“Hop in!” I call out, leaning over to push the passenger door open. The girl on the bench startles, her blonde hair catching the late afternoon sun. But her surprise washes away, replaced by a delighted grin. She springs to her feet and slings her bag onto my backseat in one swift motion. “Roman!” she chirps, sliding beside me. It is my turn to get flustered when she plants a breezy kiss on my cheeks. “Thanks for picking...

“How’d you even manage to make it here so fast?” Dad asks bluntly. “That motel you spent the night at is supposed to be a three-hour drive.” We’re having lunch on the lake house’s terrace, surrounded by the sounds of nature and the smell of grilled fish. Mom and Dad share one bench, and my sister Paige and her best friend Maddie huddle on the other. I’m sitting in my own creaky chair. “We followed Mr Johnson on some count...

Naomi’s familiar touch stirs me from sleep, her fresh hand sliding under the waistband of my shorts. “Mimi,” I murmur with a lazy grin as she wraps her fingers around my rapidly hardening cock. “Trying to get me in the mood?” Blinking away the haze, reality hits me like a punch to the gut. This isn’t my bed. This isn’t Naomi. She dumped me a month ago. I’m on the lumpy old sofa in my parents’ summer lakehouse. And the blo...

It’s nice to enjoy a minute of calm. The water is fresh, not too fresh. The lake is peaceful and lonely. I’m in no hurry to swim back to the shore. My parents’ lakehouse, right above the beach, is obscured by a thin line of trees. Drying myself under the early morning sun, I’m winded but still manage to hear people approaching along the small path to the Johnsons’ cabin. I’ve not seen Diane and Kevin in years. She looks g...

“Hey, Rom!” Dad’s voice booms as he waves me over from the grill all the way to the back of the garden. “Mind taking over for a while?” “Sure,” I say, wiping my hands on my shorts. Not like I have anything better to do. He hands me the tongs, but more importantly, his old apron, scarred with grease stains and burn marks from years of cookouts. “The Johnsons should be here any minute,” he explains. “I’d like to clean up an...

I’m not surprised to find Paige and Maddie sprawled on the lakehouse’s living room couch as I leave the bathroom. They’re munching on cereals, watching cartoons, still in their PJs. “Going for a run?” Paige asks as soon as she notices my clothes. She barely finishes the sentence before half-chewed Cheerios escape her mouth. She claps a hand over her lips, eyes wide, and then bursts into laughter. “Yup,” I smirk and head f...

“Hey,” Paige grumbles as I plop down beside her at the kitchen table. “Rough morning?” I keep the chuckle in check when I see how wrecked my little sister looks. “My head hurts,” she says, hunched over a steaming mug of coffee. “Also, I’m pretty sure I caught you necking with my best friend of fifteen years in your car last night.” That’s it. I’m done for. I don’t breathe, don’t move, waiting for the fallout. But Paige ju...

“So you’re really moving out today?” Naomi, my ex-fiancée, sits across from me at our kitchen table. She absent-mindedly spears a cherry tomato with her fork while I chew through a dry sandwich. “Yeah,” I say. “Friends are coming to help out in a bit.” She nods, thoughtfully. “That’s it then,” she says. “End of an era.” Most of our conversations have looked like that since she dumped me. Naomi desperately filling the sile...

I sputter, coughing up the blonde strands stuck to my lips. Blinking against the light, I find the culprit. Maddie, of course. She’s draped over me, naked and softly snoring, her warm breath tickling my chest. Her arms cling to me, her legs tangled with mine, our bellies flush together. Like a cute, slutty blanket. Maddie was supposed to give me a quick tour of her dorm following our Saturday picnic lunch near campus. Ins...

Maddie dutifully snaps another lamp’s tag with her phone before breezing past me to a new part of the store’s showroom. Her hair’s floral scent floats in the air behind her. “We’re only here for a desk and a chair for my home office,” I mutter, dragging my feet to follow her. She snorts. “Yeah, right.” Maddie spins around to face me, arms crossed over her chest, a teasing smile playing on her lips. “Your place is so bare,...

“Just one minute!” Maddie shouts from the bathroom, dragging her last word out in a sing-song lilt. She’s not usually high-maintenance, but this is Halloween. I collapse back onto the couch, hoping our Uber doesn’t show up too fast. I barely get a few doomscrolls in before the bathroom door creaks open in my bedroom. Then, clicks. The sharp sound of heels on hardwood. I’m on my feet in an instant. She’s been buzzing ever...

I scan the line of people waiting at the airport’s arrivals gate, expecting to find Maddie. Probably holding a shitty cardboard joke sign. And a big, happy smile. Her texts have turned downright horny in the last few days of our week apart. Instead, I clock a slightly taller blonde in aviators, chewing gum, and dressed like a Florida weather warning. Baggy hoodie, athletic shorts, flip-flops. No sign. I’ve not seen Claudi...

The small changing room smells like incense and freshly laundered towels. I take the robe from the hook and slide into it, luxuriating in the soft, cloud-like fabric against my skin. A satisfying tug cinches the belt around my waist. Jules meets me in the hallway with a caring smile, her black hair spilling neatly over her shoulders. She’s tall and elegant despite wearing the same cozy gown as I and a discreet beach bag....

The priest, a withered man from Martinique whose voice still carries better than the old chapel’s speakers, finally tells us to sit down for the last time. All around us, the small parish slumps with relief. Nearly two hours of Christmas mass has worn them down. I look over at the four Millers, sitting in a well-behaved row. Predictably, my eyes land on Roman’s broad shoulders. He’s not doing anything special. Just breath...

I wake up cold, on my side. My hand fumbles forward, seeking Roman’s reliably warm chest. Instead, I smack into a freezing concrete wall. Kill me. I’m alone in my stupid-narrow dorm bed. I groan and shove my face under the pillow. “Tash’, turn off your fucking alarm.” But the blaring doesn’t stop. And right as I think my day can’t start any worse, Tasha, my roommate, yanks the covers clean off my back. “Put some clothes o...

“Hurry up,” Tasha scolds me. She’s the one who told me to ‘slut it up.’ I’d love to see her try to haul ass in four-inch heels without snapping an ankle. She picked flats, of course. The hypocrite. “It’s my birthday, you don’t get to talk to me like that,” I whine. It’s not very effective. She doesn’t slow down. A gust of wind passes right through my coat, and I hunch lower, cursing my little black dress for doing absolut...

“Back in a sec,” Maddie chirps, right before bolting from the terminal check-in line and disappearing in the crowd, blonde ponytail wagging behind her. Paige snorts. “She needs to get her prostate checked out.” I look down at my little sister. She smiles at me, happy to let me carry her bags. It’s a lot of stuff, even if she ended up staying two weeks at my place. Maddie and I took turns showing her around the city whenev...

I push lower this time, getting my chest as close to the ground as possible, and my spine creaks. With the amount of running I'm doing lately, I have no choice but to take stretching more seriously. Across the walkway, an old lady, my upstairs neighbor, I think, gives me a sympathetic smile as she lugs a grocery bag into the building. She's probably used to the sight by now: Roman Miller, sweating the anxiety through his...