B-school classes. Unfinished taxes. Need anti-acids. Everything still in boxes. “You say something, Sweetie?” Laurel looks up from her Netflix binge. Relaxed as a cat. Not like me. “The Zantac?” I ask. Stomach in knots. “Spare room. Carton labeled ‘Bath.’...
I’d hit a rough patch in my personal life. So I book a week at a Club Med, hoping to get lucky with a willing partner. To find an uncomplicated woman. And I have a few questions weighing on my mind. I do get lucky. Ridiculously lucky. Twice the first day....
For my thirtieth birthday, I give myself a week at Club Med. Work is going great. Youngest partner in the firm, and all that. Personal life? Not so much. Samantha left with my best friend a while ago. The airport lounge is filled with respectful college...
Crossing 45th Street with Eva. We’re friends. Close friends. Like me, Eva bats from both sides of the plate. Her words. Not mine. Eva’s a baseball nut. Unlike me, she’s hot. Early 20s. Looks younger. Pert and pixie. Eyes follow her tight little ass where...
Whatever Miguel does, it makes big money. Import-export, he says. Porsches. Penthouses. Parties. Parties for his “associates.” Bad boys like him. And their women. Bad girls like Linda. Linda is beautiful. Tall and thin with outsized orbs. Tiny hips and a...
“Salty sweet like caramel sea salt ice cream,” Billy says out of nowhere. Alice looks around. Billy’s the cute guy from Poli-Sci 101. Alice is the shy girl who’s not comfortable in her own skin. Can’t be talking to her? “Or maybe bacon shortbread,” he sa...
Gina was always in the background of my summers, although back then she was so small that I thought of her as a little kid, if I thought about her at all. Small in size, not spirit. In some ways, Gina was always larger than life. Take gymnastics. Lots o...
"I hear she's a divorcee with a teen-age daughter," Mom hisses to one of her Love-Street friends in a voice dripping with disapproval. My parents have owned a lakefront cottage in the Love Street development for as long as I can recall. I've spent countle...
“Yes!" I shout to Tom as we toss our helmets and pads into our lockers. I’d gotten the green light to accompany Tom to Los Angeles for Thanksgiving. The only hitch, I promise to tour UCLA and USC. "No problem," Tom replies as we walk toward the showers. "...
When a Korean family rents a nearby Summer cottage, my dear mother volunteers me as an unpaid woodwind tutor. My student is a pretty college freshman named Su-Yun. Actually, she’d be a knockout if she weren't so painfully shy. She has long bangs that h...
An unfamiliar local number flashes on my cell-phone screen. ”Hi, Mary. It’s Wendy!” Someone has the wrong number. But the voice is young and pleasantly feminine with a familiar intonation. "Yes. This is Mary,” I tease. "My, what a deep voice you have," We...
I’m still unpacking when there’s a soft tap at my door. The girl who introduces herself as Gretchen, my Residential Advisor, has blonde ringlets, pale blue eyes, and a willowy frame that accentuates coltish legs that go on forever. Even in her Pine Creek...
Senior year at Pine Creek Academy. An unfamiliar local number flashes on my cell-phone screen. ”Hi, Mary. It’s Wendy!” Someone has the wrong number. But the voice is pleasantly feminine with a familiar intonation. "Yes. This is Mary,” I tease. "My, what a...
"Could you help me with my camera?" she asked. I was trying to pull the fog-shrouded pylons of the Golden Gate Bridge into focus on the ground glass of my old view-camera. As if by magic, Jillian's lithe silhouette emerged from the swirling fog. Even in t...
“I can’t,” Sally told me. “I promised Fred.” I was confused. Two weeks ago we’d fucked our brains out. “I thought you already auditioned every guy on campus, and found them all wanting.” The campus in question was an obscure New England college that cater...
