Passions Divided

by Anthony Hunter

Sam Hayes has always been the reliable one—steady job in finance, long‑term girlfriend, tight‑knit friend group, life on rails. Then a stranger sends him a drink in a Hell’s Kitchen bar, and the careful story he’s been telling about himself starts to crack. The stranger is a magnetic, younger‑than‑he‑should‑be billionaire client who sees Sam more clearly than Sam sees himself. What begins as a charged friendship turns into a secret affair that collides with everything Sam thought he wanted—marriage to Emily, Friday nights with the guys, and a promotion he’s worked years to earn. As work stress peaks and his best friends’ relationship explodes, Sam tries to be all things to all people—good boyfriend, good friend, good employee—while hiding the one truth that could destroy it all. The double life takes its panic attacks, hospital stays, and a rooftop birthday party where a single panicked “no” shatters Emily’s dreams of a proposal. Set against New York’s bars, office towers, and a life‑changing trip to Bangkok, Passions Divided is a slow‑burn, high‑angst, queer contemporary romance about identity, desire, and the cost of finally choosing yourself. When the man he loves and the woman who’s always loved him can’t both fit in his future, Sam has to keep playing it safe, or risk burning down the life he’s built to live the one he can’t stop wanting.

339 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 21, 2015