Staying overnight to break his journey allowed Henry to continue doing some of the things he enjoyed. His mind and body may not have been what they once were, but his stubbornness had remained undiminished. Tapping the entry code into the room he had rented online, Henry felt immeasurable relief at escaping the cold. However, the sound of footsteps coming towards him and the appearance of two young women from inside the r...

"If I sit in your lap, at least I'll give my feet a break, if nothing else," Dawn said after discovering a computer glitch had assigned the same train seat to two passengers. Lee smiled at Dawn's philosophical take on the chaos and felt it warranted a response in keeping with her light-hearted style. "If you do that, I'll get thrown off the train, so you'll get a seat anyway," Lee replied, making Dawn laugh louder than sh...

'Smuts!' As Joe looked at the message on his phone, he smiled with a surge of nostalgia that he knew only Katie would understand. Almost two years had passed since Joe and Katie had shared their harmless mischief online, but seeing the message reminded him of how much fun it had been. The request to 'suck me until told: Stop!' had become their signature greeting, and seeing it appear again brightened up what had otherwise...

Sally was heartbroken, and she suddenly hated the job she had as a mystery shopper. Sally had been asked to write a review of the phone-based ordering system and had used the opportunity to enjoy getting something that would add to the collection she had built up as a hobby. Serious nerds would have had this in their stash for years, but Sally hadn't. When she'd seen the unused and boxed item advertised, she had ordered i...

I awoke with a groan, the bright sunlight hitting my face like a sledgehammer and making me squint. My mouth was parched and my whole body felt sore. The soft beating in my skull didn’t make getting my bearings any easier. Holding up a hand to block the stinging rays, which had, in my opinion, no fucking right to torture me at this time of day, I took a look around and felt my stomach twist. I had not the faintest clue wh...

No matter where I tended to end up for the night, these little rituals kept me grounded, gave me a little bit of homely quality to counteract the tedious sterility of hotel rooms. I set my diary onto the nightstand, put the small pink cushion into the bed and hung up my black original Japanese kimono on the wardrobe. While I did this, I slowly disrobed and took a guilty pleasure in dropping the discarded items of clothing...