With the holidays fast approaching and her love life severely lacking, Hailey Miller decides to take the latest dating app, Mixr, up on their invitation to attend their monthly Manhattan get together. There she meets Elliott, who she wasn't matched with, but soon realizes is someone she has more chemistry with than anyone else. Will their connection last long enough for a kiss underneath the mistletoe or fizzle out before Christmas even arrives? [told through a mix of emails, chapters, and texts]

Diana Robles has dreams-ones she'd get to just as soon as those of her family have been realized. It took nearly three years of hard work in Canada to see her siblings through college and now, with the promise of a chance to finally live her own life, destiny beckons her to a large and lonely house for one last extra cleaning assignment before her long-overdue trip back home. Little by little, she not only cleans the home of a man who hardly has any time to enjoy the rewards of his long hours, she also begins an odd friendship with him that will make her reconsider the priorities she'd made a long time ago. But before Diana can decide what her heart really wants, she's called home to the Philippines to hold up her family through an unexpected crisis. Amidst her loud but loving family, the traces of her old life and the calling of the new, Diana will find herself wondering where exactly the home of a heart is and whether she can find it-if it doesn't find her first.

All Roman wants to do is to make this Valentine’s Day perfect for his girlfriend, Brittney. But when the elements battle against him, will Roman make it back in time before the end of the night? And why is he so desperate to get back for one seemingly commercial day anyway?

Hudson Ellis is good at his job. Somehow, he manages not to annoy people when he knocks at their doors and asks them to contribute to the charity he works for - instead, he gets them to sign up for sponsoring programmes and fish whatever spare change they have out of their pockets. Even the infamously tough residents of New York City are falling victim to Hudson's easy-going ways and wide smile; that is, until one woman renders him speechless with sarcastic refusals and slams her door in his face. Perhaps Hudson would be able to forget her - if it wasn't for the fact that she lives on the same floor of the next apartment over, and they both have floor-to-ceiling windows that allow for a rather generous view into each other's flats.

A dark retelling of Beauty and the Beast Annabelle Novacek has never much liked how people view her. She was a beautiful rose to be admired and protected. But she has always felt lanky and awkward; it was her two older sisters that were perfect. When her father comes home with news of a wealthy nobleman desiring her hand, the family are thrilled and she is whisked off to a small town outside of Paris. The journey doesn't go as anticipated and their carriage is attacked. Annabelle only just escapes with her life but she is flung out to desperately search for any sign of life. The local nobleman takes her in, but the longer she stays the more she hears about the dark secrets the village holds; a ravage beast that roams the forest and lies in wait for its next victim. Beauty fades but true kindness lasts an eternity. - - - - - - - - - - - - - Cover by @Forcade

"Okay, where do you want me to start?" "Anywhere you wish." "There were five of us. Dani, Elizabeth, Audrey, Taylor and me. We spent about 9 months in the basement. The walls where cement. The floor was cement. We each had our own chairs. Dani had her baby blue chair with white roses in the upper right corner. Elizabeth had her pale pink chair with white daiseys in the lower right corner. Audrey had her yellow chair with white roses in the upper left corner. Taylor had her black chair with red roses in the lower left corner. I had a white chair with sunflowers that sat in the center, the very center of the room. Each of us had a light above our heads. There were no covers in the lights just the wires losely hanging with the light attached at the end. The front legs of all our chairs had buckles that when we sat down they were right where our ankles were like he knew just were to put them. There were buckles on our arm rests that when we laid are arms on them the buckels our wrist were in the perfect spot. I think its funny how we all never made the conecction." "What conecction would that be?" "That we all have brown hair, blue eyes, were 5'5, all weighed 130. That when you put the first letter of each of our names together it spells Death. I love how at one point we all thought something, right before we were taken. Dani thought she was going to get mail. Elizabeth thought she was picking up dinner. Audrey thought she was going to class. Taylor thought she was taking her dog for a walk and I thought I was going to marry him and that I loved him with all my heart."

Five short stories from author Cassandra Dunn: Pines explores first love; The Baker is about a brother's love; The Universe at Work looks at the connections we form; Samuel is about loss; and The Rocking Horse explores wanting more and that fateful moment when we decide whether or not to give it to ourselves. www.cassandradunn.com

[FEATURED STORY] At school, they were nothing. At midnight, they were lovers. Because one minute after midnight... a rich girl and a boy who came from nothing found something they had in common. © 2014 All rights reserved | Short-Story #2 | Humour #25 |