I wake before Emily. Grey light, the room quiet. I lie there for a moment and take stock - the lower back ache that's been there for five days is gone. Not reduced, gone. The heaviness behind the sternum still faintly there but lighter, beginning to clear. Something has shifted overnight.

I get up and go to the bathroom.

The laptop screen casts a blue pall over Caden's hands as he scrolls through endless grids of sports bras — women in mid-stride, frozen in athletic poses, all of them grinning with their hands on their hips like this is some kind of victory. His fingers hesitate over the trackpad. None of these are designed for someone who still lifts weights but needs to strap down what shouldn't be there in the first place.

The next day comes with a heaviness I don't recognize at first - not the cramping, which has mostly eased, but something underneath it. Behind the sternum. In the legs when I stand. I eat breakfast and drink coffee and it doesn't lift the way tiredness lifts with caffeine. Just sits there, systemic, the whole body running slightly below its usual output.

---

Morning light finds him asleep in his clothes, barely rested. He packs both devices into his messenger bag and heads for the closest repair shop.

The bell jingles as he enters. A technician glances up from behind the counter — early twenties, a name tag reading ETHAN. His eyes skim past Caden's shoulders, landing somewhere around chin level. "Help you, ma'am?"

Caden's breath hitches. He sets the laptop and phone on the counter.

"Sir," he says, his pitch higher than expected, higher than a man's should be. He coughs, tries again. "Biometric lockout."

There's a single-occupancy bathroom at the end of the east corridor — the one with the accessibility sign and the slightly sticky lock that everyone knows about and nobody has ever put in a maintenance request for. I've used it before when the men's is occupied. Today I go there first, directly.

I push the button to lock the door and it clicks.

Chapter 4

I wake before the alarm.

This happens sometimes, the body surfacing on its own. But not groggy — more like arriving somewhere, the transition between sleep and waking unusually clean, as though I've come online all at once rather than in stages.

I lie still.

Chapter 3

Marcus calls at eight-fifteen — school run done, twenty minutes before he has to be anywhere.

"Wolves lost," he says, before I've finished saying hello.

"I saw."

"You didn't see. You checked the score at midnight and felt nothing."

"I felt something."

"You felt data. It's different." A car door, keys, the acoustics of his kitchen — I know it well enough to place it. "They're going to finish mid-table again. I've made peace with it. Have you made peace with it?"

"I've never not been at peace with it."

I am Vera.

The name is simply there — not chosen, not arrived at. Present the way the body is present, like the room is present. All three arrive at once and I can't tell you the order.

I wake before the alarm. The room is grey. I lie there taking stock - the burn is still there, but noticeably less. The itch is mostly gone. But there's something in the boxer briefs again, the same thick dampness against the labia as when I woke in the night.

I get up carefully, not waking Emily.

I pull open the waistband and check the boxer briefs in the bathroom. A white discharge in the crotch - different from last night, no sour smell, something milder. I drop the underwear to the floor and turn on the shower.

Chapter 27 – Wings of the Queen

The gym's fluorescent lights are unforgiving. I take a stall to change, shucking my jeans. My usual workout shorts go on and I understand the problem immediately: the fabric pulls tight across a rear that's rounder and fuller than two days ago, the seat straining in a way that has nothing to do with fit. I have less muscle in my thighs and the mass sits differently - softer at the inner thigh, fuller at the seat, less dense at the outer quad. The shorts follow a silhouette I don't recognize. I dig out my sweatpants and put those on instead.

I wake to the same unfamiliar dampness, the boxers riding up. Emily's side of the bed is empty.

I ball the boxers in my fist and drop them in the hamper. Stand there a moment. Then go to the bathroom.

I flip the toilet seat up by reflex. Stand there looking at it. The medicine cabinet mirror gives me back my own face - same as always from the chin up - and below the waist the whole absurdity of what I'm about to attempt. I spread my feet, plant them shoulder-width apart, and try.

The elevator opens and I step into the office. My shoes squeak against the linoleum, too loose, and my hips move with each step in a rhythm I'm not choosing. The receptionist gives me her usual nod.

Chapter 55: New Balance in Life

The rest of the week in the cabin passed like a quiet dream. Each day began with the gentle crackle of the fire and the smell of pine drifting in from the woods. Yuqi would wake to the sound of her parents humming softly in the kitchen, the sun filtered through frost-laced windows, casting golden patterns on the worn wooden floor. Outside, icicles glittered from the porch roof, and the snow piled so high that it muffled even the sound of footsteps.

Babysitting for a Hot Momma 6
Leslie and Sami Renew Friendship

Chapter 15: Simultaneous Feeds

The confirmation slipped in through the consort lines, shrouded in cryptic layers of protocol and double-blind verification. Not a single alarm tripped. No hint of change rippled through the palace routine. Yet Helena, attuned to the undercurrents, sensed the shift the instant the final timestamp decrypted.

Connor had chosen his moment with the precision of a seasoned operative, every variable accounted for, every risk meticulously weighed.

Chapter Three – Bali Hai

Crissy settles into life at Karumba where she is a very popular girl. Aunt Greta takes Crissy to Bali where she meets with a business partner while Crissy undertakes breast enhancement surgery. Crissy meets a 'special lady' at a bar in Bali and romance ensues. Final chapter.

Chapter Two – The House On The Hill

Steve pulls his truck into Cairns Queensland and Crissy and Steve have a raucous time at a local nightspot before continuing on to Karumba where Crissy meets her Aunt Greta. Greta has a proposition for Crissy and Steve that will change their lives forever. Part two of three.

Ethan Martin and his mother live a simple life in a small Southern town... with a twist: She makes dresses to pay the bills and he helps out as best he can.
 

Ethan experiences love and loss.