Check & Mate

Whose offhand verdict about you did you overhear and never forget?

It hadn’t taken long for Iris to learn what he truly thought of her. In fact, it had taken only half an hour after she had first met Roman. She had overheard him saying to one of the editors, “She’ll give me no competition. None at all. She dropped out of Windy Grove School in her final year.”

Divine Rivals · Rebecca Ross

A mother, a sundress, a stolen base: the anatomy of a kept memory.

All the neighborhood kids played kickball in the street for hours that night, and the adults even joined us for a game. At one point, my mother was high-fiving Michael after stealing home base in her floral sundress and wedge sandals. That moment was pressed in my memories like a yellowed photograph in an antique album.

Better Than the Movies · Lynn Painter

What you say when a perfect week is almost over.

Let’s pretend that time doesn’t exist. Let’s pretend that this week isn’t ending. Let’s pretend that we will always be us—happy, sunburnt, and tangled up together.

The Summer of Broken Rules · K.L. Walther