This story is set in contemporary Vancouver, Canada, one of the most culturally-diverse and LGBT-friendly cities on the planet.
Most of the scenes take place in the small area of False Creek South shown in the blowup above.
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Portions of this story are set behind the scenes of the restaurant industry, in areas beyond the scope of the public. I'm comfortable wandering through here, having taught Cooking with Wine, as well as Wine and Food Pairing in a major culinary institute in the 1980s. One of my students went on to open what was often called Canada's finest restaurant, and in 2005, he became Canada's first Iron Chef.
Through the 1980s and 90s and into this century, I wrote wine and food columns and feature articles in newspapers and magazines, and I often served as a judge for culinary and wine competitions. Also, during this time, I organised and conducted upscale wine and food tours to France, Italy and California. I know the industry's inner workings.
My writing is reality-based and character-driven, often deeply emotional, and as far as possible, it's presented without clichés and stereotypes.
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Copyright © 2021 by Michael Walsh
All rights reserved. No part of this story may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means, including but not limited to: photocopying, scanning, recording or information storage and retrieval, without permission in writing from the author.
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Trigger Warnings:
Depictions of emotional violence.
Explicit sex scenes.
Descriptions of enjoying superb wine and food.
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The header picture is by Ian Spence on Wikimedia Commons, and it is used without changes under the following license:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode
The map images are from OpenStreetMap and are used under their license.
Other images are creations of the author or are licensed or license-free.