Ami's Hoard

This short story takes place immediately after Chapter Five and the Axe-Wielding Maniac, where 42-year-old write Joshua Franklin finds himself on his way to Moab, Utah, following a guy, 16 years old his junior, whom he just met three days before. Usually, this kind of setting would drive me crazy because I dislike everything 'insta' in my story.

However, maybe I was in the mood for something light, and maybe because what followed in this story was weeks of Joshua dealing with the day-in and day-out of being with Rad -- including making friends with Rad's "people" or batting away the sexual advances from Rad's 'evil' best friend / occasional sex buddy / next door neighbor -- I actually found it cute.

Josh could be such an endearing idiot and a drama queen -- most especially driven by 16-year-old difference between him and Rad, that Josh sees himself as someone old-fashioned and romantic, while Rad seems to be more free-spirited and thinks of some forms of monogamist relationship to be outdated idea. I truly had fun watching Josh went from worrying to bumbling to making mishaps. Or even when he was trying to guess how Rad's going to react on few things, including Josh wanting to chip in on their financial arrangement.

So yes it has few clichés : the evil ex, the misunderstanding because CLEARLY JOSH, you look for the WORST source of information, ever!, and things happen REALLY fast for these guys. But damn it, the last scene was precious, and I was HIGHLY ENTERTAINED with their arguments by that point. It was a true rom-com fashion and I was smiling happily because of it.

And for me, that is an important thing when it comes to reading!

** Favorite Argument **

“I asked if you thought marriage and long-term commitment were outdated ideas, and you said yes.”

“That’s because they are outdated ideas. So what? So are CDs, and I still buy those!”

Now it was my turn to be confused. “CDs are outdated?”

“Of course they are!”

“Then how am I supposed to buy music?”

“MP3s, for fuck sake!”

“I just finished replacing all my cassettes.”