The house smelled like lemon polish and wealth trying not to show off. It was big but mostly empty like they’d only just moved in and hadn’t figured out what parts they wanted to live in yet. White walls. Pale wood floors. Big glass doors that looked out onto a backyard with a pool the color of glacier melt. Everything inside was sharp-edged and echoey like a magazine spread someone forgot to warm up. I didn’t mind. It wa...

The phone buzzed on the counter like it had something urgent to say. I dried my hands on a dish towel and checked the screen. Dahlia. Shit. I snatched it up before the second ring could finish and headed down the hall. My mom’s voice drifted from the living room, something about a recipe she’d seen online. Dad was watching the news, volume too loud like always. “Hey,” I answered in a low voice, already stepping into my ro...

I parked like I always did, way out in the corner of the mall lot, under that one sad-looking palo verde tree that gave zero shade. I don’t even know why I aimed for it. Habit, I guess. The asphalt was cracked out here, little weeds poking through like they were trying to escape. The sun was already doing its thing, baking the car roof and making heat shimmer off the windshield. Madeline slid out of the passenger seat slo...

It’s been eighteen months since I was last in Vegas. Since that room. Since the lights and music blurred together, and the walls closed in. Since the night I learned what happens when you say yes too easily. I don’t think about it much anymore. Not because I’ve forgotten, but because Dahlia showed me how to carry it without letting it bleed. Still, coming back here stirs something I don’t quite have words for. Vegas feels...

Fully Exposed By Welshman and LostCoyote ____ W ____ Well, it was definitely worthwhile coming all this way; more orders than I anticipated. The States was indeed going to be my company's biggest market. CES rocks! My flight back wasn't for a couple of days, so I had plenty of time to explore. But first, I was famished. I'd noticed a typical American diner earlier with actual waitress service! So I headed there intending...

It was summer in Vegas. Not that it was any cooler back in Scottsdale. Dry heat, yeah, but it still hits like an open oven when you step outside. In Arizona, you sweat and it disappears. In Vegas, it clings. The pavement breathes heat back at you like it's alive and pissed off. Even the nights stay hot, like the city’s too jacked up to sleep. I had come here for a friend’s birthday. A full week. One of those impromptu col...

It’s been almost a month since that party, but I still feel off. Like I’m moving through a world that doesn’t fully belong to me anymore. I follow the rules, hit the marks, snap the pictures, but part of me stays on edge. Not afraid. Just... charged. Chris started all this. My hot neighbor: the one I used to secretly watch mow his lawn shirtless, turned out to be something else entirely. My ticket in. The man who made me...

The past week had gone by quickly. My parents would be home in four days, and I could already feel the shift in the air. Like this strange little world I’d been living in, this secret space where I got to be someone else, or maybe more myself, was starting to dissolve at the edges. I’d spent every possible moment with Chris. He was my neighbor. The man I’d had a schoolgirl crush on since he moved in next door. At first, i...

There was too much drama back home. In the Pacific Northwest, everything felt heavy, gray skies, gray moods, decisions I wasn’t ready to make. The cold slid under my coat and into my bones. Rain pressed at the windows like it was trying to finish what my life had started. I needed to run. Just long enough to feel something besides stuck. So I booked the flight like I was buying gum. Packed a carry-on. Threw in several bik...

I wake up in his bed, naked and warm, with the sun dragging its fingers across the sheets. For a second, I don’t know where I am. Then I stretch, slow, sore, satisfied, and it hits me. The way I’d slipped out of my house at 3:40 a.m., wearing nothing but my crotchless panties. The way I pushed him back into this couch and took what I wanted. Last night, I was in control. Chris. My neighbor. The quiet one with the gravel v...

It was one of those days where the sun stayed soft, low, like it hadn’t made up its mind. Early spring in Scottsdale. Hot on the skin but cold in the shade. You learn to live between both out here. Two months had passed since that night at Zorba’s. Most days, I didn’t think about it. Not much. Not really. Life moved on. Family. Friends. College. Work. Everything was stacked in its neat little box. I’d gotten good at juggl...

It’s been three weeks. Three weeks since I let myself fall apart in that shop, in front of a stranger. I thought I’d get over it. I thought the fire would burn out, that the hunger would fade. But it didn’t. Nights are the worst. That’s when it hits hardest. When I’m alone in my bed, too quiet, and the heat inside me starts waking up. The memory of what happened in Zorba’s hits me like a hard slap. The way I felt when I t...

It was on the way home that I first saw it. Sparkling red in the harsh Arizona sun, a shiny business card caught my eye. One side blared in bold black-and-yellow block letters: ZORBA’S ADULT SHOP. A neon-yellow triangle screamed, 30% OFF. On the back, a crude little map pointed to a spot I instantly recognized. I passed it every day on the bus ride home, never giving it more than a passing glance. I slipped the card into...

We had a new neighbor move in next door when I was little. He was in his forties: tall, well-dressed, effortlessly charming. From the moment I met him, I felt an undeniable pull, a schoolgirl crush that settled in my chest like a secret too big to contain. My parents often invited him over for drinks or to watch football, and I knew, deep down, that my fascination with him must have been painfully obvious. As the years pa...