You are cordially invited to view one of a triptych of stories involving the lives and loves of gay men who work or volunteer at the Sunrise Arts Center in Stafford, North Carolina. The three stories in this box set revolve around three men -- one a high school senior, one thirty-something, and one recently retired -- as each looks for companionship and love. Contains the stories: Whitney: Becoming the director of an arts center close to where he grew up seems like the perfect opportunity for a fresh start for Whitney Pell. He enjoys playing the field ... for a while. Then he begins to miss being part of a couple. The wedding band on Stuart Blount's finger means he's straight, or does it? Will Whitney's present cause the picture of domestic bliss they're painting to be torn apart? Jonathan: Retired English prof Jonathan Baker joins a men's book group and meets high school English teacher Frank Cummings. The men have several things in common. Both teachers, both belong to the same church, and both are of a similar age. Jonathan has previously lost a lover to illness and fears history repeating itself. Should people their age enter into relationships or just stay friends? Louis: Louis LeFevre doesn't fit in. He's Haitian, gay, and is a photography nerd. Judd Thomas is a soccer jock and needs help with an art term paper. Louis helps him get the terms and concepts right. They make for unlikely study buddies, much less lovers. Will their relationship develop into something beautiful or will they be forced to blow the whistle and walk away?

Dan Cole disappointed his parents when he decided not to go to college. Instead he tried a career as a mixed martial arts fighter. One particularly memorable match was against Casey Shaw, and Dan found it a case of either tap out or pass out. Dan chose the former. To his surprise, Casey invited Dan out for a drink after the match and they agreed to stay in touch. Believing Dan needed a ring name, Casey starts calling him Dan “Cool” Cole.<br><br>Dan eventually realizes he'll never make it in MMA. With his parents' help, he hies himself off to college. Specifically, Colby State, the alma mater of both his parents.<br><br>Casey, who’s already a student at Colby, offers to share an off campus apartment with Dan, who readily agrees. Dan finds it hard to live up to his Cool nickname where Casey is concerned. Dan is attracted to Casey, but Casey believes that as they look so much alike, dating Dan would be like dating his brother.<br><br>Casey appears uncomfortable at the number of sex partners Dan has, and Dan is jealous of the time Casey spends with their upstairs hunky neighbor. Will the two former fighters continue to just circle each other, or will they finally get physical and both end up winning?

Detective Sergeant Ray Stonesifer of the Colby Police is stuck behind a desk and is bored. However, things heat up, literally, when he’s sent on a stake out to watch a suspected meth lab that bursts into flames. Would that his personal life be as explosive.<br><br>Jesse Crofts is burned out by the competitive world of fashion modeling in New York and, after closing his eyes and stabbing his finger on a map of the US, he chooses a small city in Ohio to relocate to. A change of career requires an education, so Jesse enrolls at Colby State. However much Jesse wants to make a clean break from his past, a stalker has other ideas and follows him to Ohio.<br><br>Ray can’t imagine why someone as good looking and as experienced sexually as the former model would want to date someone as plain an uninteresting as him. However, he gets a chance to prove himself when Jesse’s stalker shows up in town, but will he end up making things worse?<br><br>Can a redheaded small town cop and a worldly-wise man from the big city make for an arresting pair, or will their passion fade as quickly as Jesse’s former modelling career?

An inscription in the front of a book has unexpected consequences for Adam Craig, the new English professor at Colby State University.<br><br>Adam has recently ended a long term relationship. Although the split was amicable, Adam is lonely. Enter sexy bookseller Tony Lucanno, the source of the book with the inscription. Adam has had previous dealings with Tony but the book brings them face to face for the first time. Alas, Tony can’t shed any light on the mysterious inscription, which Adam believes is a coded message from an older gentleman to a younger man. To add to Adam’s frustrations, Tony lives in Ann Arbor, at least seventy miles from Colby, which makes dating difficult.<br><br>Much closer to home is Blake Bellamy. Adam is captivated by the younger man on first meeting. However, their second meeting is in the classroom. Blake is a late entry student for one of Adam’s classes.<br><br>Adam has a decision to make. It isn’t easy. Tony or Blake? Will the inscription in the flyleaf point him in the right direction?

