Stories

The Sound She'd Been Swallowing for Years

For about two years Idyia had quietly believed something had gone wrong with her. The wanting just wasn't there anymore. Leo would reach for her and she would do the math on whethe…

Stories

The Thing She Didn't Actually Want

It came up at their own table, which was the embarrassing part.Four friends, a second bottle open, the kind of loud easy dinner where someone says something a little daring and eve…

Stories

The Night Leo Held Her Feet

*A flat married night, a husband who reaches a half-beat off, and the part of herself she'd hidden for twelve years — held, of all things.*Idyia sat with her feet pulled up under h…

Stories

When the Edge Still Belongs to Her

She hadn't told Leo she was thinking about it. That was the part she kept returning to — not the thought itself, but the holding of it. The way a thing can stay completely hers whi…

Stories

The Part of Her He Chose When He Could Have Chosen Anywhere

Nefeli has a theory about being chosen. She did not arrive at it as a theory. She arrived at it one evening when someone held her foot in both hands, very still, as if the holding …

Stories

The Room After Her Hand Stops Moving

Idyia has been in this room before. Not this room exactly — not this light, not this particular weight of anticipation in the air between them. But that moment where her body has a…

Stories

The Night She Forgot to Think About What Came Next

There is a candle I keep on the nightstand that Leo gave me when we were first married. I have lit it a hundred times. I know exactly how it smells before the flame touches the wic…

Stories

Nefeli Said It First

Nefeli says the thing I am walking around. She has always done this. It is the most uncomfortable kind of friendship and the only kind I trust. We were drinking tea and I was telli…

Stories

The Pause Before the Next Note

Nefeli took me to hear Lason play. I did not understand, at first, why she kept watching me instead of the piano. He is the kind of man who is never in a hurry, which I found almos…

Stories

The Water Got There First

The shower has been the same temperature for ten years. Tonight I turned it a degree warmer and stood with my back to it longer than washing required, and somewhere in that extra m…

Stories