The intensity of fucking for the first time in a shower was exhilarating. No, you could not call it making love, no matter what Malcolm's plan had been. Now I DID want to make love—time to leave this hot, steamy location for something less frantic. I disentangled myself, reluctantly, from my boss’s embrace and turned off the shower. I stepped onto the tiles and reached for the towels warming on the towel rack. I handed on...

I was a broken man when I met Gina. At 53, my body was ravaged by MS, my mind clouded by alcohol and porn addiction. I couldn’t walk, confined to an electric wheelchair, navigating the streets of Portland with a sense of futility. I ended up in the hospital again. That’s where I met Gina. She was a vision of beauty, with her C-cup breasts and petite frame and her long flowing dark brown hair and stunning bright blue eyes,...

PART THREE: CARMEL 1977-1980 FACTORY (The Yellow Kid) Groggily, I stumbled through the Realtek breakroom to the timeclock. As I punched in, I held onto the clock. Realtek was a plastics factory on the outskirts of Carmel, a small town near Charlevoix. Out of the corner of my eye, I noted a new girl, a thin, young blonde. I shuffled to the back of the factory and began unfolding and assembling cardboard boxes, stacking the...

The city outside was a hushed dreamscape, the thick fall of snow painting the streetlights in soft, hazy halos. Each gust of wind against the windowpane was a whisper against the profound silence that had descended with the heavy snowfall. After a relentless day that had left my senses frayed, the promise of her warmth was a tangible craving pulling me through the door. She stood just inside, a delicate dusting of snowfla...

We were sad to leave Patagonia and The Lodge and knew that one unreality was being exchanged for another: full-on into The Suites and The Experiment. Our flight back was identical to Sarah’s on that busy, colder morning: CRJ to Ezeiza, then A350 home, albeit that when we turned our heads, the Apella Ramp was empty because they were already above, rather than Sarah knowing that her friends were behind her, ready to soar sk...

Months had passed since that night. On the surface, everything was the same—laughter echoing through their shared apartment, inside jokes exchanged over late-night coffee, the easy rhythm of a friendship built on years of unwavering loyalty. But beneath the surface, something was broken. Jack carried the weight of an unspoken guilt, a relentless ache that gnawed at him in quiet moments. He had told himself he was doing th...

It is a gorgeous morning, and the sun is shining through the windows, dancing all over our darkened bedroom. What a wonderful way to begin my tenth anniversary with my spouse, I thought. I am hoping that today will be different because, to be honest, I have been living the same dull routine for years and I am getting tired of it. I get up every day and prepare him breakfast while he takes a shower and gets ready for work....

DEKALB 1972-1974 UNIVERSITY (Nicki) I lay naked with Ross in the grey room, my heart beating hard. Though we had removed our clothes, I still felt very warm. Her animal scent was heavy and forbidding. I gazed at her triangle of hair, squat and black. Then I stared across the room, without thought. Wind hissed through the trees outside her Douglas East dorm room in DeKalb. Tentatively, I slipped my arm around Ross and graz...