Exchange
Stefan Kiesbye
At night she came, carrying a bag stuffed with woodworking tools and clothes she would take back to TJ Maxx the next day. She took off her patent leather sneakers she found on sale and by next morning my room would be thick with their smell. I didn't mind, I said and meant it, and I prided myself on being the only one who could say the patent leather sneakers were dear to me. I went to classes and then worked in the college admissions office till five. Gincy had a car and no apartment and her mom did not want to see her anymore. She audited two classes, had one friend, and six hours to shop until I got home. Then we had sex, quietly because of my roommates, and slept wrapped in each other the rest of the night. She drove me to work, and it was another day that had to be filled. She had a bed to sleep in and I had her to sleep with. She said that she liked being able to give me something in return.
Stefan Kiesbye is the author of the novel Next Door Lived A Girl (Low Fidelity Press). Some of his work can (soon) be read in Hobart, The Stickman Review, Konundrum Literary Engine and The St. Petersburg Review. His short story collection, tentatively titled The Devil's Moor, is forthcoming from Dzanc Books. Stefan lives in Ann Arbor with his wife Sanaz.