40

Mom and Dad had tried to raise me and Taylor without gender stereotypes. They’d given both of us gender-neutral names, and had me wearing her hand-me-downs, skirts as well as pants and shirts, until I was old enough to rebel against them.

Forty Love.

by

Angharad.

Imbecile

1

Burt reclined happily in the long pleasure boat with grandmamma as her manservant gently guided them across the centre of the lake in the morning sunshine.

“So you talked to that idiot maid then,” said Grandmamma.

“Yes,” replied Burt. “I did.”

“And how did she take your kind guidance?”

Burt raised an eyebrow. Grandmamma was smiling playfully. His first instinct was to be snippy, say something like, You were right. She’s nothing but an ignorant lazy girl who doesn’t deserve a kind hand.

38

Meeting the Earl

1

The next morning Ann woke up outside.

She was lying in a ditch with her legs up the bank and her head and left arm in its dank muddy bottom. She raised her head and saw the half-dried vomit down the front of her shirt and on her trousers.

She chuckled to herself and struggled over onto her hands and knees getting even wetter and muckier. She got to her feet and sidestepped, losing her balance as she realised how drunk she still was then fell through the side of a gorse bush.

Chamomile Stars.

My name is Steven or was but it’s now officially Stevie Hyatt…not my last name either and I’m married.

The thing here in fleet it’s not husband or wife not legally instead it’s just spouse or as my wedding bracelet says. “Loving spouse.”

Choices

Chapter 6

MESMERIZE

By Jennifer Sue

Part 1

The job was thankless and often boring, but at least upper management recognized it's importance because the salary was double what similar positions paid. Lydia Templin was quite efficient as the research/reference librarian for a major pharmaceutical company. In this position she was responsible for indexing articles in scientific and research journals so that if one of the researchers in the company wanted information, she would be able to promptly obtain it. In addition, she was responsible for filing and cross referencing all research documents produced by the company.

When upper management decided to try to find a drug to control the unbridled sex drive of child-molesters and rapists, a request came in from R & D for information on drugs that reduced sex drive in males. Lydia pulled up every listing of drugs that had references of reduced sex drive and then set about to dutifully cull every reference. One drug, TTX, seemed to repeatedly pop up but none of the clinical studies showed any consistent results. Lydia's sent all the information on to R & D.