Sometimes I wish I’d kept track of just how many times I’ve been in my favorite coffee shop. Surely it was in the hundreds by now. Somehow they survived the invasion of chain coffee shops, probably because they always had some vegetarian food and fresh soup ready for the college kids.
It was an odd layout that only a small town without city planning can create.
The coffee house itself was long and narrow and butted up against a beauty parlor. Then if you stepped out the back door,
I could have sworn she was about my age.
I’m 21 now, making me a dedicated observer of girl’s asses and legs for the last eight years or so. I can detect the slightly-too-slender look of a hot little piece of jailbait, or the subtle signs of impending cellulite that brand most older women.
So as I walked along the beach perhaps 30 feet behind the bikini-clad brunette, I never would have guessed she was old enough to be my mom.
It was about 8:30 on a sticky, windless June evening in
“Fi! Hold the door!”
A screech cuts through the rush hour bustle, and I wince in recognition. Clutching my bag closer, I sink into my seat and stare at the Metro doors, willing them to close.
“Fi!”
I duck my head. I know she knows I can hear her, but I don’t care. I’ve never made a secret of hating her.
The familiar, ugly clanking of the door chime sounds, and hope brushes against my heart like a feather. But no, in the last instant, Noa pushes her way
Part One: Backstory
There are many up-sides to growing up without a dad, but dealing with your mom is not one of them….
To say that my mom loved my dad would be the understatement of the century. They were married just days after they turned eighteen and actually walked down the aisle together at high school graduation. No one had
Eventually Alan’s contract came to an end and we decided to move to England. South East Asia was suffering further problems and the tourist industry was dead for the time being. His final contract had been quite large and employed a mixture of Australians, Canadian and a couple more Brits. We had all become good friends over the past eighteen months, spending many nights drinking, either in bars or at our house.
We had bought quite a large place about fifty meters from the beach but our
I first went to Florence with my parents when I was 18. We were to spend five days there as part of a tour of Italy. When we arrived at the Hotel late in the afternoon the manager and I found that we could talk to each other in French and so, as my parents didn’t speak Italian, I did the negotiations. When we had sorted out the rooms the manager asked me quietly if I would like to take a bath a little later and I had agreed that I would like a bath sometime after dinner. We finished our
The Schoolhouse was Rob and Penny’s first home together and it was perfect. The grey stone building had lots of character and was set in a very private garden just outside the village which was only an hour’s commute to Rob’s office.
Rob’s recent promotion meant that Penny had been able to give up her IT job with a major corporation and the aim was for her to work from home setting up the software business which she had always wanted to run.
But before that she would
Malek pushed open the great oak doors to the main hall, as if they were made of paper, despite them being over twenty feet high and over five inches thick. Sofia glanced in the direction of the noise and saw him standing at the door. The blue moon cast a shadow of his silhouette, as the reverberations of the boom were sent to
PART 1
I race to a halt and stand panting outside the office. My feet are killing me. These new high heels are not made for sprinting. Gulping a few nervous breaths, I smooth down my pink top and white mini. The door is ajar but I knock anyway then take a few steps back. I look down at my fluffy pink purse swinging back and forth across my thighs as if it’s as anxious as I am to get this thing over with. The door jerks open and I watch two slightly scuffed, black shoes step towards me. I
My name is Steve Larsen and for as long as I can remember, I’ve loved Laura Martin. Since grade school she has lived 3 doors down from me. We shared our first kiss when she was 8 and I was 9 and we’ve had our ups and downs over the years, but we’ve shared a unique friendship. We would compete for grades, while all the time helping each another study. Laura was beautiful, bright, and had a sparkling sense of humor. I could trust her with any secret and in times of trouble, there was no one that