Build-A-Planet
Part One: The Box The unit arrived on a Thursday, which was fitting, because nothing Becky had ever received on a Thursday had mattered much. Her neighbor, Lena, had signed her up for the six-month trial without asking. "You'll love it," Lena had said, leaning against Becky's doorframe with the easy confidence of someone who had never been wrong about anything she'd recommended. "It's like having a garden. But more." The box was roughly the size of a refrigerator. Matte black
6 days ago11 min read
The Harem
Part One: The First Wife Wyatt had a specific theory about his failures with women: he was too much. Too intense, too eager, too available. Women sensed the desperation beneath his carefully constructed casualness, the way a dog senses fear. Three serious relationships across thirty-four years of living, each one ending with some variation of the same speech — you're a great guy, but — followed by words that blurred together in his memory like a watercolor left in the rain.
Mar 1917 min read
AEVA
A Novel For those who wonder and wrestle. Chapter 1 The Wood Knows Your Hands The wood of the large ship knew Vero's hands. He could tell by the way it gave slightly under his palm, warm from the morning sun, familiar in the way that only years of work could make a thing familiar. He ran his thumb along the joint he'd fitted the evening before and felt no gap, no weakness. Good. The mighty oceanliner Desera was growing stronger by the day. Below him, the city of Capitara h
Mar 925 min read
Elliot
The kitchen smelled like burned coffee and Tuesday morning. Colleen Whittaker stood at the counter in her faded robe, watching the black liquid drip into the pot while Wes moved behind her — the shuffle of his work boots on linoleum, the zipper of his jacket, the particular silence of a man who had been leaving for work the same way for eleven years and had stopped noticing that anyone was watching him go. "I made eggs," she said. "I'll grab something on the way." He kissed t
Feb 169 min read
