He stayed, despite constant fighting—there was the baby to consider. Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling he’d have been happier had he left.
He left, baby or no—ragged from constant fighting. Still, miles down the road he couldn’t shake the feeling he’d have been happier had he stayed.
Tim Boiteau is a Writers of the Future winner and Editor at Every Day fiction. He is the author of the novel The Nilwere (Grendel Press, 2024).
The nighthawks down bad coffee and talk about all the chances they never took. Catherine hears without listening, counting out her tips in nickels and dimes, aching to be someplace else, where love is gentler, and the past no longer lives in the very marrow of your bones.
Alan currently lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, but originally hails from Leeds, England. To pay the rent, Alan writes emails all day long for a large global corporation, but for fun he prefers to create short stories and poetry and recently completed a full length mystery novel. When not writing, Alan spends his time constantly learning from his two young daughters, guzzling craft beers with his partner Gina, and following Leeds United’s latest mishaps. Learn more about Alan’s work at alanfalkingham.com.
Three hundred years from now, they still have AA meetings. After the meetings end, before the attendees take off in their flying cars or hop on airlifts to their dingy floating halfway houses, some still chew nervously at the rims of their Styrofoam coffee cups, unable to grasp the future.
Thomas Tilton is pretty sure the coffee is mud.