At a state tax commission meeting in Pittsburgh, Joe stood out among the tax nerds. Tall and lithe with wavy locks that fell across his

Even before my daughter Isabel died, my spouse and I were struggling. We seemed incapable of working through anything.  Karen was downstairs when I took

I burned the toast, the first task he gave me. I’d never burned toast before, but around him I was always burning things.  I burned

Photos are the currency of our online affair. Brinkmanship. A coy smile quickly progresses to a yielding neck becomes bared breasts. We up the ante

In my earliest memory, my three or maybe four-year-old-self sits on the cement steps of my first home in a shimmery dress, the color of

“We won’t be seeing Grandpa anymore,” Dad said. His Texas Ranger mustache twitched, as if it regretted letting the words out of his mouth.  

Among my 6-year-old son’s many rituals, his meticulous consumption of fruit snacks remains the most consistent. After I help him open the bag, he gets

I was nineteen years old when I fell in love with my husband. That was thirty-one years ago, and the sensations of love at first

First winter break in college.  I am back at home in Chinatown from the University of Southern California, having picked up a few table manners

Should I spill about the good ones? Before the family died. When Christmas bulbs were big and grew hot and metal-clipped to the branches of

You love the first bittersweet sips of dark French Roast coffee in the morning. You think there is nothing better, that of everything you might

I went to Woodstock out of spite. Regardless of that fact, this is a love story because what does a 17 year old really know

I am thinking of the way your mouth turns up on one side when you point your finger down at little me and shout Car-oool,

My ex-husband died in my living room a month before the world shut down.  Two months later, I met Karen. Within an hour of our

Marin used markers to draw a butterfly with spiraling antennae. I hope you find happiness in everything you do, she wrote. Jenny covered her card