My Dad always told me, "You never dip your pen in the company ink well." Great advice and advice that I am glad I did not listen to this time. I own a restaurant and bar in a midsize Midwest town. My happy hour business had been dwindling and I needed something to boost it up. I needed a real good looking female bartender to work the afternoon and early ev...
Lynn pulled up to the valet in front of the elegant hotel. Received her ticket from the young man and handed him her keys. He opened the trunk to her car and the bellhop immediately tended to her bags. Lynn reached in to the front seat and picked up the Dream Catcher. Its long white feathers with black tips, hung from the oval with leather strap webbing. G...
Sara had finally agreed to marry Jim. They had been going steady for nearly a year now, and when Sara graduated from college, he asked her to marry him. She had been mostly faithful to him during this time, only slipping up a couple of times with old boyfriends who knew how susceptible she was. As far as she knew, he was faithful to her and that meant a lot....
It was an old banger that started the whole sequence. It wasn't my old car, let me tell you that. It was an old heap that my mate had scraped up from somewhere and he'd put in some effort getting it to run, working on the cheap. Working on the cheap meant borrowing my skills as a mechanic to help him. I told him when I first saw the car that he was an idiot....
Cassie stood on the balcony, watching the rain fall from the darkened sky. It made a soft cascading noise that felt vaguely comforting. She inhaled another puff from her cigarette and exhaled it just as easily. Cassie took another moment to think back on some of her past experiences. Sure, there were men that had stirred some feelings within her. There were...
They ate breakfast together, the next morning. Ben looked like he'd been run over by a truck and Audrey was sullen. Barry, who had got up early to make pancakes and bacon, and had then roused everyone from sleep, was looking content. Esme had a knot in her stomach and could barely eat. She was trying not to look at Ben, who was studiously avoiding looking at...
It started with a phone call at work one day. I was a bit worried when I was called to the nurse's desk for a phone call thinking something might be wrong at home. I picked up the receiver and said "Hello." The man's voice sounded familiar but I just could not place it. He continued to talk and when he asked for my e-mail address it all of a sudden clicked....
It was nearly pitch dark in the bar, and an air of excitement was palpable in the quiet murmurs of the crowd. Frantic whispers broke out as the emcee stepped to the microphone and the house lights came up. Now you could see the large screens hanging from the ceiling in strategic spots along the room. Now you could see the pommel horse onstage, the examinatio...
The hot afternoon sun beat down on Edmund as he walked along the dirt road. Sweat ran down his back making the heavy frame backpack that he was carrying uncomfortable. There was not a cloud in the sky and when he looked at the thermometer that dangled from his pack it read 90. It was too hot for this kind of trek, but he had wanted to get to the hostel by su...
Throughout the fabled east there is no land more mighty or more magnificent than Phoenicia. Her ports of Tyre and Sidon are wonders praised by poets; their fame extends throughout the known world. The buildings of these cities are wonders laden with gold and marble. Her colonies girdle the seas from Asia to the distant corner of the world. They are the exoti...