Phillipe was excited. He had a job painting the outside of a cabin on a lake. He'd get to stay there for up to three weeks to do the work. As a nineteen-year-old, having a place all to himself for the first time would be novel. He wouldn't have family around to bother him. He could do what he wanted when he wanted. This, he expected, was going to be fun. He envisioned days giving a fresh coat of color to the weathered woo...

Chapter 11: Aftermath The refrigerator hummed in secretive indifference as Marlene navigated her morning. Its monotony barely concealed the disarray in her thoughts, each flicker of doubt manifesting in a clink of silverware or the uncertain weight of coffee cups cradled in her palms. Pictures framed a life of bygone simplicity, their frozen grins a silent indictment of the passions now in play. Her routine bore the hollo...

As Easton secured his boat to the floating dock, the August sun baked its unrelenting heat into his skin. For months, he'd been bringing supplies out to this island in the middle of the river, and for months, he'd wished for cooler temperatures. It would soon be fall, he told himself. The thought cheered him until a darker one took its place: come fall, I might not need to make this trip anymore. He was always relieved to...

“So what would you like for your birthday?” I asked Justin, turning my back to him as I was taking dishes out of the dishwasher and putting them into the cabinets. “You already got me something,” the boy told me after he had eaten a bite of the sandwich I had made him for lunch. “Don’t be silly; that was not a birthday gift,” I replied. “It was expensive, Natalie, and you don’t have to get me anything else,” Justin insist...

‘She is the apple of my eye. The calm in my storm and when I am with her, I feel reborn.’ Kurt scribbled out his attempt of a poem because he could never write down what Chardonnay had meant to him. He closed his eyes and conjured up an image of her from their last meeting. Was it really a week ago? It felt like a whole long wet April month had passed. Disappointment and disdain can do that to a person’s soul. It can make...

It was a Saturday when Justin spent the night. I didn't fret about what to wear or what to cook. The boy had seen me without makeup on several occasions and wearing just leggings and a tee shirt. I didn't need to impress him. I did want to dress nicer for myself but not overdress. I wore a simple green dress where the hem came up 2 inches above my knees. I wore my hair down and just brushed it out without styling it, but...

I slid open the glass door and stepped into the breath of summer—warm, thick, and welcoming. My bare feet left the soft hush of carpet and met the slap of hot concrete. I flinched as the heat bit into my soles and tiptoed across the patio until the grass welcomed me—cool, lush, forgiving. A soft sigh slipped from my lips as the sting melted away. I glanced down, trying in vain to glimpse my toes. It had been months since...

Della dropped Frank's keys into her purse as she entered his apartment. Trailing behind her, Frank stood bewildered, watching as she strode about the place, through his kitchen/living room and down the short hallway, like an admiral inspecting a ship. Having admitted to Della (and to himself) only moments before that to serve her as her cunt-lapping lackey was his only desire, Frank was dazed. He stood, waiting in a stupe...

Saturday. Tommy entered the laundry room carrying a basket of clean clothes. They were the clothes he cleaned yesterday and left in the basket for this moment. The room was empty of people, with one running dryer. He closed the laundry room door and then locked it. Sixteen minutes. That was the time left on the dryer. Tommy quickly opened the dryer and sorted through the contents. Tommy checked a pair of panties, then ano...

I woke up the next morning when my alarm went off at seven. I then started my daily routine to get ready for the plans I had for the day. Maybe some women would have wasted their day reflecting on their guilt and shame if they had done what I did the previous day, but I was not that type of person. What happened had happened and there was nothing I could do to change that. If Justin did come over that afternoon like he sa...

I am a sixty-one-year-old divorced, mother of two and a grandmother of three. I have been divorced since I was fifty-one when my husband left me for a much younger woman. This is a story of when I was sixty years old and how I ended up in a sexual relationship with a young boy who was nineteen when we first started our affair. We had a discreet affair for almost nine months. Once that affair ended and I had tasted the for...