David Matheny

A black American soldier and a white British secretary share their passion for the piano through the end of World War II and into the rest of their lives. Henry is a short and nervous black soldier who takes a piano lesson with shy and lonely Camille in her small flat in London.She instantly sees what a piano prodigy he is and asks him to teach her jazz improvisation. He agrees but only if she lets him cook for her.She learns as much musically, as a good musician could ever learn from a true musical genius.They lose their virginity together. She comes out of her shell and lands a better job. He's beaten severely by white soldiers on the way to his army cooking job.His newly found courage thwarts her effort to keep him out of the heavy fighting.She goes to America with a rich friend from Boston, to bypass the bureaucracy of both countries, they both know will be bigoted toward mixed couples.He goes to war. He finds more courage and finds he's as good at killing as he is at cooking or playing.She becomes the social secretary for a wealthy woman before she becomes indispensable to the father and son who are making huge profits off the war.He kills for a French farm family and has feelings for the farm girl.She plays piano for events and tries to bolster their black friend who lost his legs.He's taken prisoner and his Stalag commandant takes full advantage of his cooking and playing skills. His piano playing puts him in a brothel, where more killing helps two Polish sisters escape.She has his child in Boston and plans a life for their new family in New York City, where her new career can support the family, while he becomes the jazz innovator he was always meant to be.He deceptively delays his return home after his escape, to heal himself along with the two women, but the healing leads to intimacy.The war ends in Europe and that's the day his arrival surprises her.He tells her about the other women and she tells him she forgives him, but only time will tell the truth of that.She reaches a higher level working for the rich family that's working the military for contracts.His playing reaches a higher level, but he ends up using and getting high to reach those new musical highs.He asks for her help with his addiction, but she has a hard decision to make when he's beyond any help she can give or get.Somehow, they go on, as the music between them, is always on.

A woman finds her half-sisters who lead her to her dream man who leads her to the nightmare her new life becomes.

A poodle's bite brings romance that grows into love that survives all.A nice young woman takes her mean standard poodle for a walk in the park, and the dog bites a wealthy young man.She's still struggling to keep her Broadway dream alive with occasional local theater roles. He's struggling to get over the loss of his parents by partying a lot. She won't move in with him, but she moves into his guesthouse. He comments on the dog being a jerk and says he's one too, but she knows better.They go down South for her youngest sister's wedding, and he convinces her to marry him when her sister is jilted. Her sister moves into the guesthouse and she shares his luxury home with him and her dog, who still doesn't like him. He finds her a job as theater director while he gives her younger sister a job.They have a girl, and the poodle makes him do his share of late-night parenting. They buy a second home down South, and she teases him about buying a home with the dog's needs in mind.They go to a pet-friendly bistro where a Maine coon cat bullies the bullying poodle. She and her daughter perform with the pet-friendly lady who runs the place.Their precocious daughter gives the poodle a home haircut and they go to a fancy pet salon to get it fixed. They meet a man who suggests they show her pedigree poodle.They return to her hometown to have their daughter's birthday party. The wind whips up on the bouncy playhouse and he and the dog hang by a rope until they get the playhouse filled with children down. He brags on the dog and jokes when he gets his second bite.After he's injured in a car accident, the mean dog gives him tough love to get him to walk again.He sees how sad the dog is and they decide to get a poodle wife for their standard poodle.She gets weak but doesn't want that to spoil a rare date-night. He gets his third bite from her dog. They get to the hospital and get bad news. About her.The dog gets her family through the hard times. The pet-friendly bistro owner helps her family out too.The woman gives him the hard talks the others can't. She tells him he needs to find the balance when he throws himself into work too hard. When he goes the other way, and becomes a helicoptering parent.When the poodle passes, the woman with the big cat helps him get a proper monument to the dog he pretended not to love. She does more than that. She helps him move on after his wife passed on.The next wedding lets guests bring their pets. There's singing from the daughter who got her mother's talent. There's the raucous and humorous behaviors you'd expect from a party for people and pets. There's also a promise that's fulfilled. In the dark of the new couple's first dance, there's an unlikely pair seeing that all is right with the world before they leave.

A single man and woman each send their daughters away for the holidays, and instead of being alone, they're forced to spend Christmas together.

An author tells of going through puberty during the struggle for racial equality in the South as he seduces and is seduced by his wife's friends.At a party for academics, a famous author is coaxed into telling a story from his past. He's never talked about his past before. Even with his wife.The party ends and his wife and her friends pressure him into telling the whole story over a three-day weekend. He has to talk of his own physical and sexual growth because that's so inextricably intertwined with the growth of civil rights during the busing and desegregation of the early Seventies.The weekend of story-telling is embellished with good food, good wine, good pot, and bad deeds.His wife is caught up in a power move to put her into a powerful position at the university. She listens to as much of the story as she can, but she gets pulled into the power-play some.Her new assistant and two best friends are intent listeners who are all intent on making their own play on the well-known author. He wants to play as much as they do. The playing gets hot and heavy until it's no longer playing. He plays with each of them until he ends up playing with all of them. At the same time His story is the story of an abused Southern boy going through puberty to reach manhood on the other side. He witnesses the horrible things done to African-Americans in that hard time. He knows he always was a little different and that makes the difference. His empathy for humanity grows as strong as his body.His strange mind and odd nature always allowed his obsessions to rule him. He became obsessed with equality and became more than a passive sympathizer. He kicked ass as an activist in his own special way for the special young man he was.While he became a champion of equality, he grew from a bullied runt to a capable man. A man who wanted honesty from others and demanded it from himself. He blamed his own dishonesty for the loss of his first true love, who was lost to him and the world forever.He struggled with being a better man until he found a better woman and survived into the better part of his life.He didn't believe in God, Karma, or fate, but he would've certainly enjoyed the 'what goes around comes around' irony of his own fate

The sarcastic sister of the bride and cynical brother of the groom are forced by parents to pretend they're in love so the Valentine's Day wedding goes well.

Two young women help a pained young man find friends for a Friendsmas party and compete for his affection until the Christmas spirit changes everything.** This short story was adapted from a longer and quite different story (Friendsmas). Enjoy **

A phone mistake invites a runaway bride to Christmas with the jilted groom, his soon-to-be fianc , and both their families.

High school sweethearts reconnect years later and dissect their teen romance to see why they didn't end up together.

A woman meets her best friend's fianc who taunts and pranks her, but she gives it back to him and their feud escalates until she finds out what a good man he is, what a horrible person her friend is, and how deeply she has fallen in love with him.

When a handsome Millennial slacker is sent down South to care for his Greatest Generation great grandfather who survived the great war and is trying to survive Alzheimer's, the young and old man spend time, stir up trouble, and bond closely through the vanishing old memories and the fleeting new ones.