“You’re right, Guantanamo Bay is the much stronger film,” Beth said, leaning forward to take her glass from the coffee table. She sat back into the couch, crossing her legs towards me, the hem of her blue wrap dress sliding above her knee. “I love Neil...
“I’m really sorry, mate,” the man said. He leaned forward to take his hand. “I don’t get it,” the kid said, trying to hold back the tears. “It’s just kicking a football around.” “I know,” he sighed, patting his hand. “It’s just with all this COVID bus...
It took her forever to find him, the backpacker’s day off with the poppies. His American accent grated her father, as too his artistic soul and retro flare. Strutting into his picnic, she let him woo her with all that wasn’t Tasmanian. Big eyes, attenti...
"Are you crazy?!" I clang my cup of tea unevenly down onto the saucer, the spoon cartwheeling onto the glass tabletop. "Yes, why are you even asking?" Ashley replies, snatching a tissue from the box amongst the clutter at the other end of the table and wi...
The fifty-two-metre fishing trawler loomed high above us, its rust-ravaged hull already succumbing to the relentless invasion of barnacles and other parasitic sea life. Listing forty-odd degrees on its port side, it exposed its belly like a lazy dog hopin...
The warning bell breaks the silence, and my concentration. The soft, supposedly unobtrusive note chills my overheated body to the bone. Only ten seconds left.I’m okay. There’s plenty of time. I just have to block everything out and focus.I can’t block him...
Spinning on the ball of her black leather flat, she twirls in front of her friend. The hem of her light-green tartan dress fans around her thighs in unison with her dirty-blonde curls. The sudden motion brings them face-to-face and stops them dead in thei...
Wendy scowled at the screen of her smartphone, the inane smiley-face emoticons fuelling her anger. Her blood boiled. She knew it was a mistake to rely on such a tenuous relationship, but her husband had insisted. The latter part of that thought sent her e...
I have never seen anything more orange than an African sunset. On that day, it was more surreal than any other, before or since. It was as if the entire sky seared with the bloodshed it reflected. The sun, however, too ashamed of what it had witnessed, wa...
The delicious aroma of onion and garlic simmering away in butter filled my nostrils as soon as I opened the door to my apartment. I smiled to myself. I loved it when Lizzy came over unannounced. "Hey, Babe," I called, as I disgorged the contents of my poc...
"Are you hungry?" Katie stretched against me, groaning like a lazy cat. "That's code for, you want dinner.” I flirted, watching her eyes twinkle back at me. "I know female-speak. I pay attention." "Well, if you know 'female-speak', then where's my dinner?...
"Will, quick! Pull in here," Katie cried, breaking the droning monotony of the off-road tyres on bitumen. I stood on the brakes and heaved my maroon Toyota Prado off the road to the right, bumping slowly onto the dirt track between the gates of a vineyard...
The steady mechanical chant of the escalators echoed in the cavernous loft, peacefully separated from the hustle and bustle on the other side of the automatic doors. Endless shades of glossy grey soothed my weary eyes as I ascended, leaning heavily agains...
That gentle little knock at my bedroom door always made me smile. I watched the handle turn, and then waited for Scarlett to poke her head through. It was a pretty regular occurrence whenever she spent the night over at our place. As much as I loved my li...
