Christmas

I don’t understand what wakes me at first. I’m grumpy, short on sleep, still jetlagged from the time zone shift and crappy red-eye flight we took to get to Ian’s childhood home on the East Coast. I was stealing the lull between lunch and dinner to rest up and not be such a bitch this …

Performance Issues

“It says here you’re recently an adult, Michael. Congratulations! So then, are you working?” I ask him, making smalltalk, trying to put him at ease, “Or taking any classes?” “A-- a few,” the young man mumbles, shifting uncomfortably on the paper-covered bench. The medical smock barely covers him, a thin and threadbare tear of fabric …

Kelsey’s First Day

“You could make pretty good money, you know, spending your summer working at the resort,” her big sister’s best friend Ashley told her last December at a holiday party, “It’s a bitch of a drive down the coast to this place you probably never even noticed, hidden between these big dunes, but rich people love …

Danielle

“Danielle?!” Her name bursts from me like an expletive. I spring up and clumsily cower behind the couch, as if the low blue cushions will save me from her. “What’re you doing here?” She’s standing in the doorway of the apartment, framed by the mid-day sun behind her, purse in one hand and reusable shopping …

Halloween

I was having a bad day yesterday going into Halloween night, just a bunch of things coming together into a perfect storm of suck. So when my roommates all got dressed up and went out partying, I did not. I stayed home with the lights off and only got my ass up from the couch …

Charli

“So then you wake her back up!” Charli’s pale gray eyes are pinching tight, judging me with their harsh scrutiny, “You’re ridiculous. You chat this girl up, you get her to bed, and then don’t fuck her. What the fuck, Scott.” “She was drunk!” I yell, repeating my protest. Charli’s good at getting my blood boiling. “So? You coulda done whatever you wanted to her. She would have loved it. I could see it in her, and I know girls like that, she was into you.”

Her Date

His nod is hesitant as he types into his phone. His square jaw and rugged handsomeness are mis-placed against his mild manners. He’s too clean-cut, his shirt tucked in too nicely, his jacket set on his broad shoulders in way that’s simply too much.

Julian

“Julian,” I announce as my son’s friend sits down beside me. Not so close that he’s touching, but not so far away that he couldn’t. “Don’t start.” “Don’t start what?” he feigns innocence, “I’m just being friendly, Charlotte. I just want to say ‘hi’ and ask how your day was.” I sigh, give him a wary glance. He’s tall and broad young man, athletic in build ever since he gave up spending all his free time painting miniatures and started dedicating it towards water polo. “So then ask,” I say, “But be quick about it. I’m going to bed in a minute.” “You need someone to tuck you in, Charlotte?”

Taking care of the babysitter

Rounding the corner past our kitchen, I pause at the threshold into the next room. Helene’s leaning over the couch that’s facing our TV, bag in her hand, packing away her stuff. In yoga pants and a t-shirt that are practical if a touch snug, I brace for the guilt I get from checking her out, but I do it anyway. She’s slender, tight, toned, and I drink it in while I can. Goddam do I need to get laid. When her eye catches mine, I grin and say, “The kids weren’t any trouble, were they?”

Quarantine

“Feeling the burn?” Dr Elliot’s voice rings out from behind me. I arch my eyebrow, even though I’m facing the wall. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” I say. I am a serious adult scientist dealing with a life-threatening emergency and the slightest misstep could ruin lives and careers, yet I am acutely aware that I am now naked in a room with a young woman who is also naked. It’s amazing, the way our brains work. “Are you looking at my butt?” “Yeah.” “Seriously?” “Hurry the hell up.”