Chapter One — Departure I wake to cool light and absence. The space beside me is empty; only the dent in the pillow remains. On the dresser, a folded sheet in Asdar’s slanted hand: Where eyes don’t see, the heart will be ominously aware. A sigh escapes. I fold the note and stick it on…
Tag: older-female-protagonist
The COMC Files: Torrid London, Bosphorus Bound
As soon as the front door closes and Tarmo’s footsteps fade, the hush in the flat deepens. London suddenly vast, the night pressing in like velvet. I remain braced for a moment, the ache of old arguments and unwelcome love still crawling over my skin. Istanbul waits on the table, Tarmo’s scent lingering like a…
The COMC Files: The Priest & The Billionaire.
I barely have time to kick off my heels, pausing in the dim hallway to breathe in the hush that always feels a little haunted after a night with the Boswells. I’m savouring the moment: free, for as long it lasts, from other people’s loyalties or longing. London is a purr outside my windows, rain…
The COMC Files: The Sting
The King’s Gold — 10:54 p.m. The pub is packed, South London voices rising beneath battered beams, pints gleaming amber under yellow light. Roger stands behind the bar, posture loose but watchful. I’m nursing my gin, scanning the crowd with my fieldworker’s eye—noting every shift in tension, every too-loud laugh that might mean trouble. Harry…
The COMC Files: Flash-back&forth
The Visitor Spring in London is a redrawing of boundaries. Green creeps up the ancient plane trees in Regent’s Park, daffodils thick in the shadier corners. I move through it all half-ghost, hands clasped behind my back, ignoring my vibrating phone, stopping to watch the dogs or ferrying trays of coffee back to my armchair…
The COMC Files: Update
London, when the cab spits me out by my townhouse, is grey and humid, the air smelling of diesel, toast, and river. My feet strike the pavement with purpose, but there’s a tremor beneath every step: exhaustion, awe, the shock of clocks resuming. I unlock the door, inhale the familiar scent of home—old books, ground…
The C.O.M.C. Files 