She liked the smell of jasmine, Though that was not her name. She stared at her reflection. Blotchy skin, eyes too pale to hold color. Her hair was too coarse and not pleasant to touch. She turned on the metronome and began her breathing exercises. First...
I let out a sigh of relief as I closed the last of the POs the fools at the warehouse had messed up. “Can’t have one fucking day off,” I muttered for about the third time that morning. I signed out of the terminal and opened my email. Even though I’d thor...
Finally, July was upon us and I was sitting in the living room of our house waiting for Nicola to finish her preparations for the afternoon and evening at Diane and James' house. While she did her ablutions and I waited, my eyes fell on the picture galler...
In one of the hotels that I worked in during my early years working for Armstrong Hotels, I met a woman who studied yoga and meditation. It was after a particularly busy shift she offered to lead a meditation for anyone that was interested. I joined her a...
All the focus, it seemed, at home and work, was on summer celebrations, with all of the talk and questions from Jake and now the reminder from Nicola about her plans. I did enjoy them, maybe I was a stick in the mud though, because I felt they and the Chr...
After breakfast was cleared away, Liv was the first to leave. A kiss on the cheek for each of us and she was out of the door and on her way to the bus stop. Just before I left Nicola reminded me that Diane and James were holding their summer barbecue at t...
Before the film had finished, Nicola had fallen asleep with her head in my lap and after laughing to myself, I fell asleep stroking her hair. The only thing that was stiff when I woke up was my neck. The following morning over breakfast I told Nicola abou...
When Olivia walked in and dropped onto the sofa next to me, we started the film. The distributors’ logos had not finished rolling when she reached into the bowl of popcorn for a second handful. I already had my arm around Nicola and then Olivia pulled my...
When I got in that evening, I knew something was wrong, Olivia gave me a look of concern and Nicola seemed on edge. Dinner was well into preparation which suggested Nicola had been home longer than I would normally have expected. Then when we were done an...
As I walked Jake back to Mr Armstrong’s office, he asked, “These picnics that the boss has, are we expected to bring someone?” “No, there’s singles, unmarried couples and married both with and without kids. That said, kids aren’t invited to the Christmas...
“This is one of my favourite pictures of my wife.” I pulled out my phone and showed Jake the scan I had of us after her graduation ceremony. I was lifting her in the air and kissing her neck. She had run up to me after the awards and her father had captur...
“And this is our Head of Operations, David DeCosta,” my boss said as he introduced me to the new employee. “Dave, this is Jake, he’ll be starting with us at the start of next month as regional director for the south.” “Pleased to meet you, Jake," I said,...
