Going The Distance — Anah Crow; Dianne Fox

When Benaiah Day attends a conference in New York City, he asks Jess Leonard to break out of his comfortable rut and come along. After all, they are...well, something. Through the months, their mutual attraction has held strong across the distance between their races, classes, and cultures. Yet it stings when Jess says no, even if Ben was expecting it, and leaves him wondering if he's making a mistake investing himself in the relationship. Worse, being in New York means he'll spend days fending off Andrew, his ex. It seems no one but Ben thinks he's serious about Jess.

Jess thinks he's fine until Ben is actually gone, and then he's left with an empty spot in his life where Ben belongs. It's convenient to have Ben around, and just as convenient when Ben fades back into his own world, but Ben being hundreds of miles away is something else altogether. Jess's friends and family push him to face up to how he's been treating Ben as a temporary lover instead of the partner he could be.

When Jess makes the trip after all, he has his first moment of real peace in years. In his small home town, everyone knows his business, but in New York, he's just Jess, someone who might be good enough to be at Ben's side even in a room full of professors and scholars.

Ben is thrilled that his lover followed him to New York, but he also knows he's as much to blame as Jess for the uncertainty between them. Jess's life is due for a major overhaul, and Ben has to get up the nerve to rock the boat or risk their relationship ending up like the Titanic.

Soon, both men realize that getting to New York and back is easy; it's the distance between their lives that's keeping them apart.