Chip pushed the notebook across the table. "It's not what I expected, Jan. Not at all." "What do you mean?" His sister's blue eyes, so much like his own, narrowed as she opened the worn leather cover and scanned the first page. "I knew Mom was working on her memoirs....
"Alfred, is everything set?" "Yes sir. I trust you will find everything to your liking." "Excellent. Send out the signal, if you would, Alfred." "Very good, sir." Alfred bowed and left to attend to his task. Bruce Wayne knocked back the last of his Glenfiddich 40...
One of the assistants to gallery's chief curator led me into the reproduction studio and told me to wait; told me that my appointment, Dr Margot Canty, Chief Curator, would be along shortly, and that I could sit, or not, as I wished. She was gone. The upper reaches of...
"Whutcha drawin'?" asked Vic, resting her chin on my shoulder. I hadn't even heard her enter the room. "Pictures," I mumbled. I thought of drawing as a secret pleasure, like masturbation with pencils. Vic's eyes on my artwork made me very self-conscious. She seemed...
It began with unspoken consent, an innocent suggestion to share a room for a cool night in the middle of June. We swerved drunkenly through the city, eyes squinting upward for a vacancy sign. My girlfriend wanted to go home, so I left her on the street corner next to...
Remember how you used to draw hearts in your notebook at school when lessons got boring? I used to watch from my seat next to you in the classroom. "I love Philip," you'd write and draw a halo of hearts around his name. "I love Paul," and Jason and Craig. After school...
Note to Self: You've been set up on a blind date with your ex. Your dating life is officially shot to hell. "Danielle?" "Kizzy?" We stare at each other for an uncomfortable minute. It'd taken me six long months to get over our breakup and even then I'd had to convince...
Pittsburgh March 5, 1894 Dearest Cousin Beatrice, I hope my letter finds you well and that spring is as beautiful in Yorkshire as summer was when I last visited you there. The weather here in Pittsburgh is still dreary but we have had a few blue skies. Thank you so...
My girlfriend, Celeste, says watching me paint makes her hot...at least, this particular series of portraits. Maxwell has that effect on everyone, I think. Celeste is a software engineer with our town's largest employer. She is brilliant, attractive and completely...
The long, yellow spadix of the giant anthurium jutted aggressively from the bowl of its single scarlet leaf. Deacon stripped off his glove and ran a forefinger lightly over the bumpy surface of the flower's phallic protuberance, watching it shiver at his touch....