I’m sat at my desk eating lunch, it’s lasagne for the fourth time this week, and I’m absolutely sick of it. I can’t seem to get out of the habit of cooking a family-sized dinner every night, even though I no longer need to. Something twangs low in my gut at this thought, but before I can begin ruminating, I'm interrupted. My phone rings loudly, the vibration causing it to slide erratically around the desk. It’s an unknown...

In November I bought two Advent calendars. One is for me, the respectable kind, thick card printed with snowflakes and twenty-four little doors, behind each one a chocolate, and the faint disappointment of adulthood. The other is for Damian. It comes in a plain box with a knowing little sticker on the seal, and inside are twenty-four envelopes, each one numbered in neat gold ink. It’s bespoke, and there are no chocolates,...

I’m standing outside Thrust and Velvet, of all places. A sex shop you glimpse from the motorway, large neon pink sign hanging over the door and mirrored windows. I’ve driven past it a hundred times, always with a smug little as if smirk. But here I am, engine still ticking, hands gripping the wheel ready to reverse back onto the road. I’d thought about ordering something online, scrolled through pages of glossy, suspiciou...

I see him even when I don’t. In the tilt of a stranger’s head, a laugh caught in passing or that dark mop of hair just ahead of me bobbing in the crowd, I walk everywhere with a transfixed stare and his face blooms in my mind without warning, sharp and perfect, my private hallucination. Sometimes I try to keep it out. I tell myself to focus on the conversation, the shopping list, stick to the reality of whatever task is a...

I stopped for a drink after work, just me and a tall Long Island Iced Tea. I sipped the icy cool drink, letting the week fall away, but I didn’t want to go home. Thoughts still plagued me, at work, too many people… too many demands… and my house is too empty… too quiet. I closed my eyes to the big-screen televisions, the football games, the waitresses and bartenders, the boisterous customers placing bets, letting the liqu...

I cycle to the café like I always do on Thursdays with the usual vague hope that I’ll get one of the big tables by a socket point before the laptop crowd takes them all. I’ve felt sluggish all morning and the ride wakes me up a little, pulling my mind into my body. By the time I arrive I’m flushed and a bit too warm, legs humming and skin prickling with the remnants of effort. I don’t think of it as going there for him, n...

I drag the towel over the rowing machine to wipe up the sweat the last bloke left behind. We’ve got signs everywhere asking users to clean the kit when they’re done, but no one ever bloody does. Still, as my uncle always says, customer’s always right and all that. So I end up being Mr Dogsbody, cleaning up other people’s bodily fluids for half my shift. Not exactly glamorous, but I can’t complain. I get to use the gym for...

You wounded me deeply, finding some kind of perverse pleasure in it, and I was thinking of all the things I wanted to say - do, while you stood there in the doorway lazily smoking your cigarette. There was a self-satisfied smirk twisting your lips, and I closed my eyes, picturing me slapping it from your face, hearing the resounding crack, letting it echo through the halls of my mind, and feeling the fulfillment of my han...

Christine stood in the doorway of Kofi's office, gripping the files against her chest. His earlier words still echoed in her mind, a subtle touch that lingered on her skin. The way he looked at her—steady, unreadable—made her breath catch. "Come in, Christine," he said, his voice low and smooth. She stepped inside, the scent of rich leather mingling with his cologne—a mix of spice and mystery. It seeped into her senses, m...

Kelsie McCollum tried to control her breathing as she padded up the walkway toward the dormitory. She was finally here. Perion University. Kelsie had scrolled through as many tiktoks as she could watch, consumed as many IG posts as she could manage: How to put on her makeup just so, how to dress “sexy” but not “slutty”, how to manicure the wavy blond locks that cascaded down her back without looking like she’d tried so ha...