His one-time girlfriend Leyla Santiago stood in the misting rain with Dr. Nancy from the Best Pal Clinic. The two of them wore face coverings, and he had the car windows up, so everything they said was like mock, mock, mock. A little while ago, one of the vet techs took inside the carrier holding Leyla’s cat, Darla. She might’ve been around sixteen years old and weighed 4 ½ pounds.
Two Nurses, Smoking by David Means
Some of David Means’ stories are worth their own book club meeting.
Melancholia of The Heart: My Darling, I am On Fire
How can you live and leave in a breath as the door closes
Love Passing
She asked if she could show him something on her phone and moved over to sit next to him. He didn’t seem uncomfortable with wisps of her red hair touching his shoulder, or her light green jeans rubbing against his black ones as she made herself comfortable in the booth.
It was an image of one her paintings, a portrait of a middle-aged Black woman on a park bench. It looked like late afternoon – the subject cast a long shadow on an asphalt walkway. The woman’s expression seemed to show both strength and sadness; weariness and defiance.
Rights; New Ashford; Ode to Youth
Pre- Raphaelite beauty in L. L. Bean talking Gerard Manley Hopkins I so wanted to be you
Chibbed
Out of the taxi and into the bitter early morning air we got. As I stood there watching the group head into the flat, a horrible realisation hit me. I only had a couple of fags left. The garage was only a five-minute walk from Mary’s, so I set off down the road, and, as I did do, I contemplated doing a runner. ‘This night is going to end in tears’, I thought. They usually do. But the lure of a session was, once again, and regrettably, too much.