Part 1

I started screaming as the strong arms held me so I couldn’t move. I kept screaming until my throat was rough and I had tears in my eyes. When I stopped, I was sniffling and hiccupping at the same time and the arms loosened.

“That’s the last time you’re going to get me on one of these things, “It’ll be fun”, you said. I thought I was going to die!”

Bill helped me get out of the Odyssey roller coaster car when it slowed to a stop.

Rona’s comment about me needing a housekeeper was like a punch in the gut. She hadn't passed even the slightest derogatory comment on the frankly tatty state of my home, but instead, she had suggested a solution. That’s what she was all about… Solutions to problems and sometimes the people on the receiving end didn’t know that they had a problem.

Handsome Stranger
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

He had decided that the only way to finish what he had started was to get away from all distractions. His city studio was comfortable, but the city itself was right outside his front door. It was not the noise nor the light; it was more the temptation. And because he had visitors there from time to time, he kept it tidy. He needed a place where he could throw some paint around.

. . . as much as I enjoy my life as it is, somehow, it’s never enough. I wanted something else. Something more. Hermes might be the one who could bring me there.

Daydreaming on Deck (Part 5)
By Sabrina G. Langton

***

Author's note... Here we are at the end of another story. I used to write very fast, I would be on another couple of romances even before I started spell-checking the one I was finishing. (Which could take a while) Now I am in some sort of cruise mode...

“Thank you, Rafe, but this is too extravagant. You really shouldn’t have…”

“Wear it to the Oscars when your screenplay is nominated.”

"Why do you say that?"

"Because you Americans, the moment something happens to one of you,
the first thing you do is create a support group,
and the second thing is that you go on TV."

I thought about that for a moment. "Yeah, probably," I admitted.

“ . . . under that fine mind, you have a tender, loving heart, and you need to value it.”

Seven years ago, an out-of-work programmer reprogrammed his life and, with the help of his old flame Sara, became Rosie. Just how good was Rosie’s “programming?” Four BigCloset authors, invited to join Sara and Rosie for a writers’ retreat, are about to find out!

"I don't know," she replied, undaunted. "But think about vampires:
how come some people get bit and die, and other people get bit and turn into vampires themselves?"

"I don't know the answer to that," I exclaimed, exasperated,
"but vampires aren't real!"

[The evening before their wedding]

“Who was on the phone while I was in the shower? Was it your Mother?” asked Josh.

Musings of a tights obsessed transvestite

Dennis becomes infatuated with the girl in the blue denim skirt who sits on the low brick wall running along the path inside Aston Park. He knows that his infatuation with her is troublesome and that he should just ignore her but he just can't resist her allure.

Danielle was as good as her word and gave Josh a full makeover that night. She fussed over ‘Josie’ for what seemed like hours until she was happy with her work.

“Ready for this?” ask Danielle as she prepared to remove the towel that she’d used to cover her mirror.

Daydreaming on Deck (Part 2)
By Sabrina G. Langton

***

Author's note... More ticking inside our heroines' head. We find out what she has been up to this last year, we learn a little more of her past...

***

Logan texted, he would be here at two. He was driving. I asked him if I could get dressed up, I had a little black dress I had been dying to wear. He said he couldn't wait to see me in it.

Here’s the thing just like all the stories and cliches say that I found someone when I wasn’t looking and had stopped looking.

I’m not going to sugar coat things but I’m a single guy and a long term bachelor and I have dated and I had never really wanted to settle down and do all that family stuff mostly because my family ranged from self destructive to petty so none of that really was an investment.

I moved out as soon as I could and went into the army and got a trade under me as an engineer and spent time basically fixing things on bases.

Misplaced anger, miscommunication. Bad combination.

Danielle was reluctant to give much away when they met up the following Sunday. She'd turned up at his home driving her mother's car.

When Matt said That's the protocol, it reminded me of something my grandfather told me
about his time in the Army: "The most important thing you can learn in the Army
is that there's a right way, a wrong way, and the Army way."

"How do you know which way is the Army way?" I asked him.

"It's in the manual," he replied.