Jan Ellison, author of the novel A Small Indiscretion (Random House, 2015), won an O. Henry Prize for her first published short story, and her second was short-listed for Best American Short Stories and the Pushcart Prize. She holds a BA from Stanford University and an MFA from San Francisco State University, and her story “Second First Night” won Second Place in Narrative’s Spring 2011 Story Contest. Ellison lives with her husband and children in Portola Valley, California.

The Hookup

An iStory

by Jan Ellison

The hookup on the last night of the cruise was the wife’s idea—not a penance but an offering. She picked the woman herself. She liked the simple black dress and the black boots and the tenderness she sensed in the pretty face. Yet it’s shocking now to see that same tenderness in her husband’s face as he dances with the woman.

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