Things we rarely say out loud.

Nobody planned for breakfast.

The question wasn't whether they enjoyed the evening. It was what they wanted to hear next.

Scripted dialogue · not real member replies

How to ask without making a sales pitch

One of the four main sections in the WifeWantsToPlay archive is called "How to Convince Your Wife". It contains 1,704 threads. That title tells us how the forum organised discussion. It doesn't tell us how the women involved felt, and it ce…

Who gets to call it off?

A couple agrees on an evening out. A plan is made. Everyone seems happy. Then, an hour before leaving, one person says they don't want to go. What happens next? It sounds obvious that they can cancel. Less obvious is how to do it without tu…

A photograph in an unopened envelope

Fiction. The prints arrived on Thursday. She recognised the handwriting on the envelope but left it on the shelf until Sunday, among receipts and postcards. "Are you going to open that?" "Eventually." When she did, the first photograph was …

Two people, two speeds

One person enjoys talking openly about an idea. The other needs a week to think before they can even say whether they like it. This isn't necessarily an incompatibility. But it can feel like one if the fast thinker mistakes silence for appr…

The case for a hidden monogram

A monogram doesn't have to announce itself. It can sit on the inside of a garment, somewhere the person wearing it knows it's there. The pleasure may be in the decision to add it, not in the number of people who notice. The same goes for a …