Cal Brennan has caught for fourteen years, hates the team mascot, and has a very specific complaint about the dance on the dugout roof. Milo Santangelo has been inside the costume for three seasons and has been keeping a private tally of how many times he's made the grumpiest man in the clubhouse smile. On a Friday night in July, a game goes sixteen innings, the catcher gets thrown out in the eleventh, and the two of them end up alone in the tunnel under the stands.

Explicit. Adults only. A short standalone slow burn, M/M.

Nora Castellan has worked the night desk at the Halloran Hotel for eleven years, and nothing a guest does surprises her. Then the man in room 412 starts coming down to the lobby with complaints that are technically accurate: a lamp, a thermostat, an ice machine. Gabe Lindqvist is a structural engineer in town to decide whether a bridge will fall down, and he is running out of excuses. One night, a very quiet hotel, and a front desk with the only light on.

Explicit. Adults only. A short standalone slow burn, M/F.

Two of Chicago's best restaurants are merging into one flagship, and the owner has given the chefs ninety days to prove who deserves to run it. Teo Vargas cooks by instinct and has never written down a recipe. Graham Whitlock weighs his salt. They disagree about everything, and Graham is hiding the one thing that could change it all: for four years, he's been the quiet regular at Teo's restaurant, leaving the same note on every check. A standalone slow burn about rivals, a running bet, and a kitchen where one very small word does an awful lot of work.