Aphrodite’s child lingered beside the bed. Tiny hands hovered above the duvet, feather soft fingers not quite daring to descend.

Then the autumn wind lashed at my sun kissed skin, icy tendrils raking at summer eyes. And she was gone, taking with her honey drenched nothings and love’s fickle season.

Matthew Blain-Hartung is a biochemist and molecular biologist currently residing in Berlin. When not writing scientific manuscripts, he is polishing off his latest novel, The Memory Mule, or experimenting with the shorter formats: recently, he has had two shorts accepted for publication, due out in September and October.