"An amusement park?!?" said Collins through a fit of giggles after Mark recalled the events from the previous night as he and Mark shared a brunch of omelettes with smoked salmon and watercress salad on the side.

Mark rolled his eyes. "For the millionth time Collins, I didn't pick the place, he did. It was just a stupid bet. I am never seeing him again after this," he said defensively.

Collins grinned and took a sip of his Earl Gray tea. "No man, I didn't mean it that way. It's just that, I never really pictured you as the amusement park type person. You're more of a ballet, opera and theatre person."

"Yes, that I am," said Mark, spearing a piece of salmon and pushing it around his plate. "Which reminds me; I bought tickets for La Boheme for Saturday night. I'm gonna take Alistair with me," he said brightly.

"What?!?" said Collins incredulously, his fork suddenly dropping onto the plate. "Alistair Crowley? You mean to tell me you're still dating that loser? If you can even call it dating, that is."

"Well, I'll just have you know that yes, I am" said Mark firmly as he sipped his tea. "Not that that's any of your concern."

The professor sighed. "Why do you do this to yourself, Mark? Huh? Why the hell are you with someone who doesn't even consider you as a boyfriend?"

"He is my boyfriend, Collins," said the young doctor. "Well…...no, not yet, but he will be! We're still in the beginning stages of our relationship, you know. And why shouldn't I be with him? He's rich, smart, successful, ambitious and has a great future ahead of him."

Collins shook his head exasperatedly. "Stop fooling yourself, Marky-boy. You've been in the 'beginning stages' for more than a year now," he stated, making quotation marks with his fingers. "He didn't even show up for your first-year anniversary dinner, did he?"

Mark sucked his breath in sharply. "Well no, but he did give me this beautiful watch," he said, proudly holding up his wrist to show Collins a shiny, silver Rolex with tiny, microscopic diamonds in the watch's hands.

The professor nodded and smiled sagely at him. "It's beautiful, Mark. But all he ever gives you are expensive gifts."

The Jew stared at him blankly. "And your point is……..?"

"Forget it, Mark. You won't understand. All that matters to you is money, wealth, success and power," said Collins, getting up from his seat. "Just because he's a really good stock broker doesn't mean he's a really good boyfriend." He took his plate and cutlery to the sink, washed all of them and put them in the drain. "Well, I gotta go teach my afternoon class. I'll see ya later, boy," he said, grabbing his bag from the floor.

"Bye Collins," said Mark, getting up from his seat and collecting his plate. The professor waved and left the apartment, banging the door behind him. Mark washed his stuff and then went into his study. Since it was his day off, he decided to use to look at some medical reports and make a few phone calls.

While he sat at his desk looking at his documents, he got to thinking; what the hell is Collins talking about? What's wrong with having money and being successful? I much prefer being with Alistair, who's rich and powerful and has some direction in his life rather than someone like Roger, who has no money, no steady job and no ambition in life. People like him get absolutely nowhere. Satisfied with his little pep-talk, he picked up the phone and rang Alistair's number. Not surprisingly, it was busy.

"Hey Alistair? It's me, Mark. Um….how you goin? Busy?...Uh, me too. Hey uh, listen……I bought some……some tickets to La Boheme for this Saturday night, and I was just, you know…….just hoping that maybe you might be able to come with me?" He paused, not quite knowing what to say and having a great hatred for leaving messages on answering machines. "Well anyway, that, uh…….that's all I wanted. You take care and I'll, uh……I'll talk to you soon, babe. Ok? Bye, Alistair." After finishing his message, he hung up the phone and went back to his work while eagerly waiting for his boyfriend to return his call.

Mark looked at the clock, which read 7 pm. Stretching his arms, he decided to go to the hospital and see if they had received the test results of some of his patients from the labs yet. While he waited near the receptionist's desk, his cell phone suddenly he rang. About damn time, he thought.

"Hello, this is Dr. Cohen," said Mark into the phone.

"Hey Mark?" said the deep, gruff voice on the other end of the line which made Mark suddenly perk up with delight. "How are you? I just got your message."

"Hey, Alistair. Sorry I bothered you" said Mark shyly, tilting his head onto one side. "Yeah, I just wanted to know if you could come with - ,"

Alistair suddenly cut him off. "Hey it's okay, I was on an important call. Can you believe the Nikkei 225 dropped by 50 cents?? I mean, those damn Japanese make the most popular electronics in the world and then their shares go down?? Goddamnit!! I invested too much money in those damn fools, how dare they ruin me like this?? I will not stand for this crazy scheme of……….."

Mark just stood there at the desk, listening to his boyfriend ramble on and on and on about the amount of money he invested in the Japanese stock exchange while he waited for the test results that he needed. He sighed. "Yes yes, babe. I understand. But you still haven't told me yet. Can you come on Saturday night?"

"What?? Oh yeah yeah, sure. I'll be there. Sorry," said Alstair, suddenly coming back down the Mark. "I'll meet you in the foyer at around 6.30?"

Mark beamed. "Sure, that'll be great!!" he said happily.

"Alright, that's settled then," said Alistair on the other line. "Well, I gotta go give a presentation to my boss. I'll talk to you later. Bye!!!"

"Ok, bye baby," said Mark cheerily before Alistair hung up the phone. He couldn't wipe the wide smile off his face as he drive back home with the test results that he came for. He got home, tossed his keys on the coffee table and walked into his bedroom to hang up his jacket. Just then, the phone rang. Mark picked it up and answered.

"Hey Mark? Collins here," said the voice on the other line.

"Hey Collins. What's up?" said Mark.

"I'm coming home early today. I got us some pizza."

"Oh great! It better not be Domino's though," said the young doctor warningly.

Collins laughed on the other line. "No no no, don't worry, it's from your favourite gourmet Italian place. Roast eggplant with char grilled mushrooms, artichokes, olives, capsicum and mozzarella cheese. Healthy and kosher," he said.

Mark giggled. "Okay, bring it over then," and with that he hung up. He turned to leave the bedroom when his eyes fell on Randolph, the stuffed puppy that Roger gave him at the fair.

"What are you staring at?" he said, frowning at the animal. "I'm not interested in you anymore. I have someone better." And with that, he marched out into the living room to wait for Collins. I am happy, he said to himself. And Collins had better get that into his head.

Ooooohhhhh, what have we here?? Could this possibly be a secret love triangle?? Stay tuned to find out!!!