“Moving on is easy. It’s staying moved on that’s trickier.” ― Katerina Stoykova Klemer
Matthew Collins has just joined the ranks of the officially dumped. His lover, Milo, has left him for another man. Or maybe the better term is “another sucker”, because that’s the only kind of guy who’d take on a freeloading couch surfer like Milo; though it doesn’t take New Guy very long to cop onto Milo’s ways and kick him out for the leech he is.
Matt never got tired of Milo’s slacker ways. Leastwise, not so much as he’d have dumped the man for his lack of motivation to find gainful employment, so when Milo dumped him, it threw Matt’s world into a toilet-flushing spiral of bed-hermiting-depressional proportions. So much so that the nosy old woman next door calls the police; not for fear of Matt’s demise but because he hasn’t collected his trash can from the curb in a timely manner. But, you know, you can’t really look a gift busybody in the mouth.
It’s the woman’s interference that finally prompts some action from Matt… if by action that means burrowing down under his Bart Simpson comforter and hoping whoever is pounding on his front door will just go away. He doesn’t get his wish, though, and when two police officers find him in his olfactory-offending state of doom and gloom, it finally prompts Matt to realize he’s going to have to, as the old song goes, pick himself up, dust himself off, and start all over again.
Gabe West was one of the two responding officers who showed up at Matt’s bedside to ensure he was still amongst the living and breathing, and it’s a good thing Gabe doesn’t go by first impressions; otherwise, he likely would have ignored Matt when he ran into him at the gym. And Gabe would have got away with it too, because Matt has no idea who Gabe is, apart from being a rather sexy guy of indeterminate age thanks to his silver hair.
Matt’s slowly but surely recovering from being dumped but isn’t anywhere near ready to dive into the dating pool again, so it’s another a good thing for him that Gabe is willing to take things slowly and just be the friend it seems Matt needs more than anything else. And, you know, that works out really well for about a minute, considering how attracted Matt is to PC West.
And, of course, that’s about the time Milo shows up on Matt’s doorstep again, looking for a place to sleep that isn’t a park bench.
Tumbling Blindly is the story of a man who has a difficult time standing up to the one person he really needs just to scrape off the bottom of his shoe, when an overnight couch offer turns into a week of mooching; it’s the story of a man who’s pretty good at manipulating and taking advantage of the man who’d once loved him; and it’s the story of a man who can very much see himself in Matt’s life and is more than willing to be patient until Matt is ready to move on completely.
Sue Brown tells a story I think everyone can relate to here. I mean, who hasn’t cried over a break-up and thought they’d never love or trust anyone with their heart ever again, only to have Mr. Right show up like a sexy silver-haired knight in shining armor? Only Matt? Okay, maybe just the sexy silver-haired knight part is a bit of a stretch for most of us, but the rest is pretty universal, and it was a great way to spend the time reading to find out how long it’d take for Gabe to wear down Matt’s resistance in his pursuit.
If you’re looking for a quick little read with a couple of guys learning how to connect and communicate and fall for each other, give this one a go.
Reviewed by: Lisa
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