Two Sides of the Same Coin Read Online Free

“ain’t” or used some saying like “ya couldn’t swing a dead cat without hittin’… whatever,” he’d laugh. After a while it seemed to me I was his personal trophy cowboy. He could parade his butch boyfriend in front of his queenie friends. Lately though, I wasn’t sure just why I was with Robert. He was demeaning about my bronze sculptures and was always harping on me to get a job as an accountant and give up my art. It wasn’t to his taste he said anytime I tried to show him a sculpture that I thought turned out really well.
    God forbid now if I were to have shit on my boots. He’d freak. And there was the constant pressure to give up competing in the gay rodeos. Also the outdoors is one of my passions. I love to ski, snow shoe, hike, canoe, and camp. Robert had no interest in any of that and wasn’t really supportive of my doing so. If I even mentioned hunting or fishing, I’d get a disgusted look like I killed Bambi’s mother.
    He was also constantly correcting my grammar, and every time I would use some saying, he’d answer, “How quaint,” in a very sarcastic tone. I was beginning to think that the only thing that was holding us together was the sex. It was good, very good. But happy? I wasn’t so sure anymore. It had been exciting and fun when we got together, going places around the Bay Area, picnics, live music, good restaurants, just a good time in general. It was an introduction to a whole new world for me. Now that world was beginning to seem cold and inhospitable. I wondered what happened.
    “Every relationship has its ups and downs,” I replied. “So tell me a little about you.”
    “Jeff, it’s really tough for me to talk about myself. I just don’t wanna go there.”
    “You sure I’m not gonna see your face on a wanted poster in the post office?”
    A momentary flash of anger crossed his face. I could tell he was trying real hard to control himself.
    Finally he said, “No. When I’m ready I’ll talk about it, fair enough?”
    “Fair enough, bud.”
    “Jeff, why’d ya leave the ranch for the city? The little I seen of ya, you really seem to like it here, plus it’s real easy to see you got friends here.” That was a good question, and one I had been asking myself a lot lately. At first it was fun to live in the city, all the restaurants, so much live music, and so many things to see and do. Coming back to the ranch and the valley made me realize just how much I’d missed it, and just how much I really didn’t fit in living in San Francisco. I had thought as a gay man, it was someplace I should go and experience, but it wasn’t me. The concrete was depressing, and everyone was always in a hurry. I finally answered Mike’s question honestly.
    “I thought at first it would be interestin’ to live in a place with so many other gay guys and so much to do. Now though, I really don’t know. I keep askin’ myself that same question.”
    We rode on in silence for the next couple of hours, but this time it was a companionable silence.
    It was coming up on dinnertime when we arrived at the highest point of our ranch. The land was all wooded, and water was much more abundant. There were still broad meadows up here and the cattle loved it. This part of the ranch backed up to the Okanogan National Forest. There were forest service roads not too far, but for the most part the recreational vehicles stayed far enough away as to not spook the beeves.
    “Looks like part of the fence is down up ahead. I reckon it was a good idea to ride fences.”
    “Yep,” Mike answered in his laconic way.
    The break was in a flat place at the edge of a meadow and right by the trees. As we rode up and got closer, it became obvious that this was not a normal fence break. The posts were still standing firm, but the barbed wire had been cleanly cut and pulled back. I dismounted and squatted down to look at the ground. The tracks plainly showed that a group, five maybe six head of cattle had been