A Friend in the Dark

by Samantha M. Bailey

I was blindsided. The man in front of me was a stranger and not the person who’d been my rock and best friend for almost a quarter of a century. The only certainty I’d had in life was Dave.

I don’t understand what I did wrong or how the man who once blushed and stammered every time he spoke to me could give me up without a fight.

Eventually I gave up trying because feeling unwanted is worse than no intimacy at all.

My friend—everyone’s friend—Tyler Yates, vanished from the Sigma Chi house sometime during the night. He was reported missing the next afternoon, and by that evening, posters with his surfer-boy shaggy blond hair and sweet smile were plastered across campus. He’s never been found.

Justin: I feel awful that I didn’t know you were sick. I thought you were rejecting me. That maybe I did something to hurt you. To me, you were the one who got away.

“You’ve become really uptight since Grandpa died. I understand why Dad doesn’t want to live with you anymore.”

Justin could have scrolled through my page and intuited how thirsty I am for anyone to pay attention to me, a middle-aged mother in sensible clothes, one whose most exciting posts are fabulous chicken recipes and the latest book I read.

It’s probably the lack of sleep, the sexting, and the book that are making me twitchy.

“Imagine I’m in the car with you.” I told him when to call me. I never told him where I’d be when he phoned.

The triskelion is the international symbol of BDSM.

“Listen to me.” He waved his finger in her face. “Whenever I want you, you will give yourself to me, because that is your obligation. You will never leave. You will never question me, tell me what to do, or get involved in my private business in any way. If you fuck with me, you will never see your brother again.” He made good on that threat.