One Night Deal
I'd been smiling for nine hours straight and my face felt like it was gonna crack.
Dry and wry mature stories
Stories in Mature tagged dry and wry, ranked by how many readers finish them. Reads run 22 to 25 minutes. Writers to know: Switch of Harbor, Thread of Tawny and The Fern Phantom. Readers usually start with “One Night Deal” and “Shared Silence at the Rare Bookshelf”. Some are free to read in full; the rest open with a free preview.
Dry and wry mature stories, ranked by readers
01 02 Shared Silence at the Rare Bookshelf
Wilma had been looking forward to this evening for three weeks, and she was not going to let a little thing like turning sixty-four make…
03 Cold Aisle Reunion
The snow started coming down sideways around four, and by the time I pulled into the lot at The Cold Aisle my wipers had given up on doing…
04 The Model's Contract
I signed up for the life drawing class on a Tuesday, mostly because my sister wouldn't shut up about me having no hobbies.
05 The Call at Langford
*This story is a slow burn about a man who's done with surprises and a woman who's full of them.
06 The Cartographer’s Trade
The gallery was one of those converted bank buildings downtown, all marble and tall windows, and I only went because the archive society…
07 With the Metronome
I didn't join Cal at the depot because I was lonely.
08 The Last Shift Before Friday
The pool closed at six, same as it had all summer.
09 Barge Tiebreaker
I turned fifty-two in March and my youngest moved out in June, which means I spent the summer learning how quiet a three bedroom house can…
10 The Late Shift at the Kiln
The gallery didn't look like much from the street.
11 The Professor's Late-Night
I have been running events at Oakton College for seven years, and in that time I have learned one rule about visiting scholars.
12 The Overnight Shift After
I woke up on the hospital cot with a crick in my neck and a face that was not my face.
13 The Night Shift Secret
Francis was flat on the creeper under the white Freightliner with half the drivetrain dropped and a knuckle scraped raw, when the office…
14 The Spite Spread
The parking lot at Willow Creek Farmers Market was already half full by seven in the morning, and I was already sweating through my blouse…
15 The Bitter Stack
*This one came from thinking about how anger can be a kind of clarity.
16 The Cleanup Job
I'm Brianna Bradford, forty-five years old, and I've been a firefighter for nineteen years.
17 The Squash Pro
I got fired on a Tuesday.