Paybacks Can Be So Difficult

I had built my realty business up from a single office to well over three hundred offices, now I needed to sell the business or find some investors badly before I had to declare bankruptcy.

The recent downturn in the economy had hit my company hard, causing me to curtail activities severely. It had not reached the point of laying off personnel yet, but another couple of weeks without an infusion of money would make that a necessity.

Hold That Pose

The ad in the local paper caught my eye. I reread it several times making sure that I was understanding exactly what the ad said.

Goody A New Maid

From the time I got up this morning till now, today has been one shitty day. I ended up having to get my car jumped because of a dead battery. The service I paid for to handle such occurrences taking their sweet time to get here. Thus I arrived late for work missing an important meeting, my immediate boss livid that I had missed it. Then my computer failed a little after eleven A.M. requiring the IT guys to replace the hard drive. Three hours of work that I had performed this morning lost in the process. Then the final touch to my horrible day occurred.

Life As A Manicurist

I was very apprehensive when I called my sister Melissa since this is the third time I had asked her for money. She knew I was having a rough time of it, but also very good about not rubbing my nose in it. She had repeatedly tried to warn me about the choices I was making with regards to career, and apartments. Of course, she was right, but being the stubborn male that I am, I could never see it her way.

Equality In Heels

Having just got home from shopping my wife had placed her goodies on our bed. I watched from the bedroom door, always fascinated at her prowess and enthusiasm with regards to shopping.

As she took the contents from each bag she stacked the shoe boxes in separate piles. Two boxes in each pile. There was a picture on one end of the box, a gorgeous high heel displayed there in full color.

Cute Coed Cheerleader

After four years, I had a chance encounter with Christina, a friend from my past. We had been best friends and next door neighbors until her Mother got transferred to her company’s branch office in Texas. Now they were back, not next door, but in the same neighborhood a little over a half mile away. Her Mother was now the new CEO of the company, their corporate offices here in town. Christina was registering for college here, along with several of her girlfriends, when I ran into her.

A Token Transsexual

It had all started with the bathroom debate and assorted legislative bills. I am sure most of it was strictly political, a way for a local representative to gain some political clout at other people’s expense. Just another way for a legislator to correct some imagined injustice, although his correction often far worse than the original problem.

Maintaining An Image

I was looking through the credit card bills for the last month. Neither my wife nor I are hurting for money, both having successful careers that we have been able to walk away from in the last few years. Due to being high profile in the community we both are expected to attend quite a few social and charitable functions every month.

The mirror has cracked, and the lines between friends have entirely dissolved. The first pieces of this adventure are coming to the fore. The only real question is what will you do?

Your choices tonight: Which pair do we follow into the dark next chapter?

“Natalia… Natalia”, I barely registered the voice. “Oi, Natalia!” Calvin almost shouted, it took a moment before I realised he was talking to me, while I'd often thought of myself as Natalia, I clearly was not yet fully used to others referring to me with the name.

“You only have like 4 hours before mum and dad get home, Laura will be over later, you should probably get up.”

Dexter had always played second fiddle in his family.
While he is just as strong a witch as his sister, witch society still hedges its prejudice against male witches.
But all changes when an accident makes a make-up spell hit Dexter, instead of his sister.
He looks eerily similar to his cousin and therein lies an opportunity.
One his mother is eager to exploit, when their family and witch coven suffers a tragedy.

Now it is up to Dexter to step up and be the witch he was always meant to be.

Twilight

It began like a normal day at the dock. As always, I wore my lavender summer dress and one-inch heel sandals. Every day I went out at sunrise and came back exactly at twilight. But this day would be different.

Medical Center, Napa Valley Recovery Center:
Sara and Cindy wave goodbye to several girls as they are picked up by either their family member or by the Uber that had been arranged for them. This part of the job, the identical sisters loved.

“It’s good to see those girls going back to their families or with new families.” Cindy looks at her twin while watching the cars drive away.

 
XXVII: Back at the damn ball

Bulbs flashed everywhere like tasteless arc welders fucking epileptic fireflies. “Countess Devaris!” A tabloid wraith blocked her path. “Does Lady Elaine’s absence signal fractures in Phoenix Rising’s founding triad?”

Immersed
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

People used to laugh when I said that I played competitive underwater hockey. They thought I was joking, like there was no such thing. But there are hundreds of clubs in North America and regional competitions as well. There are regional teams that play off for a state title and even international teams that compete against other nations.