𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓈𝓊𝒸𝒽 𝒶 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁𝓎 𝒸𝒽𝑒𝓌, 𝒲𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝓂𝑜𝑜𝓃‑𝓁𝒾𝓉 𝒸𝑜𝒷𝓌𝑒𝒷𝓈 𝒹𝓇𝒶𝓅𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝓉𝑜𝓃𝑒, 𝐼𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒽𝓊𝓈𝒽 𝑜𝒻 𝓂𝒾𝒹𝓃𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉’𝓈 𝓋𝒶𝓊𝓁𝓉𝑒𝒹 𝓃𝒶𝓋𝑒, 𝒴𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓌𝒽𝒾𝓈𝓅𝑒𝓇 𝓈𝒾𝓃𝓀𝓈 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝒷𝒾𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓇‑𝓈𝓌𝑒𝑒𝓉 𝒷𝓇𝒾𝓃𝑒— 𝒫𝑒𝓉𝒶𝓁𝓈 𝑜𝒻 𝒶𝓈𝒽 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝑔𝓃𝒶𝓌 𝒶𝓉 𝒶𝒾𝓇, 𝒴𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒷𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓉𝒽—𝒶 𝓇𝓊𝓈𝓉𝑒𝒹 𝓀𝑒𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓉𝓊𝓇𝓃𝓈, 𝒜 𝓅𝒽𝒶𝓃𝓉𝑜𝓂’𝓈 𝓈𝓂𝒾𝓁𝑒, 𝒶 𝓈𝑒𝓇𝓇𝒶𝓉𝑒𝒹 𝓇𝑜𝓈𝑒, 𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝒾𝓇𝑜𝓃 𝑔𝒶𝓉𝑒𝓈 𝑜𝒻 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎 𝓁𝒶𝒾𝓇. 𝐼𝓉 𝒸𝒽𝑒𝓌𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒹𝒶𝓇𝓀𝓃𝑒𝓈𝓈, 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝒹𝓈 𝑜𝓃 𝒹𝓊𝓈𝓀, 𝒜𝓃𝒹 𝓅𝒶𝒾𝓃𝓉𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓈 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓉𝑒𝒹 𝓁𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉, 𝒴𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓁𝒶𝓊𝑔𝒽𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝓁𝒾𝓃𝑔𝑒𝓇𝓈, 𝒶 𝓂𝑜𝓉𝒽‑𝓌𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒷𝒾𝓉𝑒; 𝐼𝓃 𝒸𝓇𝓎𝓅𝓉𝓈 𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝒸𝒶...

Jules Laurent glared at the tiny brass bell sharply tinkling as he stepped inside Les Petits Plaisirs de Montmartre. The bell sounded too cheerful for the early hour. He moved toward the glass case of neatly lined up macarons and felt a childlike craving for them. The croissants looked tasty too, and he finally settled on the pain au chocolat. While waiting in line at the register, his eyes passed on the bustling patrons...

Love At First Sight: They called it love at first sight, though neither of them believed in such things—until that bright April morning in 1981. On her porch swing, reading a well-worn paperback, Sarah watched the stranger get out of his dusty rental car. He looked lost, curious—eyes tracing the white picket fences and awnings of Maplewood’s Main Street. He paused, caught her gaze, and offered a shy wave. By lunchtime, th...

Catherine The first time I saw Isabella, I was checking into Darwin Lodge. She was sat with an older man taking afternoon tea. Short black hair, olive skin and those dark, unfathomable eyes that made my heart flutter like hummingbird wings. My hand shook as I signed the hotel form. I was exhausted after the long flight, but I didn’t think that was the reason. I glanced at the girl again as she sipped from her cup. Her eye...

“I need a real dog, a dog with some intelligence behind its eyes. Not some dopey, Down Syndrome-looking spaniel that drools every time it sees a bird.” Jenn’s Plenty of Fish profile half-jokingly stated, ‘Must love dogs.’ Yes. A cheeky nod to a mediocre movie. Maybe the ask should have been more prescriptive. Admittedly, the next few moments were not Jenn’s best. She and he did not part ways well. After Jenn a-matter-of-f...

