“Baby, you haven’t told a story yet,” said Hanna sweetly, her fingers combing their way through David’s moistened hair as she kissed his temple. “Tell us about someone you liked.” The ripples of dark water were streaked with narrow lines of reflected starlight. The night was quiet and the sound of Hanna’s body emerging from the water in order to place her breasts at her husband’s mouth overwhelmed all other noises around...

“You should talk about Lilly,” David said softly to his wife, who was curled up on his lap in the lazy swirl of hot tub bubbles. “I love that one.” We spent long stretches of our first two nights together – times when we weren’t actively in bed – in warm spring-fed water on the deck of our cabin. We told stories idly, asked questions, and fondled one another’s mineral-slickened skin beneath the water’s surface. “Lillypalo...

David and Hannah and I had spent the night in my bed together for the first time. Romantic discovery is a powerful stimulant and as a result, I hadn’t slept much. There was a great deal of whispering, joking, quiet exploration of different textures of skin, and naked cuddling. I remember times like these: the elysian years during college when long sleepless nights of play with a new flame were not infrequent. But it has b...

The cards were slick and stiff in my fingers. They smelled new. I took a long pull from my sweating bottle of beer, feeling relaxed and happy to have people over. A few days ago I read an article about how American men often don’t have close friendships. They get lonely and the loneliness makes them sick. Well, I was determined to nip that in the bud and that same afternoon, when a few of the guys from work were talking a...

“No! Fuck you - I changed my mind,” she laughed, as I hooked her knee from behind and threw her onto her back. We grinned wide-eyed at one another when the mattress lurched beneath us and the walls echoed with the impact of the headboard. Hanna worked to fight me off while I held one of her wrists solidly against the bedsheets. The other wrist fluttered like a flock of panicked birds and I couldn’t follow it quickly enoug...

The concrete under the float rose in a gentle wave as my hand passed it over the surface. It was satisfying. Smooth. The midday sunlight caught what little water remained in the slurry as it was pressed into the broad plane of what would soon be David and Hanna’s back patio. David and I had been working since sunrise hoping to get it done in the coolest part of the day but now the desert southwest summer was driving us in...