Dept. of Speculation

The streets smelled like lavender and for a long time neither of us noticed that there weren’t any cars. We stayed at a cheap hotel that had a view out the window more beautiful than anything I’d ever seen. The water was wickedly blue. A cliff of dark rock jutted out of the sea. I wanted to cry because I was sure I would never be in such a place again. Let’s explore, you said, which is what you always said when I started to look that way.

*

Dept. of Speculation, p. 15
By Jenny Offill
Published 2014

Bitter Orange

I stood while he dropped everything to squeeze hold of her, bend her backwards, and kiss her. I didn’t think about it until much later but often when I saw them together it was as though everything they did had been rehearsed, not because they had me as an audience but so they could believe in a more perfect version of themselves.

*

Bitter Orange, p. 250
By Claire Fuller
Published 2018 by Tin House Books