Love In Different Shades

By A. Blachernae

Love In Different Shades is a collection of seven short stories, all dedicated to the most visceral of emotions, Love. Within this anthology, the author explores loss and heartbreak, laughter and joy, deathbed confessions and explosive secrets.

 

Inspired by feverish imagination and late-night contemplations, every story answers a different question you might have found yourself asking over the course of your life. Love is beautiful, and every shade of it deserves to be celebrated.

 

Every story asks and answers an ever-important question about love. If you've ever found yourself seeking the answer to any of these questions, grab a copy and settle in for a ride like no other.

Love At First Sight is the first story, and the question it seeks to answer is in the title itself. Can there ever be love at first sight?

Lethe explores the pain of loss. Can love spring from heartbreak?

A Mother's Love is a story about luck, both good and bad. Can love be found in the unlikeliest of places?

A Fool's Paradise opens with a chance encounter. Is love truly blind?

Spymate answers a question we have all asked ourselves. Are soulmates real?

A Twilight Romance introduces the paranormal into the mix. Who doesn't love a vampire in a love story? Can night love day?

Flowers, the last story in the collection asks and answers a somewhat philosophical question. What is love, if not a story that echoes through time? 

• Language: English
• Publisher: A. Blachernae
• Release date: Apr 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201594558

Book preview

Love At First Sight

Can there ever be love at first sight?

She didn’t know it, but for me, it had always been love at first sight. 

I still remember the day I met her. She had walked into my tiny cage, kneeled down in front of me, smiled, and asked if I knew who the good boy was.

I didn’t, but I licked her face anyway. 

It was only later I’d learn that it was me. I’d been the good boy all along.

She had laughed and kissed my head, then slipped the thingy around my neck that let people know I was hers. 

I didn’t know what it was, but it was snug and warm and I knew I was never supposed to let anyone except mother take it off my neck. 

When she took me for walks I made sure to show it to all my brothers and sisters. They all had one too, but I was especially proud of mine. It meant I was my momma’s and she loved me. 

I’d led mother out of that loud and scary place with the mean humans who never fed me enough, scampering around on the sidewalk. It had been so long since I’d felt the sun and the wind. 

New pet?

I looked up at the kind old human, grinning and wagging my tail. He seemed nice and mother was smiling at him too. 

Yeah, mother said, reaching down and patting my head. Poor guy. He’d been at the pound for nearly two years. He’s such a friendly little guy, I just knew I had to take him home with me.

Wish ya luck! The man said and walked off, and momma led me to a strange contraption she called a car. It was what the humans used when they had the zoomies, my friend Fredo would later tell me. 

Made sense too. It went really fast and was really loud. 

I wonder why the humans needed them to go zoomies? Was it because they all just had two legs like mother did? Poor, strange creatures. 

But I loved her anyway. 

I like car zoomies. Momma rolls the window down for me and I can feel the wind in my fur and bark at the other dogs enjoying zoomies in their parent’s cars. 

I met a cat during a ride once. Not sure I like them very much. He was mean and told me to buzz off. 

What I liked better than the car zoomies was my new home. At first, I thought the tiny cage she was trying to lead me into was our new home and I threw a little tantrum. 

I’m not proud of it, but it reminded me too much of my old home and those mean humans. But mother simply shook her head and led me up some stairs, and to our real home. 

And. It. Was. Amazing. 

She told me something called rent was super high in the city and the apartment wasn’t too big, but I wasn’t listening. 

There was more than one room! And all doors were open! As soon as she freed me I made sure to inspect the entirety of our new home. You never knew where danger or mice lurked. 

But there was no danger in our new home. All I could smell was momma. I rubbed my butt against a few walls so she could smell me and remember that this was my home now too. I wondered if I smelled as nice to her as she did to me.

Probably not because she made me stand in the dreaded tub and washed me with shampoo that made me sneeze that very night.

She said it was in case I’d gotten fleas from the bad place. I’ve never had fleas, but Fredo says they’re even worse than cats. I don’t think anything can ever be worse than cats. 

I was a little scared of the bath and the water because I’d never done it before in my life, but the second time mother tried to give me one I splashed her with some water and she laughed and joined me in the tub. I like having baths with momma now.

She always has another bath after we finish ours. I don’t know why, but Fredo tells me not to overthink it. He’s right. My mother, like all humans, is a very strange creature. 

But I love her anyway.

I love her even when she gets mad at me. She usually gets mad at me when I break something in the house or climb up on the couch. 

I don’t understand why I can’t be on the couch? It’s where the best window is, and when I’m on it, I can look out to see the cars and meet my pigeon friends. 

As for the plant whose house I broke? It was asking for it. Making me sneeze every time I went close to it. I’m convinced the cats and plants are in cahoots and was very happy when mother never brought home another plant again. 

It was just me and mother in our house. I liked it that way. Sometimes lots of humans would come over to meet momma and I had to stay in the bedroom while they were in the house. I thought about protesting because it was my house, not theirs, but when they left she always came over with an apologetic look that melted my heart. I got extra treats and cuddles those nights and realized that it wasn’t all bad. Sometimes mother would have men I didn’t know over for sleepovers. It was strange, because those nights, instead of in the bedroom, I was shut out of it. I liked some of them, but not all. I made sure to warn momma of the ones I didn’t. 

She didn’t have teeth or claws or good hearing. It was my job to protect her. 

But none of them stuck around, and we’d always return to how I liked it. Me and her in our little home. 

We had our own little routine. Every morning I’d wake up and lick her face. Mother always grumbled about it, but my tummy doesn’t listen to anyone. Fredo says dog stomachs have a mind of their own. I have to agree because when I’m hungry in the mornings, I can’t help it, I have to go wake her up. 

After I’ve eaten and she’d had this terrible thing called coffee (I licked some after she spilled it, and it was the worst thing I’d ever drunk. Fredo says it’s poison. I don’t disagree.) She takes me out on a walk so I can meet all my friends and do my business. 

Mother always collects my poop in a little bag. I don’t know why, and neither does Fredo. Like I said, strange creatures. 

Then she went to work in a place where they made food for other humans. It’s lonely without her, and when it’s time for her to come back, I sit by the door to surprise her. (She’s never surprised).

After she’s home, if she’s not too tired, we go to the park and I can play with Fredo. Fredo is younger than me, and his father is very nice. He always has treats for both of us. I wouldn’t mind Fredo and his dad moving in with me and mom. 

If she is too tired or has work the next day, I’d curl up by her leg while she watched other humans on this big box we have at home. I like watching it with her. It’s fun. 

I don’t know how long we lived like this. But it was a happy life, and I never wanted it to end. 

But one bath day, mother was bathing me and found a ball in my tummy.