At Fifty

Carmella eases out of her skimpy backless dress letting it slip to the floor. She glances at her hourglass figure in the cheval mirror off to her right and catches Ernesto in the mirror ogling her from his living room in the building across the courtyard. His cheeks rouging, lips parting slightly. Slowly, she removes her lace brassiere and tousles her hair back; a faint giggle escaping her lips. Ernesto plunges his fingers down the front of his trousers, closing his eyes, and now here comes that familiar curl of his bottom lip. That’s all she needs. She reaches for her garments and wraps the ermine coat around her, rushing out of her apartment, taking the steps two by two down the three floor walk-up, out the front revolving glass doors, racing across the courtyard, up the three floor walk-up, reaching his apartment door before it’s all over. Tired of these games.

BIO: Karen Schauber's flash fiction appears in over 100 international journals, magazines, and anthologies, with nominations for the Pushcart Prize, Best Small Fictions, Best Microfiction, and the Wigleaf Top 50. She is editor of the award-winning flash fiction anthology The Group of Seven Reimagined: Contemporary Stories Inspired by Historic Canadian Paintings. Schauber curates Vancouver Flash Fiction – an online resource hub, and in her spare time is a seasoned family therapist. Read her at: https://KarenSchauberCreative.weebly.com