Escaping from urban life to the open sea (and its creatures) can be spellbinding.

Consoling the unemployed works until you're the one who needs consoling.

When a friend has a child, dreams of global touring can go up in smoke.

How a friend's success can turn your world upside down on a lark.

Some messages just can't be canceled, no matter how much you want them back.

A celebrity death can make you reckon with more than you want to.

On a date, a meeting, charm, twilight, and finally outright darkness.

Whoever said holiday-time parties are fun by definition never looked between the lines.

Picking up loose ends with a long-ago friend can be a recipe for... dissonance.

Making peace with past decisions means giving yourself a break.

Building a memorial tower doesn't mean sticking around after it's finished.

Attraction is strangely arbitrary, and when it hits you it wastes little time.