I’ve been traveling lately, spending lots of hours in terminals where time stretches, boundaries blur, and strangers become stories. Airports are liminal spaces-erotic liminal spaces. Everyone’s between things—cities, lives, selves—and that tension seemed ripe for exploration.
So I wrote two stories set in the hum of airport life. Each one plays with intimacy, risk, and surprise. Each begins with an encounter. Each ends somewhere you might not expect.
Security Check
When Ethan opts out of the scanner, he’s escorted to a private screening room by a stern TSA agent with a sharp tongue and gloved hands. What follows is an inspection that’s anything but standard—and he may never pass through security the same way again.
Welcome to Denver
Mia’s flight is delayed. She’s tired, wired, and en route to a new job she’s not sure she wants. When a smoothie spill leads to a sudden, reckless connection in a discreet corner of Terminal C, she grabs hold of the moment—until reality catches up on the other side of the gate.
Two different checkpoints. Two different kinds of risk. One question in the air: what do you do when desire shows up before departure?
—Eric