I’m pretty sure my parents had got the memo and realized my mood swings weren’t just an unusually bumpy ride on a menstrual cycle. Teenage hormones can be persistent buggers, feeling autumnal wouldn’t even evaporate as the heat and humidity began to rise. That family summer holiday, a road trip to the big smoke—Gold Coast has theme parks, Annie—nowadays feels like a fin de siècle moment. Maybe that’s because it’s the last...

I didn’t come to the beach to fall in love. I came because I was bored, burnt out, and vaguely dramatic about turning thirty. I’d quit my job three days earlier by replying “No” to an e-mail that said “Please confirm availability for Q3 onboarding.” I packed a backpack, found a cheap rental by the sea, and brought the three things I trust: my camera, my skateboard and my grandmother’s dented thermos. The first time I saw...

Twelve minutes. Why am I so nervous? Of course, I was nervous then, too… I joined the line at the Dickson Dining Hall with the other high school students taking special summer courses at Cornell, and stood behind a cute blonde girl. Deciding that I wouldn’t be the shy nobody I was in high school, I said “Hi!” She turned and broke into a smile. “Hi yourself! So, what are you in for?” “Special relativity and quantum mechani...

He showed up on a Monday, carrying a skateboard, a chipped thermos and a camera with no strap. Then, very seriously – as though we weren’t already standing on a sandpit of seagulls – he asked, “Where’s the beach?” I pointed over my shoulder at the waves shuffling up and down the shore like an indecisive waiter. “Just past the seaweed. If you reach your childhood memories, you’ve gone too far.” He blinked. “That’s oddly po...

Mia pressed her forehead to the car window, watching the city’s grey dissolve into the open sky. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed, really laughed. Life had become a series of muted days: work, sleep, repeat. Even her friends’ voices had grown distant, muffled by exhaustion. She hoped the sea might remember who she used to be. Her phone buzzed with work emails and missed calls as she pulled up the sandy la...

I’m Sacha, a Producer on The Love Show and I would be on the crew the whole time with them. Being a producer is a double-edged sword: obviously, I am invested in the couple’s relationship as the aim of the show is to create couples that will last the distance. The other edge is I want hours of good, viewable footage. But viewable means enthralling and capturing footage and seeing people mooching about their normal busines...

Vallon, my best friend, and I sat on the couch, mesmerized by the blanket of whiteness covering the woods behind us. Through the snow-covered branches, I could see Royal Lake, frozen over. The 4.1-mile path surrounding it was invisible, obscured by the eight to ten inches of heavy snow that had fallen Sunday night and into Monday morning. The scene was pristine, idyllic. Picture-perfect. Knocking on the front door awakene...

Sam and I had been living at Tom’s for nearly a year now, me in the Annexe when I wasn’t away with work which had got busier as we kept soaring our birds into the near heavens and sometimes further. Tonight, I was at the Business Network function at a nearby local yacht club and presented on the topic Small is Beautiful: To The Moon about RocketFactory’s achievements. After the presentation, I mingled for a while, and the...

After Christmas Day with my family and Boxing Day with his, we packed and headed off for the start of our next phase. Upon arrival at our first house-sit, he bowed formally, welcoming me to our new love-nest, something that hadn't happened at his place due to Wing getting me to help her prep it before she'd stuck it to The Pests at the airport. Weasel and family had driven us there from the airport and were looking on wor...

After Weasel dropped us at SeaTac and we’d boarded the plane, our flight home was typical for us: like our first flight together and the one to Vancouver, we quickly fell hard asleep snuggled into each other, albeit I think I beat Andy to the drop. We remained asleep the whole, long flight apart from food as we were now on a come down from Washup’s high. Walking to the luggage, we spied the café and unthinkingly made a be...