A glossy black coating mirrored my face and reflected my disinterested expression back to me. I clasped the phone between my shoulder and chin as I continued to carefully paint my toenails. My boyfriend is on the other end and he’d been talking intermittently for several minutes, in that time my attention had drifted so far that I was now paying more attention to the pedicure I was giving to myself. He’s telling me what a...

He felt alive, like a man possessed by newfound confidence. His love for Elara was more vivid than ever, and his natural desire to protect and provide seemed supercharged. Yet, alongside this, he felt suddenly masterful and dominant. He was an accomplished academic with a successful career as a private equity manager, he was not a weak man but this was a new level of confidence and assertiveness he was experiencing. In th...

Jeni greeted the returning Devin and Reina as she was flipping her door sign from open to closed. “Welcome back, Young Patron, friend Reina.” “Good evening, Jeni. You seem more… upbeat. Did something nice happen today?” asked Devin, kicking his boots clean of snow. “This one and industrious Azalea have been strengthening the bond between friends.” “Oh? Always good to hear. How so?” Azalea dove at Devin’s chest, hugging hi...

It’s strange how life brings you back to places you thought you’d outgrown. I hadn’t planned on returning to my hometown, not after spending ten years carving out a life far away, one I thought was solid. But life doesn’t care about your plans. And when everything fell apart, my job, my marriage, there was nowhere else to go. I stared up at the house, my fingers tightening on the cold metal of the keys. It was big. Bigger...

Anna sank deeper into the warm, bubbly water, her long blonde hair cascading down her back like a golden waterfall. The warm glow of candles flickered softly while rose petals floating around her released their subtle scent into the air. It was the perfect oasis, and Anna felt her tension melting away with each passing moment. As she closed her eyes, she sensed movement behind her. She opened them to find Linda walking in...

Dear Brian, I am in Houston this week. I found love... at least for a few hours Tuesday night. A cute little Mexican girl, about twenty-two or twenty-three years old. She was at the bar all alone. I struck up a conversation with her in Spanish (yes, I am bilingual in addition to being bisexual). We spoke for about forty-five minutes. She told me her whole life story about how she left Juarez because it was so dangerous th...

Eight in the morning hadn't been when they'd planned to get up, but the doorbell was insistent in its ring. Staggering down the stairs, bleary-eyed and only dressed in a silk robe, she answered the door warily, a friend of theirs standing in the rain and soaked through. 'Zoe! What happened to you?' she asked. 'I left my keys at home, and Amanda has gone away for the weekend,' Zoe replied 'I'm locked out of my own house an...

I walk in. The house is dark. The chair by the door looking so inviting. The laces of my boots digging in. I sit down and start to unlace and pull my boots off. You have been so adamant that I not wear them through the house. A hard sigh escapes my lips as I stand up and tiptoe to the stairs. I try my damnedest to be quiet as I unbutton my uniform as I climb the stairs. Letting it slip off my shoulders, I turn and walk to...