Autumn Masters is a failure in her own mind. She is about to let her dream of being a writer die when she is given an opportunity that may be too good to be true. She has to navigate dating, sex, attraction, writing, teaching, and learning all at the same time. Will she survive the torture, use it to her advantage, or be swept beneath it all?

The Torture of Autumn

He nodded. The waiter came over and Steve signed the bill, taking his card back and putting it back in his pocket. Kyle wished them a good day, or something like that. Autumn wasn’t paying attention. Steve smiled and looked up at her again. “Any advice on practicing?”


“Yeah, sure.” She shrugged. No harm telling him how she learned. “Go to a diner tonight. One of those all night kind of places. Sit down, not in the corner, but definitely in the smoking section. People who go to diners late at night sit in the smoking section. Sit there with your pad and pen and listen to all of them talk. Listen to when they pause, when they take a sip of their coffee. Hear their inflections,” she noticed the tempo of her own words, “hear their rhythm. Write it down if you want to.”


“Okay.” He nodded, “I’ll do that.”


“Oh, one more thing,” she said. “If you are going to do it, you need to know about the he said-she said thing.”


Chapter 31: The he-said, she-said thing