I press A7 on the vending machine — it shudders as my Mountain Dew gets stuck in the contraption, grunts like an old man coming in his sock. Its LED lights flicker as I kick the damn thing one, two,… Continue Reading
Take action lickety-split upon noticing his shirt smells of hussy. Follow that snake when he slithers out the door. Instead of the country bar, he heads to the new wine bar — the one you and your friends have been… Continue Reading
In a virtual space designed to feel like a pickup bar, but I wish we’d seen each other across the ravaged land of the apocalypse. Rubble of the old life slowly decaying under warm light of the indifferent morning sun,… Continue Reading
Itzhak poured another finger of bourbon for the tragic man sitting in front of him. The people who came into his bar on Christmas Eve were almost always tragic. Drunks who’d alienated their families, old men with nobody left, or… Continue Reading
I was walking through downtown San Jose, passing the Convention Center, when I saw a man wearing a business suit, long overcoat, and bright red Converse sneakers. The suit looked like it fit him well, a bit rumpled in places,… Continue Reading
“I read minds,” I told the man across from me at the speed-dating table. He cocked his head skeptically. “I do. Literally. Think of a number.” He did and I read him. “Three-point-one-four-one-five-nine,” I said immediately. That was pi, an… Continue Reading
The room is dimly lit. The woman who just impressed you by gulping her Budweiser in one of those craft-brew bars is now asking if you have children. Before this, she’d liked the way you won the game of pool… Continue Reading
I walk in. They hand me a name badge. Immediately I ask myself why am I attending my fiftieth college reunion? The few who aren’t dead look like they should be. I’m gone. No boring stories, bad food and cheap… Continue Reading
Friday night I played another piano bar. If you’d told my younger self that all those years of practice would amount to this… Well, I probably would have been ecstatic, to be perfectly honest. But I was young and dumb… Continue Reading
“Wow, that’s gorgeous. Where’d you get it?” Mariel asked Reno. “That new place on Main Street.” Mariel admired the tattoo and touched it lightly with her fingertips. His skin was cool to the touch, and the tri-color tat popped against… Continue Reading