The Lift Between Floors
A lift jams between two floors of an office tower late on a Friday. The two people inside have ninety minutes, one phone with three per cent battery and a lot to say.
Sex Stories
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Night Bus to the Coast
The last bus to the coast is nearly empty, the heater has broken and the only other passenger has brought a blanket. Four cold hours become the warmest of the year.
Lost Luggage
Two travellers whose suitcases have vanished somewhere over the Atlantic meet in the queue at the lost luggage desk. With nothing to wear and nowhere to be, they make the best of it.
Shared Table
The café is full, so a stranger asks to share Selin's table. An hour later they have swapped life stories and a slice of cake. She has a train to catch in forty minutes.
The Power Cut
When a storm blacks out the whole building, two neighbours who have only ever nodded in the lift end up sharing candles, a cold pizza and a very warm night.
The Long Commute
For a whole year, two commuters share the same carriage, the same seats and not a single word. Then the train breaks down between stations for three hours.
Seven Rainy Tuesdays
Every rainy Tuesday, the same two people end up sheltering in the doorway of a closed bookshop. On the seventh, one of them brings a flask of tea and two cups.
The Pottery Class
Ten Tuesday evenings, one wheel each and a lot of collapsed bowls. Grace and Jonah are both hopeless at pottery. They turn out to be very good at something else.
The Neighbour's Piano
For a year, Clara has listened through the wall as her neighbour practises the same nocturne, badly. When the music suddenly stops, she realises how much she misses it.
TravelPart 2
The Last Letter
Iris lands in Lisbon with a suitcase, a bundle of letters and no idea what Duarte looks like. The city is bright, steep and full of strangers. Only one of them is waiting for her.
Slow BurnPart 1
The First Letter
A translator in Edinburgh finds a sealed letter tucked into a second-hand book, addressed to a stranger in Lisbon. She decides to send it on, with a note of her own.
The Red Umbrella
Fifteen years after they met beneath a borrowed red umbrella, Hana waits for rain to give Tom an anniversary surprise. The forecast finally cooperates.
Dance Lessons
Six weeks before their wedding, two people with four left feet sign up for ballroom lessons. The waltz is a disaster. The practice sessions at home go rather better.
Saturday Market Flowers
Every Saturday, Lucas buys a bunch of tulips from the same stall and never says who they are for. Elena, who runs the stall, has started to hope they are for her.
Thirty Days of Notes
After a hard year, Nadia and Ben promise each other one handwritten note a day for a month. By day thirty, the notes have stopped being sweet and started being very specific.