As far as projects go, this one was kind of strange. On the surface, it was normal enough. A client contacted the company I work for to schedule an update to their security system. We do projects like that all the time. This project was different in that they requested that all on-site work be done by a single individual. Normally, we would send out an analyst to develop a plan, then a project manager to review the plan,...

My blind date ended abruptly. She had asked me what entrée I was likely to order, and seeing the amount of food that other tables were being served, I joked that maybe we should split whatever dish she preferred. She said, "I'm out," and she never looked back as she left the restaurant. As I sat in stunned silence, the waiter returned with our drinks. I handed him forty dollars as I slammed the Long Island ice tea that sh...

My wife started the game a few years ago. We weren't going to make the big swinger club party for New Years Eve, so we made sure we attended a smaller house party on the week before Christmas. She got to talking with another woman about how to break the ice and meet new people, and suddenly she invented a new game. She put five types of wrapped hard candies in a bag, and each of the women chose one. She put the same five...

Some people might label my step-daughter as being 'Goth,' but she isn't, and it makes me laugh that people think so. She is, however, obsessed with all things Halloween. Her bedroom is decorated to look like a pumpkin patch, and she spends the entire rest of the year planning her costumes for the month of October. On any given day of that month, she might be dressed as a witch, a cat, a ghost, a scary robot, or any other...

"How can I help you, Lieutenant?" I asked. I knew her request would irritate me, but in a ship this small, with its limited crew, politeness was the only way to maintain sanity. "Don't be like that, Parker," she schmoozed, purposefully leaving off my Ensign rank. "You know what I want, and you know it will be fun. We're doing our last jump in fifteen minutes, and it's probably my last chance at Sublime Eternity." "There's...

Last Winter We had a long, cold winter last year, and there were times when I thought I would never feel warmth again. Mid-February was the worst. Late in February, the weather warmed a bit, and I was anxious to get out of the house. It had been a while since I had visited a good bookstore, so I headed down into the city to do some shopping. At the used bookstore, I scored a couple of Heinleins and an Asimov that I had be...

Introduced at a wedding, we smiled, and talked, and then flirted like we were youngsters. As the reception ended, I invited her out, where we laughed, and talked, and then kissed. She invited me to her place, where we talked, and kissed, and slowly our clothes fell off. She posed and paused just before she pushed down her panties. “Promise you won't laugh,” she teased. “My ex-husband, Peter, was particular about the one t...

I've told my wife this story a time or two, and she still doesn't believe me. All I can say is she has seen the change in me, and she likes it, and I have no other explanation to offer. For most of my life, I was a creature of structure, order, and control. Maybe I was born that way, but I can say for sure that I had my life mapped out by the time I was ten years old. It was a good plan, a solid plan, and I adhered to it...

I just don't understand kids these days. When I was a kid, my friends and I went out of our way to escape the stifling confines of our parents’ homes. We could spend the whole day at the beach or a pool or exploring the woods or riding bikes. Today's kids would rather hide inside and run simulation derivations on their computation engines. I suppose not all kids are hopeless. A good example is my neighbor's daughter and h...

Maybe it was unhealthy, but I took the entire month of January off from the gym. The way my ex-wife handled how the kids and I did the holidays made me both depressed and bitter, and I just couldn't handle being around people. I managed to survive at work, but mostly I just locked myself away at home. By the end of January, I was ready to be critical of my own attitude, and by February first, I was ready to hit the gym ag...

I honestly didn't think this winter would ever end. I mean, yes, the weather was what it was, and this spring was one of the coldest ever, but that's not it. The real issue was that my wife left me, and I felt frozen and alone and stuck in my house, waiting for a thaw that was never going to come. I swear, the only time I left the house was for work, groceries, and to help out my older neighbor down the street. One of the...

"What about..." I tried to protest, but she cut me off. "Be quiet, or we'll get caught," she insisted. She pulled me into a stairwell, and we quickly went down one level. We moved purposefully without looking like we were in a hurry as we moved to the far end of a long, darkened hallway. We entered another stairwell and raced up two levels. She checked that the coast was clear, and we moved down to the fourth door. She pr...

Some losses are impossible to survive. I certainly felt that way when my wife of eight years was killed by a drunk driver. There were days when it weighed so heavily on me that I couldn't breathe. The only thing that got me through was the need to be strong for our two children. Our son was barely three years old at the time. He barely remembers a time when it wasn't just the three of us. Our daughter was six years old. R...

I thought it all started with a phone call, but, as usual, I was wrong. It took me a minute to get up to speed, because my buddy Bruce was talking fast and I had no idea what had fired him up. "Is this what it comes down to, you keeping secrets from me?" he demanded. "Don't go off on another one of your tirades about hidden functions in phone apps! I told you the app would report back to Mark. If you would have written it...

I should have said 'No,' right from the start. I should have said 'No,' a dozen times along the way. I've always been a sucker for a pretty woman with a sweet voice, and I said 'Yes.' One too many times I said 'Yes,' and all along it was leading to me standing with my knees shaking and my pulse racing and the cold sweat of fear threatening to break on my brow. Certainly, I was safe for the moment, as long as she didn't se...