The Merchant Of Venice Beach

Here’s a snippet from my WIP–a modernization of a work of Shakespeare with an m/m twist–this is part of Shylock’s WTF speech to Antonio–

 

We both watched as Sherlock stood and began his pacing routine. Jesse had already told me that this is what he did when he had to think about a difficult subject. I wasn’t stupid, though. I kept my eyes fixed on him, just to be sure.

“You know, fellas,” he said, barking out the words, “you’ve got an awful lot of nerve coming here and asking me for money.  I’ve heard the talk about what you and all your mincing, prancing gay friends think of me.” He stalked the carpted space between his desk and the bookself against the wall, fingering a small bust of a woman that looked to be solid gold. “Here comes that prick Sherlock, what an asshole.” He snorted, then turned to face us.

“A prick bleeds, though, my boys, and so does an asshole. You basically spit in my face with your perverted behavior, and you expect me to loan you ten thousand dollars?”

Bartholomew shrugged his shoulders.

“It’s a business decision, man. Nothing personal,” he said. Sherlock shook his head.

“Oh, that’s where you’re wrong,” he whispered, an evil, almost feral grim spreading across his face. “It’s nothing but.” He walked back to his chair, sat down, and propped his feet on his desktop. “I’ll loan you the money for a period of two weeks, that’s it, but there’s going to be conditions.”  I nodded.

“All right, two weeks it is, but what are the conditions?”

Sherlock smiled.

“For this kind of thing, I can’t go through the bank, it has to be from my personal cash.” He sat up straight, putting his feet on the carpet. “I won’t even charge you interest, hotshot, and you can give the cash to your butt buddy there, but there IS something I want if you default and I call the loan due.”

 

It’s going to be part of a charity anthology for It Gets Better–stories taken from Shakespeare in honor of his birthday 🙂