Over the past few years, our neighbours, Kim and Jeff, have given us many invitations to dinner and games nights. We weren’t opposed to going, but a busy family meant that there were very few free evenings, and the timing just never seemed to work out. As time passed, the invitations became less frequent, but still came. It wasn’t a total surprise when Kim ran into my husband, Drew, at the local supermarket, and once agai...

There is no greater feeling than finally getting something (or someone) you want after years of longing. For more than twenty years, I had wanted Brad. I tried not to love him—I tried to forget him. Now I lay in his bed, in his arms, basking in the afterglow of our lovemaking. I was not prepared for, nor was I expecting, my world to be turned upside down yet again. The sound of knocking, followed by a female voice calling...

A young PA recently joined our team at work. She was diligent, eager to learn and always pleasant company. Everyone assumed that she was either Spanish or possibly Italian on account of her olive skin and dark hair. It turned out that we were all wrong; her parents were from Chile. The job entailed frequent travel to our hotels in the UK and overseas. At the time I was in charge of those situated in the Gulf States. On on...

Brad had always enjoyed taking nature walks. He found solace in nature and his walks took his mind off the problems that seemed inevitable in life, especially now that he was seventy. He even enjoyed walking in solitude—although recently, he found himself wanting a little less of that at home. But the truth was, Brad, enjoyed walking on this public path along the bubbling forest stream more than ever. Now that he was alon...

Little did I know that Saturday morning when I went to the grocery store, that my life was about to change. I was in the bakery section of our local supermarket, selecting some fresh croissants, when I had that feeling. You know that feeling - that sense that someone was looking at me. I glanced up and saw a man wearing a baseball cap, partially obscuring his face. He seemed to be looking at me intently. I smiled briefly...

Part Two The morning, then early afternoon, passed uneventfully. As the hot Andalusian sun began its first, late afternoon moves towards dusk, Beth spotted Lucas through the vented shutters of her guesthouse, wandering back from the beach. He was wearing the same white swimsuit as before and looked so beautiful still -- so sexy and bronzed. Beth might have swooned were it not for the fact that walking next to him again, w...

Part One Beth and Claire had not crossed paths, except for phone calls, FaceTime, and email exchanges, for almost half a decade. Despite the long intervals between in-person visits, the two friends remained close. It had been that way since their university days in England. The two women had both “married well” and settled into their lives on opposite sides of the Atlantic -- Beth in Los Angeles, Claire in Paris. They had...

Chloe was a busy freelance journalist, in her early forties. She was working at home, late afternoon, on her laptop on the kitchen table when her school teacher friend Emily dropped by. Chloe was pleased to have a break from the complex article that she was writing. It was about swingers’ clubs in her medium-sized city. She had particularly enjoyed doing the field-work for this assignment - it was a good excuse to have a...

The funeral was officially a thing of the past. That didn't mean that the mourning was over, but Thomas was happy to have the last few weeks done with. The death of his father, Glen, and subsequent events surrounding his sudden illness had exhausted both him and his stepmother. Despite the kindness of friends and neighbors, the preparations for the funeral and memorial had been emotionally and physically draining for both...