How far will a man go to prove he's a man when he's not sure what that means anymore?Avery is caught in the middle: grieving his homeboy Skate, fronting for his girl, and dodging the truth that haunts him. On the outside, he's got the swagger of a straight Black man with something to prove. But inside, he's struggling with a different reality-one he thought he left buried.When he crosses paths with Dre-a sharp-tongued, confident cross-dresser who sees through the front-Avery is pushed into a raw, intimate confrontation with himself. What starts as teasing turns into something deeper, and Avery finds the cracks in his own performance widening.This streetwise, provocative short story peels back the layers of masculinity, pride, and hidden longing. If you liked My Manhood Is Very Important to Me, then Antoine's Double Trouble goes even deeper-unpacking the same raw questions: What does it mean to be a man? And what happens when the mask slips for good? Charles W. Harvey is a native Houstonian and a graduate of the University of Houston. At UofH he studied fiction under the guidance of Rosellen Brown and Chitra Divakaruni. In 1987, Charles was a 1st place prize recipient of PEN/Discovery for his short story Cheeseburger, which went on to be published in the Ontario Review. In 1989 Charles Harvey was awarded the Cultural Arts Council of Houston Grant for Writers and Artists. Also in 1989 he was a finalist in the MacDonald's Literary Achievement Awards. Charles has been published in Soulfires, Story Magazine SHADE, High Infidelity, The James White Review, and others. He is the author of the novels The Butterfly Killer, The Road to Astroworld, and Antoine's Double Trouble. He is also the author of several story and poetry collections. He also writes for the stage and screen.
