Mindy Cooper lay on her bed, biting her nails. She shouldn’t be doing it, especially since her mother had spent a rather large amount of money on her latest manicure, but the situation was bad, really bad. She picked up her phone and read the text she had received earlier. She read it again, hoping what it said wasn’t true, but it was. She was now part of something that could and, in most likelihood, end very badly. Why h...

Mary looked at herself in the floor-to-ceiling mirror on the wall in her bedroom. Not bad, she thought while cupping her D-sized boobs. Since she never had children, they were still firm and round at forty-five. Her hands slid down over a flat tummy and down to her rounded hips. All those hours in the gym and the diets she followed had paid off. She was proud of her body. She got dressed, and as usual, it was conservative...

I lit another cigarette and looked up at the clouds that were gathering behind me. I figured I had about an hour left to fish until I had to pack up my gear and get going. Not that I had anything against rain. In Panama, the rain is warm and nice. I had laundry hanging outside, and I didn’t want that to get wet again. The fishing had sucked. One tiny Snapper for the whole three hours I had been on the beach. But who was I...

Sometimes you make the best of friends early in life. This was the case of Jeff, Anna, Jim, and Maria. Maria was an exchange student from Argentina at their high school, and she quickly became close friends with the others. Eventually, she and Jim fell in love, and so did Jeff and Anna. They were thick as thieves all through high school and opted to apply to the same university. After their graduation, they even moved int...

The little club was packed wall to wall with holidaymakers. The floor was wet from spilled drinks, and bodies moved to the music, mostly jumping up and down due to a lack of space. I checked that the next song was queued up and then let it spin. The crowd went crazy, and I smiled. Sipping from my soda, I looked for the next track and lined it up. The song that was playing was exactly five minutes long, which gave me time...

Steve had never felt fear in his life, at least not that gut-wrenching type that he felt while still seated on the plane. It had just landed at Tocumen International Airport in Panama. Deep in his heart, he knew coming back was a bad idea, but something always brought him back to Panama. He had been in and out of the country for almost two decades. It was a love-and-hate relationship. He loved the weather, laid-back lifes...

Steve sat on the terrace watching the tropical rain. It was roaring down making it hard to see the pool a few yards away. He knew it would flow over but there wasn’t anything he could do. The good thing was that the water would be cool. Normally it was warm like a bath and didn’t help much in the heat. He took a sip from his beer and lit another cigarette. Mimi, the labrador he was watching sauntered over and lay down at...

“This is some view you got here, man.” Bob handed Hank a beer. “Yeah, I can’t complain. You have the park right below and beyond that, the lake, and then the skyline of the city. I’m pretty happy. They sat down and put their feet up on the railing while sipping on their beers. Hank leaned forward suddenly. “Oh, what’s that? Looks like a pretty nice MILF.” Bob followed his gaze and smiled. “Yup, the park is full of them. A...

Blake took a deep breath and adjusted herself in the saddle. A few hundred yards ahead stood a little red cone on the ground. She put her heels into Viking who shot forward. She leaned into the wind and, when she was close to the cone, she slid down to her right so her body was parallel to the ground. She snatched up the cone and continued forward. “Holy shit, that was so cool,” said Johan who stood next to Karl and Anna....

The Airbus was a massive plane and it would take Blake to Sweden. She pressed her nose against the cold window taking in the large engine and the plane's wingspan. She was very excited for this was her first time flying and it would be a long flight from Idaho to Stockholm. She picked up her backpack and went over to a vending machine where she bought a bottle of water. Leaning against the wall she watched the other passe...

The was a buzz and the door to Charlie’s cell opened up. She opened her eyes and saw the guard standing in the doorway with a phone in his hand. “There is a call for you.” He placed the phone on the floor and closed the door behind him. Charlie knew she had five minutes to talk but didn’t know who was calling. “Hello?” “You know who this is. Just listen and don’t talk. The kids are coming to see you and they know.” Charli...

“Charlie, you have visitors. Back up to the door and put your hands through the slit.” Charlie lay on the hard cot in her cell staring up at the ceiling, not moving. “Let’s go!” She slowly got up wondering who had come to visit her. She had been in prison waiting for her trial for almost three months now and the only visitors she had had was the FBI trying to pry information from her. She didn’t tell them a word. She knew...

Carla looked out the window where the rain was falling hard. She was still in shock after meeting her brother. She had known about him but the idea of actually meeting had never crossed her mind. Her mother didn’t speak much about him for the simple reason she knew nothing about him as Carla grew up. Her mother had been like a ghost most of her life, slipping in and out when she was least expected to. She would show up fo...

Ann sat in the old rocking chair slowly moving back and forth while her baby fed. The room was hot and stuffy. Flies buzzed against the dirty windows. Pizza boxes littered the floor together with old beer cans. Cigarette butts fell out of the overfilled ashtray and it smelled of cat piss. She loved this part of being a mother. Some of her friends preferred to bottle feed their children but Ann felt that was wrong when she...

Three weeks passed before Rachel and Jenny could meet up for drinks after work. Rachel and been working on a big trial with her coworkers and Jenny had been on a business trip to Hong Kong. They met up at a bar with a large terrace that offered a two-for-one during happy hours. Jenny was already seated with a drink in front of her when Rachel arrived. She had picked a corner table away from the rest of the crowd who prefe...