Where’s the remote.” He scanned around for it, but couldn’t see it. “Why are you watching this?” He set his beer down on the table. The TV camera was panning in on the bike and its owner as well as the arresting officer walking towards him. Phin turned to look at the screen and froze, his blood running colder than the Czech beer he was drinking when he saw the traffic cop reality show Adam was watching. According to the commentator it’s taken the traffic police more than twenty minutes to get him to pull over. He’s been clocked going over one hundred and forty miles an hour. “How irresponsible idiots like him get deemed fit to drive in the first place is beyond me. “That berk on the motorbike.” Adam jabbed an irritable finger at the telly screen. “Who’s a bloody fool?” Phin walked into the room, taking a swig of his beer. “What a bloody fool! Honestly, some people.” Walking up the hall on his return from the kitchen, beer in hand, Phin grinned as he heard Adam’s voice filter from the living room. Phin went to the bathroom leaving Adam flicking through TV channels. “As good a time as any to go to the loo I suppose. It’s been threatening to storm all day.” Adam plucked the remote from the coffee table and aimed it at the set, flicking from channel to channel, getting ghostly figures and crackling static on some and nothing at all on others. I thought I saw a flicker of it in the sky when I was paying the pizza guy. “I bet the local transmitter has been hit by lightening again. The television saved Adam from making a pithy reply.

“Drink it cold, eat it hot, and do it fast is my motto in life.” You’re two slices of pizza ahead of me as it is.” Why do you have to do everything at top speed? “My favourite combination.” He drained the bottle he was drinking from and stood up. “Cold beer, hot pizza and Saturday night.” Phin gave a happy sigh. Adam has to decide whether the circumstances warrant the use of discipline. In ‘Riding With The Wind’ Phin makes an error of judgement that has serious repercussions. As a consequence his partner and domestic Dom Adam imposes a punishment that Phin finds difficult to deal with. In ‘Burdens’ a television reality show spells trouble for Phin.

Phin and Adam are always there for each other in tough times, but harmony isn't always an aspect of their relationship. Previously published separately and also as part of the anthology -‘The Corridor and Other Stories’ Revised in this edition. A pair of short stories featuring couple Phin and Adam ~

Spanking Dee-Dee by Fabian Black