M.K. Lee's Blog: Telling Tales, page 49

From Across The Hall – 13

“Anyway,” Sam says, his eyes wide in alarm as though he’s finally noticed the tray Ruben is carrying. “I just wanted to say hello. I think we’ve made eye contact a couple of times and it just seems… I just wanted to say hello.”

Hello, Ruben thinks, trying not to beam adoringly at him. “That’s… I was thinking the same.”

“Maybe I’ll catch you later,” Sam adds, and oh, how ridiculously stunning is this man?

“You will. I mean, you might,” Ruben stutters out, hoping the level of noise disgui...

From Across The Hall – 12

“Hi.”

A tentative hand on his upper arm as he walks away has Ruben coming to an abrupt stop that almost sloshes his drinks everywhere. The whole tray almost crashes to the ground when he looks up to discover the owner of that hand.

“Hi,” he stutters out, staring into the beautiful brown eyes belonging to Sam, and hopes for an easy smile to form on his own face instead of a sickly one.

“You work in the clothes place,” Sam says with an unfairly beautiful smile.

“Oh, yeah,” Ruben says, ...

Fog

Jason could barely see the other side of the street for how heavy the fog was. The hills in the distance disappeared into a blanket of white, all the colour seeming to drain from the world at every point. Jason put the rubbish in the bin – the task he’d come out here to do – then went back into the house, shivering for the cold. Today was a non-starter. The files he’d brought home to work on were unopened on his coffee table. Next episode hit one too many times on Netflix. The fog pressed agains...

From Across The Hall – 11

Sam looks good, though that’s no surprise to Ruben. He is wearing these great black jeans so dark they’re probably hand washed, and this navy blue shirt that’s rolled to the elbow and fits just right. And his accent places him as no more exotic than perhaps Plymouth, but there is a slight lilt to his voice that puts a smile on Ruben’s face, and a voice taunting in his head about accent kinks gets firmly shoved to one side.

Ruben concentrates on his drinks order, leaning half across the bar be...

From Across The Hall – 10

Sam. Barista-guy’s name is Sam. Ruben has learned this vital piece of information through Becky, who is the manager of the shopping centre’s bookshop and is currently on her way back from the bar. She is also one of the prime sources of gossip for the shopping centre, so Ruben nods as though this is interesting information and not a vital detail to add to his increasingly more detailed daydreaming, hoping she’s not on to him.

It’s not all that often that so many people from the shopping centr...

The Military Wife

From the eyes of a military spouse: why you should never marry a soldier.

She always swore she’d never fall for a soldier.

Vivid childhood memories of Sunday afternoons spent after a huge roast dinner wedged between her grandparents had somehow taught her that. Her grandfather had served in the RAF during the Second World War, and his stories of the things he could tell her about played on her mind from an early age; the unspoken stories behind his eyes too horrific for her young mind to compre...

Vegetable

“It’s hardly an allotment. More of a… vegetable patch.”

Marcus stiffens, masking his indignation, taking his frustration out on the garden fork.

“I’m not saying it won’t be great,” Ted adds, his voice tinged with amusement, like he’s heard Marcus’ internal protest.

“Soil’s good,” Marcus says, turning over another clod. It’s rich, loamy, and he’s confident he’ll get a decent few things to grow.

“So how long before we’re the envy of the neighbours, handing out potatoes to random peopl...

From Across The Hall – 9

“You coming for drinks on Friday?” Steven asks as he passes with his own pile of clothes to hang. “Mark’s talking about us going to that new bar opening on the high street.”

“Of course,” Ruben says, thinking that a drink after their busy week can only be a good thing. And besides, he has this weekend off, has every intention of going grocery shopping Saturday morning, then holing up in his apartment until he returns to work on Monday. He’s got some sketches he wants to finish, and he’s actual...

From Across The Hall – 8

Barista-guy smiled at him again this morning, though maybe it was really a grimace for Ruben reaching out uninvited to flatten the collar of his shirt. Ruben had been on his way back to work from buying stationery since Mark had bit through the last of their pens, and barista-guy had walked right into his path after stepping off the escalator.

Ruben had frozen. His bag of pens and notepads swung by his side, while his other hand lifted without his express permission to flatten back that colla...

Nap

It’s just a few minutes. Just a little rest to soothe his aching head. And eyes, dryer than all the deserts for how many hours he’s been staring at the screen.

He drops his head back on his pillow and shifts to rid his back of the kinks in his sweatshirt. Then decides he’s cold, so fidgets some more until he’s snug beneath the duvet.

Just a nap, he says, just a short nap, then back to the work he has to get done today.

Three hours later, he wakes to bristling silence, certain of a shift...