“I need to talk to you,” said Jessica in her typical commanding tone.Tensions had been high for the past couple of weeks. I wasn’t going to let a junior secretary tell me how to do my job, and she wasn’t letting go of her alleged senior role while our boss, Harry, was out on sick leave. Jessica was only twenty-three, with less than a year’s experience in corporate finance; whereas I had been in the business for over ten y...

I decided to go home early. My boss and his boss were in an all-day conference out of town and there wasn’t any work that required immediate attention. Besides, I had pulled quite a few late nights recently so I decided I was entitled to recover some of the overtime. My girlfriend, Alison, was traveling on business which meant it would be the perfect evening to chill at home, have a few drinks and watch some action movies...

I had missed the last flight back to Chicago and the airport was already closed. I knew I shouldn’t have stayed in the office for so long but I’d wanted to make a good impression on our newest agency. The problem was that I would now have to find a hotel to stay overnight. I looked around but there was nobody to ask and worse, there were no taxis. The driver who had dropped me off must have known the airport would be clos...

I was eighteen when my parents sent me off to France. Most of my friends were either taking a gap year or going to college but I didn’t really have much choice. My parents had firmly decided that it was culturally important for me to experience life in a foreign country and learn the local lingo. When I arrived at the train station, I could still hear my mother telling me how to introduce myself to my host.“Bonjour, Madam...

Shannon walked with her crush of over four years, finally alone with him in the dark of the local park. She had her eye on him since high school; he was two years her senior. They had passed in and out of each other’s lives after he graduated. And every time she encountered him she felt herself tense up, unable to speak her mind. But tonight was different. “It’s beautiful out here,” she said gesturing to the fireflies lig...

She looked at him from across the crowded room. He was gorgeous. He noticed her looking and winked subtly, making her blush. She smiled, a seductive little half smile and then turned away to concentrate on the conversation that was happening. She should have been paying attention all along, but the two women she was speaking with hadn’t noticed her absent mind or lack of input. They were too involved with talking about th...

Diana didn’t like to give it up too easily. She knew she had to make men wait, so when her date came and ended, she accepted her suitor’s kiss and left him in the lurch outside her apartment door. It’s said that women can’t get blue balls - that they have no point of no return - but this simply wasn’t true. Not for Diana. Though she knew the benefits of not moving forward too fast in a relationship, her physical needs wer...

The morning flight to Grenoble was full. I’d forgotten to reserve my seat by the window so I was stuck in an aisle seat getting hit by bags and elbows, not to mention hips and butts, as the passengers fought their way past me to the back of the plane. The middle seat next to me wasn’t yet occupied and I was already fretting that some overweight guy would come along and squeeze himself in, his stomach rippling over me and...

‘Coast is clear‘ came the text message they had been waiting for. Stella winked at Carly and without a word they stood up and walked through the door declaring ‘Management Only‘. Down the hall they walked until they finally found the door that had been left open by Brad’s boss when he’d left for lunch minutes earlier. Crossing the threshold into the office Stella and Carly were greeted by their boyfriend sitting behind hi...

My first job as a plumber was at the age of nineteen in a small French hotel. That evening the Duty Manager sent me to room 24 to fix a leak in the sink. Having been working there for three weeks, I was already familiar with the standard fittings, so I grabbed a couple of parts and some sealant and made my way to the room. Tracy, the head housekeeper, was standing outside the door waiting for me with a clipboard in her ha...