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Queer Contemporary Flash Fiction [102 Pages / 23,500 Words] Paperback / AMZ / Apple / BN / Kobo / SW / All From cuddly to explicit, romantic to platonic, unrequited to hopeful, silly to serious: enjoy twenty-five contemporary snapshots of queer love, each at one thousand words or fewer. Collection includes: Nearly Home—Compromise—An Icy Rain—Stubborn Care—Losing Sleep—In the Crowd—Frantic Heat—Longer Distance—Musical Notes—Sleeping In—At the Beach—A Messy Question—Rooftop Interlude—On a Mission—Midnight—An Intimate Morning—Something Green—Smitten—A Kiss to Start—A Terrible Idea—The Easiest Thing—Simple Equations—In the Library—Discordant Details Sofia wakes slowly, her body lethargic and her mind groggy with the vestiges of a pleasant dream. Her limbs ache with the sense of having rested somewhere not especially comfortable, but Sofia doesn't mind. She often falls asleep in less-than-ideal places. It's the curse of an irregular sleep schedule—the strange hours she keeps, balancing grad school with a part-time job—the tendency towards night owl behaviors despite a constitution more inclined to daylight. In any case, despite her body's quiet protest and the way she's coming to realize she has folded herself up in sleep, Sofia has no desire to wake more fully. She feels safe and content. Her cheek rests on something warm, and there's something else... Some additional sensation... Ah. The soft slide of fingers through the wild strands of her hair. The touch brushes across her scalp, again and again, nearly sending her right back into dreams. Sofia is far too sleepy to guess who might be touching her so tenderly. Not her girlfriend—now ex-girlfriend, she reminds herself harshly. And sure as hell not the one person she wishes would touch her this way. Elena Mendez is her best friend, and if she has ever looked at Sofia with anything like tenderness, she's concealed it well. That leaves Sofia's other friends, but even this she finds almost impossible to account for. Plenty of them are physically affectionate, but this isn't the sort of contact they favor. It's far too sweet. And Sofia's brow furrows, as the mystery drags her more alert despite her best efforts to drift away. "Welcome back," rumbles a familiar voice, gruff with wry affection. "You've been asleep for over an hour." Sofia inhales sharply and opens her eyes. Denim and belt loops fill her field of vision, so close they go a little blurry. She turns her head, raising her gaze to confirm—not believing even once she does—that she's been sleeping with her head on Elena's thigh. Oh, shit. Those are Elena's fingers tracing idle patterns in her hair. The cab of Elena's truck is dark but for the glow of the dashboard and a glimmer of streetlight from far overhead. There's barely enough light to see Elena's broad frame, her tousled hair, the narrow glasses on her round face. Her wide jaw with a faint, familiar scar. The flicker of a smile at one corner of her mouth. "Where...?" Sofia tapers off almost as soon as she starts to ask, unwilling to sit up and look out the window if it means Elena will stop petting her hair. "Rest area," Elena murmurs without taking her eyes off Sofia. "You didn't wake when I pulled off the highway or when I unbuckled your seatbelt. Nearly gave me a heart attack when you curled up in my lap instead. You've been completely dead to the world." "Sorry," Sofia says. But she's not. She's pleased, and not sorry at all, and she still can't entirely believe Elena is touching her this way. "We're nearly home." Elena's home. Not Sofia's. When one's relationship implodes right before Valentine's Day, sometimes the only option is to call for rescue from a friend who lives two states away. She knew Elena would come collect her, short notice be damned. What she will do once the dust settles, Sofia still isn't sure, but at least she can figure it out from the reassuring comfort of Elena's couch. "What time is it?" Sofia asks. "Almost midnight." Elena's smile quirks higher. "Those construction zones really ate into our driving time. We'll have to refuel as soon as we hit town." "Mmm." Sofia closes her eyes, giving a thoughtless little stretch that rubs her cheek against Elena's leg and interrupts the steady caress. Immediately Sofia wishes she'd kept still. She blinks her eyes open again and peers up into Elena's face. Searching. Hoping. Pleading without words, and wondering how well Elena can read her in the shadows. Elena's expression is a cryptic mystery. But after an agonizingly slow span of seconds, she licks her lips. Such a small gesture, but it makes Sofia's heart race. A moment later, Elena's touch disappears from her hair—a loss Sofia doesn't have time to mourn before gentle fingertips are trailing over her jaw, her temple, the line of her cheek. The touch hesitates. An eloquent pause. And then the pad of Elena's thumb traces Sofia's lower lip. "We should..." Elena starts to say, but her voice has gone raspy and she trails off. She swallows hard, seems to deliberately relax her tight shoulders. "We should get back on the road." Paperback / AMZ / Apple / BN / Kobo / SW / All |
Cover design by Yolande Kleinn Ebook ISBN 978-1-946316-57-8 Print ISBN 978-1-946316-58-5 |