RELEASE BLITZ
Book Title: Butterflies I
Have Known
Author and Publisher:
Kristoffer Gair
Cover Artist: Kris
Norris
Release Date: June 6,
2023
Genre: Contemporary M/M Romance, Comedy
Tropes: Destined to be together
Themes: Trust, destiny
Heat Rating: 3 flames
Length: 72 728 words/271
pages
It is a standalone story and
does not end on a cliffhanger.
Buy Links
Even time cannot stop
love.
Blurb
Even time cannot stop love.
University professor Matthew Richter hates complications.
Planning his every day down to the second leaves no opportunity for a social life, which he
doesn’t feel the need for anyway. Jian Wei helps run his family’s business. The only thing he
enjoys more than tormenting his parents and siblings with endless pranks is plotting his next
trick on a certain uptight customer.
Though so different, chance inexplicably draws them both
to a World War II photography exhibit, and the aging photographer Milton Glass. Milton
shares the story of two soldiers brutally cut down on the battlefield—which has haunted him
for the better part of his life—and his suspicions that the soldiers shared a bond they never
fully realized.
Now, in the twilight of his life, Milton can’t help but wonder
if Matthew and Jian share a potential bond of their own. Could they possibly be the same
men from so long ago, returned for a second chance at being together?
Milton can hope.
Excerpt
Jian opened a cardboard container filled with lemon tea
and grabbed two six-packs. Mister Important Professor could afford to buy two, especially
since he’d inconvenienced Jian in the first place. He then checked the incoming produce, and
when he didn’t find any lychee, grabbed a third six-pack of the tea.
Jian’s father was nowhere to be seen when he returned. So
much the better.
“Here you go, Mister Important Man.” Jian transferred the
tea from his arms to the arms of the object of his discontent. “Thank you for waiting so
patiently while your humble servant retrieved what he could of your most profound wishes.
No fresh lychee either.” He started to head away, then stopped. “Or is it Mister Important
Professor?”
The professor’s face turned beet red. “I never said I was
important.”
Thinking of the professor as the professor felt…odd. The
name suggested someone much older, like in their fifties or sixties. This one didn’t look
much over Jian’s age. Maybe he was an old soul acting like an old man in a younger man’s
body. What a waste of good genetics.
“True. My father says you’re important.” Jian knew he could
be accused of being rude, but he switched to speaking Cantonese to avoid insulting the
professor in a language the man understood. “You almost never talk when you come in here, and you give off the impression you
don’t want to talk to anybody, like they’re beneath you. You might even be handsome if you
learned to smile and changed everything about your personality. Right now, you’re just
another uptight white man. But, we do appreciate your business.”
The professor stared at Jian for at least a solid ten seconds.
While the man remained silent, he moved his lips, though almost imperceptivity. Jian swore
the professor must be continuing the conversation in his head. Seriously? Who does something like that? Is he even
human? The professor finally took a deep
breath and exhaled. “Thank you for the items.”
Jian watched him start walking away. Much to his surprise,
the professor paused and looked back over his shoulder.
“Oh, I don’t
think I’m better than anyone else, and I’m not trying to be something I’m
not,” the professor spoke in perfect
Cantonese. “Also, I come here because I love the food. Finally, you don’t know me well enough to
talk about my personality. That would be like me saying you come across as someone who
enjoys annoying his father and the customers for no other reason than because you can, and
you probably admire yourself in the mirror every morning, too.”
Jian felt his jaw drop, which he then shut with a loud snap.
“What? Seriously? You’ve been shopping here since we opened two years ago and you
couldn’t mention you speak Cantonese? You’ve understood everything we’ve been saying
about…I mean to you?” He decided to change tactics and switch to Mandarin.
“You sure talk when you want
to.” See how Mr. Important Professor liked
that!
“I only speak
when I have something to say,” the professor
replied back to him in Mandarin.
Jian felt his own face burn with the sudden rush of blood.
“Don’t let my father hear you speak Mandarin! He’ll probably offer you my bedroom and I’ll
wind up in the basement. Why are white people so weird?” He stormed off and caught a
Caucasian woman glaring at him. “Not you. Him. He’s weird. You’re perfection. Have you
tried the new Thai milk tea packets we just got in?”
“Jian!” His father’s voice bellowed
throughout the store.
“Huh.” Jian looked up at the ceiling. Had his father installed
cameras he didn’t know about? “He doesn’t even have to see me do something wrong
anymore to know I did.”
About the Author
Kristoffer Gair grew up in
Fraser, MI and is a graduate of Grand Valley State University. He is the author of 10
novels—some written under the pseudonum Kage Alan—been a part of 6 anthologies, and
currently lives in a suburb of Detroit.
Author Links
Blog/Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
