I was in the third week of unbearable heartbreak when Olive showed up at my door, carrying a pillow. "I brought you something special," she said, "to borrow for the night." That Saturday evening, she was dressed up for a date with her boyfriend, Richard. The pillow in her arms looked incongruous, to say the least. Olive and I had worked together for several years, becoming best friends in the meantime, and though I saw he...

Jude bit his lip and swallowed his anxiety as he lifted his hand and knocked on the door. He could hear muffled rummaging sounds behind the door and, soon enough, footsteps that got closer. Reacting too slowly, the door swung into Jude’s face that was leaning against it just moments earlier. “Oh! Oh no I’m so sorry!” a woman’s voice shouted. Before he could blink the dazed feeling out of his eyes, Jude felt the woman’s ha...

He sat reading a tale on that Valentine’s Eve, When there came a tap, tap on the door. Who could it be? He stood up to see, and Lo and behold, imagine that— A witch with a hawk on her hat! The bird clung to the brim while she swiped at a tear, “Sir, may I come in from the cold?” His heart bled as she cried, So he led her inside, Not a worry of spells or black magick. She settled herself on the rug by the fire, Crackle! Po...

"Want to talk about it?" Blake sat beside me on the couch, sipping the beer I'd given him when he arrived a few minutes ago. He didn't look at me as he spoke. Instead, he gazed out the window at the clouds darkening the sky. Patient as ever, he waited for me to explain the text I'd sent him earlier that afternoon: Please come over. I really need to see you. But now that he was here, I couldn't find the words. I spent all...

Work was horrible this week. My feet ached in my boots and I had soaked through my shirt hours ago. All the guys on the crew were ragged. Most fell asleep in the boss's car on the drive home. My buddy– Cody– had fallen asleep next to me and now his head was on my shoulder. I sat awake looking out of the back seat window. The boss’s beaten old LA Sabbre, protesting loudly, sped down the road. The old man was driving with o...

Rachel stood next to naked in the corner, considering her options. She begrudgingly admitted she’d put herself in this position, but by her count, she still had several hours to find a solution to the problem she’d created. It was Bertie’s birthday – not a significant number as he saw it, but Rachel had argued that as a musician, she recognized twenty-seven as a milestone. That meant celebration, that meant drinks, that m...