Vera eased into consciousness after, finally, a decent night’s sleep, her first sensation the feel of Phil’s arm close to her side, not touching but close enough that she could feel its radiant warmth. The familiar pleasure too quickly gave …
I walked with my son Jay, who was back for a month to visit me in Osaka during his summer vacation from college in the US, by the cramped shop with the sizzling wok that sold deep-fried maple leaves at …
Walking through the door to the board member’s party, Tom is immediately drawn to the host’s sixteen-year-old son, who’s giving a small crowd in the corner of the room the full “jet fuel can’t melt steel beams.” His prey’s eyes …
The first time I saw Chetachi after she moved into our house, she was in the backyard, brushing her teeth. Even through the toothpaste foam, I could tell she had a gleaming white set of teeth.
‘Hi,’ she mumbled, looking …
Five Twenty
Marco turned the key in the ignition. “Click.” Just a “click.” The car didn’t start. He checked the transmission in “park,” the brake pedal depressed, and turned the key again. Again nothing. A dead battery. Marco pounded the …
‘I am going to kiss you so hard you’ll never forget it,’ Rod announces as I leave his yard to go home for dinner. I smile uncertainly because I want to be polite and because Melanie and a few other …
They met through a mutual acquaintance, a photographer who had a knack for bringing people together. “You’ve got a lot in common; I think the two of you would hit it off.” Though she’d heard that line before, she was …
I never thanked my stepdad for nudging me off course when I already had one foot on the fast track to ruining my life. I didn’t even know what he was up to before it was too late to undo …
It was a Friday night and I just came from work, the door to the sitting room was closed and from outside the house I saw that the light was on but I just assumed that County Boy was having …
Cassandra’s Unisex Hair Salon and Psychic Palm Advisory occupied 700 primo square feet in a renovated strip mall fronting Columbia Pike just minutes from the Pentagon and a nine iron shot across the Potomac River to the District of Columbia. …