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Abstract

esh pair of panties.</p><p id="dc34">She settled to sip her coffee when she noticed the man that she saw in Starbucks. Now back in the hotel, she realized that she recognized him from the hotel. They had both been waiting in the lobby, and now he was outside smoking a cigarette.</p><p id="3904">Peggy had not smoked in a long time, but she figured she could flirt with the beautiful stranger if she could not go to her room. She went outside and walked up to him.</p><p id="0e5b">“Have you got another cigarette?” she asked him.</p><p id="e9ab">He looked at her with slit eyes,</p><p id="643b">“Can you say that again so that I can hear your accent?”</p><p id="b8ec">He was a native, and he had an accent that made her heart race inside her chest and between her legs.</p><p id="cc1a">“A cigarette, have you got one?”</p><p id="da5c">“American?”</p><p id="2cb6">“Yeah, a cigarette?”</p><p id="1acc">He smiled, nodded, and handed her a cigarette.</p><p id="709e">“I will light it for you, yeah?”</p><p id="0f2c">“Yeah,” she said, closing her eyes as he leaned in close to light her cigarette.</p><p id="7d7f">But instead, she felt his lips on hers. Her eyes flew open, and the beautiful stranger looked uncomfortable.</p><p id="51bb">“I’m sorry, I could not help but steal a kiss…here, take the whole package. I will go away…”</p><p id="9875">Peggy took the package of cigarettes and matches and saw him go away like a blur.</p><p id="054c">“Ma’am, your room is ready now.”</p><p id="8bd3">She turned around, clutching her gifted package of cigarettes, and walked back to the hotel. Instead of taking a shower right away, she was lured to the huge balcony of her room,

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where she could gaze adoringly at London.</p><p id="4482">As soon as she got onto the balcony, she took a cigarette out of the box and lit it.</p><p id="73b0">“Do you have an extra? I just recently found myself in a deficit…”</p><p id="1638">Peggy recognized his voice.</p><p id="efff">“Sure,” she said. “Let me light it for you.”</p><p id="dde4">She let him take a cigarette out of the box, and she held the matches. He did not close his eyes, as she kissed him with his eyes wide open and lifted her leg in the air.</p><p id="2ebb">Right then, she did not care if her panties were dirty or not…</p><p id="e973"><b><i>You can read some of my top stories here:</i></b></p><div id="b0e5" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/top-of-the-pops-6c9cf6cdb2ed"> <div> <div> <h2>Top of the Pops</h2> <div><h3>Patricia Ray tagged me in her 12 x Tops article a month ago, and I recently accidentally figured out how to configure…</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*Xsz9hkKIFtcKgFkVJX0_9g.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><p id="d69c"><b><i>Read all of my stories and many more. <a href="https://fdotleonora.medium.com/membership">Become a Medium member </a>and support the writers you love — I’m a member!</i></b></p><p id="14d8"><i>First published here: <a href="https://vocal.media/authors/f-leonora-solomon">https://vocal.media/authors/f-leonora-solomon</a></i>.</p></article></body>

Fiction by Genre

General & Contemporary

8 stories | Updated July 9, 2023

Looking for stories about life, or tales that don’t fit neatly into a box?

These virtual shelves are home to stories in the General and Contemporary genres on Medium, built on story listings submitted by fiction authors.

Have fun browsing!

Want to submit a story to this section of the library? Click here to find out how.

Looking for a particular story tag, subgenre, or type? Search this list for keywords by using the Control + F key command on desktop, or Find Selection on mobile.

First Arrival

By Will Saint Val

• Read time: 10 min • Genre(s): History, Literary • Type: Short Story • Status: Complete • Rating: 13+ • Tags: Survival, History, Nature, Humanity, Isolation, Cold, Connection, Uncertainty, Communication, Exploration In a desolate, frozen new land where humanity struggles to survive, a lone wanderer crosses paths with a mysterious creature, bred from the harshness of the cold north. Bound by their shared desire for warmth, they overcame barriers of communication and forged an unlikely bond.

