On the evening before Luis and Jase left New York for Alaska, Luis sat back against the sofa and sighed. He glanced at the Manhattan skyline from their apartment in Trump Tower and took such a deep, sudden breath his dog jumped. The dramatic wall of windows ran floor to ceiling; the dark, Brazilian hardwood floors gleamed in the subtle twilight. He cleared his throat and rubbed his jaw. Then he ran his palm across his little dog''s bald, bony spine and exhaled. It was hard to believe it had been almost eleven months since Luis had tossed the dog out of the taxi on that cold, rainy afternoon in early September.The Chinese Crested looked up and sent Luis a blank stare. He tilted his head and yawned. He usually slept on the zebra-print loveseat from Luis''s old apartment on the Upper West Side, the only thing Luis had brought with him when he''d moved into Jase''s apartment.Luis had finally named the dog Camp, partly because of his bald body and the exaggerated long blond mop on his head, and partly because he was much stronger than he appeared to be. Camp often reminded Luis of a few drag queens he''d known in his time. Though they looked outrageous and appeared fragile, they were the strongest souls he''d ever known.Jase was in the bedroom they now shared together. He was packing his bags for the trip. As he moved from the closet to the line of suitcases sprawled across the bed, he whistled a tuneless song. They were traveling to Jase''s hometown in Alaska early the next morning, a small village Luis had never heard of, not far from Wasilla and Palmer. Jase hadn''t been home in almost eleven months and Luis had never even been to Alaska. Jase''s parents were celebrating their fortieth anniversary. And if this wasn''t enough, his grandmother was turning ninety. So they were planning a huge combined celebration. Jase thought this would be the perfect time to introduce Luis to his family and to announce their wedding plans.Even though they were only going for a few days, Luis wasn''t so sure about all this. The only information Jase''s family knew about Luis was what they''d read in the tabloids and what Jase had told them over the phone. Though Jase''s attorneys had cleared Luis''s name from that messy situation with Derrick Stutsman and the narcotic ring Luis had innocently been involved with, he wouldn''t have chosen this sort of publicity if he''d been given a choice. But Jase was the famous Virgin Billionaire and there hadn''t been a choice. And when the press discovered Jase was not only involved with someone connected to an illegal drug ring, but that he''d also decided to come out of the closet and publicly announce he was gay, they couldn''t wait to print the news. The story about Derrick and the drug ring finally died down, but there was still the matter of Jase, the Virgin Billionaire, being gay and having a permanent lover named Luis Fortune.Though Jase had explained everything to his family in detail in the months that followed, the press had portrayed Luis as flighty, ditzy, and carefree in an unstable way. Luis couldn''t help wondering what Jase''s family thought of him. How was Luis to know Derrick had been passing illegal drugs with Luis''s used underwear and sweat socks? He''d thought Derrick had a harmless little underwear fetish. How could Luis have known Derrick was almost flat broke and he hadn''t sold any real estate in ages? He''d seemed like such a nice, genuine older man. He''d always praised Luis''s happy-go-lucky, casual sense of style, his short dark hair, and his tight muscular body. And Derrick had never once asked for sex; he''d always been the perfect gentleman. Oh, Luis had learned his lesson that time. Very few people in this world are actually the way they appear to be.And now Luis had to convince Jase''s family he wasn''t a drug dealer, he wasn''t after Jase''s money, and he truly loved Jase, for richer or poorer. He had to go to Alaska and show them he wasn''t just one of the circuit boys, flitting from one gay bar to the next without a care in the world, wondering what new shirt to wear on Saturday night or which jeans to wear to tea dance on Sunday afternoon. Jase spoke with his mother and his grandmother once or twice a week, giving them little details about Luis and telling them how happy he was. But Jase never spoke with his father. And Jase never put Luis on the phone with anyone. He told Luis this was all a shock to his family and he wanted them to get used to the idea he was gay, he''d fallen in love with someone special, and he was planning to marry a man instead of a woman.After a ten-month engagement, Jase finally told Luis it was time to go to Alaska and meet everyone in person.Luis looked down at his laptop and smiled. He''d just written a post about his impending trip to Alaska to meet Jase''s family for the first time and someone had already left a nice encouraging comment wishing him well. In the past year, Luis''s life had changed in more ways than he ever could have portended. He''d been lucky enough to secure several good modeling jobs on his own, and he''d worked out an arrangement to be Elena''s exclusive guest blogger on his favorite website, Elena''s Romantic Treasures and Tidbits. He posted about his life and about his relationship with Jase. Though Luis and Jase kept their private lives very low profile, refusing interviews with some of the most prominent journalists in the world, there were millions of lgbt people around the world who seemed interested in them as a same-sex couple. When it occurred to Luis he could blog about his wonderful relationship with Jase on his own terms and in his own words, and help other same-sex couples by doing it, he asked Elena if he could do it on her blog instead of starting one of his own.This was important to Luis. He had seen and read about too many high-profile same-sex couples on TV, in film, in books, and throughout the mainstream media, who sent out mixed messages to the world. They were loud, often aggressive, and rarely represented what most same sex couples were about. Some were offensive; others absurd. To people who didn''t know anything about same-sex couples, these high-profile couples usually portrayed in the mainstream media were entertaining in the same way a sideshow at the circus draws attention. The only reason these same-sex couples had voices was because they were so extreme and the press always knew just how to bait them. Luis thought it was high time an ordinary gay relationship like the one he shared with Jase had a voice, too. His singular goal was to show the world same-sex couples were just like everyone else.When Luis began writing about his relationship and his life with Jase, he wondered if anyone would read his posts. He thought they might be too dull and ordinary. But he was inundated with e-mails from other same sex-couples, men and women, thanking him for what he was doing. They were the couples who didn''t fit into the gay stereotypes either. They praised him for working so hard on his honest blog posts. One gay man from the Midwest who had been with his partner for almost fifty years even wrote, "For the first time in my life, I don''t feel as though I''m being misrepresented by fakes who are only interested in worshipping Martha Stewart, signing autographs in front of Bloomingdales, and getting attention to promote their own personal agenda. Thank you so much!"While Luis closed his laptop and set it on the thick glass coffee table, Jase crossed into the living room and smiled. "What''s wrong?" he asked. "You look upset."Luis lifted his head and sent him a warm glance. Jase was walking around in his underwear, filled with so much life and energy, smiling more than he had in the past ten months. Luis couldn''t let him know how terrified he was of meeting his family for the first time. He couldn''t let him know his stomach was twisted in knots. "I''m good," he sa