Joe Hill thinks of himself as an ordinary guy with an appropriately ordinary sort of name. He discovers that some other Colby residents think he's extraordinarily good looking, many likening him to Clark Kent. Joe’s newfound popularity goes to his head and he has a number of brief flings with various men around town.<br><br>Joe eventually begins to wonder if settling down with one special man would give him a greater sense of contentment. He sees the happiness his boss and a couple of his work colleagues enjoy with their respective same-sex partners, However, who would have him? He only spent one semester at college, and up until a recent promotion, Joe was employed mowing lawns and landscaping yards.<br><br>After offering to paint his landlady’s hallway, Joe goes to Home Depot for supplies. He has no idea what equipment he needs but a stranger helps him out. Joe is intrigued and turned on by the man but knows he probably won’t ever see him again. However, a couple of weeks later Joe see’s the stranger having dinner with his boss. Later still, Joe is invited to his boss’s house and he’s introduced to the stranger. Micah Sutton creates custom-made pieces of furniture. Joe is impressed by both the man and his woodworking talents.<br><br>Following a tentative start to their friendship, both men start to feel inferior to the other. Micah thinks he’s plain looking in comparison to Joe, and Joe believes a man with the skills that Micah possesses wouldn’t be interested in someone who spends his days ordering garden supplies in an office. <br><br>Is Micah’s and Joe’s relationship doomed from the start, or will they each wake up in time to smell the varnish/fertilizer to see they’re both exactly what the other needs?

Professor Everett Sloane is totally captivated with William Bond, one of his English students. The young man, with his fair skin, baby face, blue eyes, and curly blond hair, reminds Ev of Melville’s eponymous character, Billy Budd.<br><br>Student-teacher relations goes against college policy and could ruin the reputations of both men. Try as he might, Ev can’t give Billy up. With an unpleasant undercurrent of blackmail and deceit, is all as it seems? But who’s deceiving whom? Is sweet, beautiful William what he appears to be?

It's a Saturday night in Colby. The camera eye looks in on what ten couples from the popular series are doing to finish off the evening.<br><br>So fans can settle back and briefly drop in on some old favorites: Ben and Toby from <i>A Writer’s Romance</i>, as well as Jim Grant, Jake Handley, and Ray Stonesifer from <i>Cop Out</i> to name but a few are enjoying the evening, each in their own ways. Is everyone still together, or has the passage of time dimmed their respective romances?

Scott Wainwright, professor at a prestigious conservatory of music, thinks of himself as a concert pianist and teacher. He's upset when his department chair insists he be the accompanist to Joel Michaels, a violinist and fellow professor, in an upcoming recital. As he says, he didn't train to play "second fiddle" to some fiddler.<br><br>However, upon meeting Joel, Scott’s crusty exterior begins to crack. Despite a few artistic differences, practices for the upcoming performance go well. Can the beautiful music they perform on stage lead to a deeper connection off of it?

Captain Jim Grant of the Colby Police Department suffers lifechanging injuries while attempting to apprehend a suspect. On his flight back from recuperative leave, Jim sits next to the handsome Jake Handley, who he learns is a history professor at Colby State University.<br><br>Due to his injuries, Jim is no longer able to work the streets so he accepts a promotion. However, the new job is desk bound, and the lack of action isn’t easy for the action man to adapt to. There is one compensation, he’s given a cute male assistant, who he learns is also gay. Alas, his boss is one of the biggest homophobes on the force, so Jim is beyond careful where and how often he and Jake are seen out in public together.<br><br>Jake is out at work. While he realizes a university faculty is a whole lot different to a police department, he nevertheless begins to rail at the restrictions Jim places on their relationship. However, Jim is the first person Jake calls when a student threatens to make up a story about how Jake had agreed to raise the student’s grade if the student agreed to perform sexual favors on Jake.<br><br>Getting involved in an active investigation would be likely to cause questions to be asked within the police department. Will Jim risk his career and reputation for his lover, or will he cop out?

It’s late on Christmas Eve and French chef Albert Ronsard is driving home through a blizzard after attending midnight mass. He sees a young man hitchhiking. Knowing he shouldn’t pick up strangers, but it’s cold, it’s snowing hard, and it’s Christmas, so ...<br><br>Casey Shaw is traveling between MMA tournaments when his car starts to fail on him. He manages to pull into the parking lot of a strip mall before the engine dies completely. Even though the weather’s bad, Casey sees no alternative but to venture out on foot.<br><br>Despite their age and cultural differences, can these two men provide each other with a little festive friendship?

Ben Moss has a good day job with the Public Information Office of Colby County. However, at night he’s a successful -- if secret -- writer of straight romance novels. Ben has also written a "serious" novel about a man who is, like himself, gay. Unlike his other books, no one will publish it.<br><br>Ben’s cheating ex is sorry and wants to get back together. Ben’s new boss at work is sexy and Ben is very attracted to the man. Then there’s his neighbor, Toby Tabber. Toby is smaller than Ben, younger than Ben, and it’ll never work out between them. Or will it? <br><br>Can Ben find romance just like his characters, or will love remain strictly within the pages of his novels?