Humanity’s arrival in the north. What was it like? A story of Humanity’s first encounter with the cold north and the being that inhabit it.

Accidental Notes

By Rochelle Deans | Building a Novel

• Read time: 5 hours, 5 minutes (chapters between 5 and 12 minutes each) • Genre(s): Contemporary, YA, mystery, romance • Type: Novel • Status: Complete • Rating: 13+ • Tags: YA fiction, family, mystery, music, Christmas, rivals to lovers, secrets Life doesn’t care about Adaya’s plans. Her father is distant. She runs into an ex-friend she never wanted to see again. Worse than all that, Adaya’s attempts at solacing herself by learning about her late grandmother lead to her learning a family secret.

Music can be there for her when people aren’t. Soon Adaya learns music isn’t everything, and neither is the reconciliation she hoped for. But maybe changing the key of her life is for the best, if she can let go of her plans long enough to improvise.

CWs: mentions of off-page suicide, gaslighting

Flash Fiction: Ghosting

By Tannille

• Read time: 2 mins • Genre(s): General & Contemporary • Type: Flash Fiction • Status: Complete • Rating: E • Tags: Ghosting, Psychological, Moving on, Friendships

Can you face your shadow?

Seldene Shorts

By E.A. Colquitt | Thought Thinkers

Read time: 16 minutes, minimum Genre(s): Humor, folklore and mythology, mystery, magic realism Type: Novel(la/lette)-in-flash Status: Ongoing Rating: E Tags: Slice of life, wholesome, naturecore, academia, animal tales, islands and waterscapes

Visit Seldene, a quiet village by the sea. Meet its inhabitants, explore the area, and even glimpse the nearby historic city of Solway.

Perfect for fans of the TV series ‘Detectorists’ and the game ‘Animal Crossing’.

The Gull

By Sally Ito | Lit Up

• Read time: 2 minutes • Genre(s): magic realism • Type: flash fiction postcard story • Status: complete • Rating: E • Tags: pregnancy, women, mother-daughter

Pregnant woman hears a sound in her head.

Arise Mika!

By Susi Moore | The Scriber’s Nook

• Read time: 6 minutes • Genre(s): Contemporary • Type: Short Story • Status: Complete • Rating: 8+ • Tags: Short Fiction, Knights of the Round Table, Legends, Horses, Childhood Dreams, South Africa, Father and Son

Mika is a seven-year-old South African boy, who, to the frustration of his father, is obsessed with the lore around the Knights of the Round Table and their fantastical horses. How do father and son reconcile over such flights of fancy?

The Taxidermist’s Daughter

By Sally Ito | Lit Up

• Read time: 11 minutes • Genre(s): Contemporary • Type: short story • Status: Complete • Rating: 13+ • Tags: short story, small town, taxidermy

Taxidermist’s daughter in a small town contemplates life, death and love through her encounters at her father’s business.

His Name Was Marco Sebastian

By Peter Sassi | The Lark

Read time: 10 minutes Genre(s): Literary, Critique Type: Short Story Status: Complete Rating: 13+ Tags: Movies, Criticism, Despair

Marco Sebastian was a movie critic operating in relative and happy obscurity until he was invited to a college symposium as part of the film industry. He face some criticism of his own.

In Arigni Omnibus

By Michael Thorn | The Adventures of Claud (without an e)

• Read time: 23 min read • Genre(s): Fiction, Serial Fiction • Type: Novel (in progress) • Status: Ongoing • Rating: 13+ • Tags: Adventure, Island, Antihero

In this opening to The Adventures of Claud (without an e), Claud becomes separated from two black holdalls as he disembarks from the ferry that has brought him to the island of Arigni. What is in the bags? When will he be reunited with them?

About Fiction Friends

Fiction Friends is a virtual library and coffee shop for fiction writers and readers on Medium. It’s a space to share stories, learn about publishing online, and discover great fiction. Our mission is to help build a better, stronger fiction community on Medium — one cup of coffee at a time.