“Back in a sec,” Maddie chirps, right before bolting from the terminal check-in line and disappearing in the crowd, blonde ponytail wagging behind her. Paige snorts. “She needs to get her prostate checked out.” I look down at my little sister. She smiles at me, happy to let me carry her bags. It’s a lot of stuff, even if she ended up staying two weeks at my place. Maddie and I took turns showing her around the city whenev...

“Hurry up,” Tasha scolds me. She’s the one who told me to ‘slut it up.’ I’d love to see her try to haul ass in four-inch heels without snapping an ankle. She picked flats, of course. The hypocrite. “It’s my birthday, you don’t get to talk to me like that,” I whine. It’s not very effective. She doesn’t slow down. A gust of wind passes right through my coat, and I hunch lower, cursing my little black dress for doing absolut...

I wake up cold, on my side. My hand fumbles forward, seeking Roman’s reliably warm chest. Instead, I smack into a freezing concrete wall. Kill me. I’m alone in my stupid-narrow dorm bed. I groan and shove my face under the pillow. “Tash’, turn off your fucking alarm.” But the blaring doesn’t stop. And right as I think my day can’t start any worse, Tasha, my roommate, yanks the covers clean off my back. “Put some clothes o...

The priest, a withered man from Martinique whose voice still carries better than the old chapel’s speakers, finally tells us to sit down for the last time. All around us, the small parish slumps with relief. Nearly two hours of Christmas mass has worn them down. I look over at the four Millers, sitting in a well-behaved row. Predictably, my eyes land on Roman’s broad shoulders. He’s not doing anything special. Just breath...

“Just one minute!” Maddie shouts from the bathroom, dragging her last word out in a sing-song lilt. She’s not usually high-maintenance, but this is Halloween. I collapse back onto the couch, hoping our Uber doesn’t show up too fast. I barely get a few doomscrolls in before the bathroom door creaks open in my bedroom. Then, clicks. The sharp sound of heels on hardwood. I’m on my feet in an instant. She’s been buzzing ever...

Maddie dutifully snaps another lamp’s tag with her phone before breezing past me to a new part of the store’s showroom. Her hair’s floral scent floats in the air behind her. “We’re only here for a desk and a chair for my home office,” I mutter, dragging my feet to follow her. She snorts. “Yeah, right.” Maddie spins around to face me, arms crossed over her chest, a teasing smile playing on her lips. “Your place is so bare,...

I sputter, coughing up the blonde strands stuck to my lips. Blinking against the light, I find the culprit. Maddie, of course. She’s draped over me, naked and softly snoring, her warm breath tickling my chest. Her arms cling to me, her legs tangled with mine, our bellies flush together. Like a cute, slutty blanket. Maddie was supposed to give me a quick tour of her dorm following our Saturday picnic lunch near campus. Ins...

“So you’re really moving out today?” Naomi, my ex-fiancée, sits across from me at our kitchen table. She absent-mindedly spears a cherry tomato with her fork while I chew through a dry sandwich. “Yeah,” I say. “Friends are coming to help out in a bit.” She nods, thoughtfully. “That’s it then,” she says. “End of an era.” Most of our conversations have looked like that since she dumped me. Naomi desperately filling the sile...