I The muscle at the hinge of his jaw twitches beneath his skin. Only this subtle sign betrays his thoughts as fatuous host of the dinner party holds forth with unforgivable ignorance on the subject of poverty. From across the over-lit lit dinner table, I try to catch...
Sandy had always had her little kinks. Doesn't everyone? Her favourite one was innocent enough; it hurt no one and afforded her a certain enjoyment. Well, to be honest, a wickedly intense, deliciously satisfying enjoyment. Sandy was Sandy, after all. She saved it for...
I stopped flying. Some phobia had kicked in, underscored by recent events, and there was no budging on this. I determined that it was not necessary to fly, and that most of my business could be done by phone or fax or e-mail; or if it became essential, I could take a...
Meredith's father presents us with the bed at the big family party, a week before our wedding. He makes a big deal of it, of course, the way he makes a big deal out of everything. "This came from my great-grandfather Daniel," he says, running his hand along the smooth...
Joshua's palms were sweating profusely by the time he'd reached the underground-parking garage to the county court house. Dear God, what was he to do. He was at the end of his rope. He needed help. He needed someone to tell him that he was normal. That being a...
Carleton folded his white Oxford shirt into the brown leather carry on bag, smoothed down his suit and left the apartment. Michael spread Philadelphia cream cheese on Ritz crackers. It had to be Philadelphia. It had to be Ritz. Richard called a taxi. Marthe lay naked...
Cesare Soutina approached sixty like a wary old dog unsure if the food bowl contained poison or merely something difficult to chew. The still dense patch of hair on his head was speckled — or streaked — with silver, like rust on grape leaves; his wide nostrils arched...
He told me to meet him in the park, wearing only a flimsy top and skirt, no underwear, no bra. I walked from my apartment to the park across the street from the beer store, passing the old drunks, who leered at my nipples stiffening in the cool breeze of an early...
"I am an excitable person who only understands life lyrically, musically, in whom feelings are much stronger as reason. I am so thirsty for the marvelous that only the marvelous has power over me. Anything I cannot transform into something marvelous, I let go. Reality...
There was more than one person in the room with her. She understood that now, but she had no idea how many there were. She sat on the bed having followed his instructions exactly. His e-mail had detailed the clothes she should and should not wear. It had told her...