Eighteen-year-old Justin Quinn has had it pretty rough. His father dies unexpectedly. His first big crush loves him, but only as a little brother. His relationship with his high school boyfriend is mostly platonic and ends when they decide to go to different colleges. While working a summer job, Justin starts a relationship with a coworker, but soon discovers the other guy is only in it for the sex.<br><br>Justin has always believed his gaydar to be infallible. So he’s disappointed and conflicted to learn his hunky, muscled, and friendly college roommate Bailey Stone is straight. Frustrated, Justin finds a boyfriend who dumps him when Justin wakes up after a party, hung over and sore.<br><br>Justin knows he needs someone steady, reliable, and solid in his corner. Might Bailey be Justin’s rock, or will he continue to drift through college without an anchor?

The retired Rich sits in his rocking chair on the porch of his cabin and reminisces. W.B. Yates’ poem “The Isle of Innisfree “ seems to fit his mood and his life. Rich remembers his college days and his boyfriend, Lee. But that was back in the mid-1950s and Rich and Lee had to be extremely careful, even to the point of dating, then ultimately marrying, women.<br><br>After college, Rich was drafted into the army. He was happy but lost contact with Lee. Will life in retirement as a widower continue on its same lonely track for Rich? Or will he be given one last chance at happiness?

After four years of service, most of it in Iraq, Marine Sargent Brody Cox decides not to re-up. It’s the early 2000s and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is in effect.<br><br>Brody takes time to adjust to the choices he needs to make now he’s in civilian life. Although he knows he wants to go to college, he doesn’t know what to major in. His elder brother owns a couple of florist shops, so at least his part time employment situation is taken care of.<br><br>One of the first people Brody serves in the shop is his arch nemesis from high school, Dave Cromer. No matter what Brody did back then, Dave was always on Brody’s case. Frustratingly, it seems the older Dave is still insufferable, still arrogant, and still hella sexy ... and still straight.<br><br>Being in the corps meant Brody had to keep his sexuality a secret. So he’s relieved to be able to live more openly. However, his first few attempts at forming anything deep and meaningful with another man fall flat. But, try as he might, Brody can’t shake off his feelings for Dave Cromer. Seems Brody isn’t the only one who’s been keeping secrets.<br><br>Is the line between love and hate really that thin? And what about the line between straight and gay?

After an affair with a male student was exposed, fifty-something English professor Doug Curtis left his teaching job and moved to a small conservative town in central Florida. Keeping the closet door firmly closed, Doug rebuilds his life, makes friends, becomes active in his church, and volunteers for various local organizations. He’s settled, safe ... and alone.<br><br>There’s some excitement around town when middle-aged hot shot administrator Stan Mason accepts the position of city manager. Outwardly confident and capable, Stan hides a painful past of betrayal and heartache. When Stan sees Doug, he’s instantly intrigued, captivated, and aroused. He wants to find out more about the somewhat staid but sexy older man.<br><br>Doug is also excited at Stan’s arrival in town, and soon discovers they have many shared interests, including in each other. But this is a conservative area of Florida in the late 1990s, so they have to be discrete. Seeking escape from small town attitudes, they go south on vacation. Can what happens in Key West stay in Key West?

When university administrator Baxter “Bax” Crouse is invited to a dinner party given by matchmaking friends, he instantly falls for the other guest, financial advisor Russ Smith. Bax enlists Russ’s help to manage his accounts but the man’s skill with a balance sheet is only one of Russ’s many talents, ones that Bax feels far outshine his own modest abilities.<br><br>Amazingly, Russ returns Bax’s affections and things move quickly and they soon move in together. However, Russ is unhappy with his job and joins a local country music group, choosing to stay in the closet as he fears rejection from his band mates and fans. Bax is torn between loving Russ and supporting him to pursue his dream. Bax’s worries increase when Russ’s group is invited to be the support band for a major country act during their tour.<br><br>Do the university administrator and the country star have a future together, or will Russ be swayed by the bright lights of stardom, leaving Bax lonely every night?

Brent Collins, a new professor in the music department of a mid-western university, makes friends quickly among his students and his colleagues. A traumatic experience in high school has him determined to stay celibate in his personal life. However, his resolve is tested when he meets the very sexy and slightly older Gabe Sutton.<br><br>Although Gabe is happy in his work as an electrician for the college’s Buildings and Grounds crew, he’s less happy with his love life. He’s had brief flings with a few men, but none have been worth coming out of the closet for. That is, until a new French horn professor joins the faculty.<br><br>Though Brent and Gabe are careful not to be seen in public together often, rumors begin to spread, as does a series of electrical failures on work orders Gabe has completed. Someone is out to discredit Gabe, but who? Will these incidents cause the spark of Gabe’s and Brent’s budding romance to fizzle out, or will exposing the wrongdoer bring their duet into ever closer harmony?