17.03.2021

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Part 1
It was almost 7:30 in the evening as I made my way east on West 53rd toward my hotel when the skies opened up and the rain came pouring down. I didn't have an umbrella, of course, because - even though my hotel had complimentary ones - men don't use umbrellas...so they can get wet...because that makes us cool. But, instead of being cool, I decided to get dry and have a drink.
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16.03.2021

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Brian pushed against the large revolving doors, his laptop case slung over one shoulder. Coming out the other side, he thought the building was even quieter and emptier than normal. The tiny shops on either side of the wide concourse were closed, as was always the case at seven thirty in the morning. Ahead, the escalator hummed as one unused step after other rose to the second floor.
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15.03.2021

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As I have mentioned in an earlier story ("Teaching Kaci"), I worked as a professor of English at a small but expensive New England college for about thirty years. The college had a mandatory policy of "retirement at 65", but I had decided to take mine about five years before that. My wife had died of cancer some years earlier, and I wanted to spend what remained of my life doing some traveling. I even thought about the idea of moving to Paris if I could get a small apartment.
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11.03.2021

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In April last year, I was booked into the Old Bridge Hotel, Huntingdon. It was a business trip. Two days; three nights, visiting four companies in the north of Cambridgeshire. It was a nice country hotel, just off the A14 and the main street of the town, near the Godmanchester Bridge, with a U-shaped arrangement of rooms.
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29.01.2021

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I originally thought my idea to get the girls to go camping with us, probably for the last time as a family, was a good one. I guess it was an attempt on my part to reminiscence of days past when the kids were little and we all had such a great time enjoying nature and just being together as a family.
But the girls were both in college and things had changed. Amy would graduate the next spring and Emily was a sophomore.
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22.01.2021

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“You have a two o’clock meeting with the regional developer’s association. There’s the briefing on the smart growth legislation they’re interested in,” Cathy informed me as I slowly flipped through the contents of my inbox, which always seemed overwhelmingly full on each of my visits back to my district.
“I’m assuming they’re against it,” I sarcastically replied.
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20.01.2021

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Until my Granddad passed away last year I had been going to see him quite regularly since he moved into a retirement village a few years ago. It isn't like an old peoples home where everyone looks like they have already passed onto the next life, it is a community of decent homes where elderly people are among others like themselves. It isn't a cheap place to retire to, most of the residents are quite wealthy, but they have taken the decision to let someone else look after their needs.
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20.01.2021

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The sharp rap on the door as the brass knocker banged urgently echoed down the corridor causing Jeff Lake to raise his eyes from his journal and look forlornly at the offending portal.
He had just settled down to read an industry magazine, reclining back on the luxurious sofa, whiskey in hand. "God sakes! What is it now?" he muttered, putting down his glass and magazine and standing up.
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18.01.2021

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"Holy shit." I said it out loud, and stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, mid-step, staring at the picture on my phone. "He's...hot."
I scrolled the picture on the screen, increasing the size to get a closer look, noting it was a scan from the back of a book. "Oh, that's right," I thought, "He's a writer."
He was definitely hot, for a guy the age of my parents. He had a thin nose and high forehead, dark eyes with fine lines at the corners, and dark hair that fell around his face in waves.
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16.01.2021

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The hours were passing by as fast as molasses. James sat there listening to some underling drone on and on about the approaching conference.
"So, if all goes well I'll be checking out that vista from that vacant 14th floor office, huh, Mr. Jeffers?"
Edward stared into James' expressionless ocean-like eyes.
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