Day Is Done | Shannon Coghlan Reiss

"The gunny almost always kept a wad of singles in the top drawer of his filing cabinet, and I sometimes wondered if he left them there specifically for me..."

New Old Friends | Alethea Tusher

"I find the cost-benefit of social exertion in party-like or party-actual atmospheres (like this one) not worth all the hygiene that I’m mostly neutral about..."

We Need to Talk about Karen | Dorothy Cornish

"You recognise how extremely serious this is? I mean, you can see how it looks from our side, right? Good. Yeah. Sure. Michele, would you get her some tissues?..."

Not Crying | Sally K Lehman

"Inez was bigger than me, older than me. And she was heavier, not just because of age. She was one of those kids with a stomach that sticks out ahead, who walks through the world belly first..."

The Art of Lying | Eva Myers

"I always had this dreadful habit of looking down nervously and twiddling my thumbs when I was lying to people. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I still do..."

Seeds | Kathryn H. Ross

"Emmaline tasted the inside of her mouth and thought of fire—in the grate, flickering on a match, billowing beneath rocket ships, blazing in the sky..."