the most polite language. “They said that you were taking

advantage of pledges, uh, sexually. But it didn’t make sense, because the

pledges weren’t the ones pleasing you. Um.”

“I was sucking their dicks?” Eric said candidly.

“Yeah.”

“Thrilling.” Eric rolled his eyes. “Next time I hear the story I’ll

probably be sodomizing the entire fraternity against their will.” Tim shook his head. “It’s stupid because it’s not like there aren’t gay

brothers in the fraternity. One night I got up the guts to visit Oilcan

Harry’s, the gay bar in the warehouse district.”

“I’m familiar with it.”

“Oh. Well, I walked in and almost had a heart attack because one of

my fraternity brothers was sitting right there at the bar.”

Eric snorted. “What did you do?”

“Uh.” Tim scratched the back of his head. “Ended up getting it on in

his car. He didn’t even recognize me until afterwards.”

Eric laughed so hard he started coughing. “And I take it he’s not the