Taylor Price, head librarian, is a brand new arrival in town. Lost, Taylor meets Jamie Underwood, the flag person from a road repair crew who guides her to the town's only veterinarian. Later on, Jamie turns out to be her daughter's soccer coach. The two women have several run-ins on the soccer field, on the roadway in front of Taylor's home, at the library, and in Taylor's basement, her kitchen, and her driveway. Bumping heads creates friction between the two women, but it leads to an undeniable attraction as well. Neither woman realizes the dog Jamie found giving birth to seven puppies in...

Roberta Hathaway is a Black woman who only dates woman of color. In her job as a New York City schoolteacher, she spends too much time in the classroom helping her students and not enough time outdoors, enjoying the world around her. Her friends convince her to join a yoga school so that Roberta can learn to relax and let go of some of her stress. The yoga teacher, Cheyenne Tucker, is a white woman that the class of twenty-five women finds attractive, patient, and an extraordinary instructor. Cheyenne's newest student disagrees. Roberta does not find the yoga instructor at all intriguing. In...

Through a series of misunderstandings, female sculptor Dana Nixon loses her job as a server when a diner complains about her attitude to the owner. The complaining diner, Kenya Smithson, turns out to be a patron of the arts that Dana meets again at a gallery opening for local artists. Kenya finds it difficult to believe the rude, on the make, and extremely opinionated woman is the artist who makes such beautiful objects. Since Dana lost her job as a server, she now drives a cab nights because it pays more while she creates artworks during the day. In an odd turn of fate, Dana becomes...

Beth Evans, after a failed relationship, is looking for a date. She tries a forward approach with a woman she finds attractive and practically accosts her on the street. Beth babbles about nothing and everything in her efforts to impress the woman, while the object of her desire, Joan Riley, wants to escape from the crazy motor-mouth. Beth feels embarrassed that she bothered Joan and does not even join her friends in the bar they are hanging out at for the evening. She stays in the car and encounters Joan yet again, and again, the chance meeting does not go well. The story should end there,...

Artist Morgan Dunbar works as a doorperson during the daylight hours so she can afford to practice her art at night. Amber, a wealthy, snooty resident of the building, acts like Morgan is invisible. She never thanks Morgan for any of the polite services she provides. She is always snapping fingers at Morgan, then pointing and saying, "Fetch this" or "Fetch that." One fateful day, Morgan reaches her breaking point. She finds Amber's attitude particularly unbearable after hailing her a cab during a busy rush hour and receiving nary a thank you for her efforts. Morgan puts Amber in her place,...

Sarah Harris, a widowed New York City tow truck driver, is tired of her life and the negative elements in it. She is treated like a doormat by her son and her mother's constant berating of her makes her feel like a child again. Her boss resents Sarah's desire to better herself and does everything he can to throw obstacles in her way. At forty-three, Sarah decides to return to college, applying to a nontraditional Scholars' Program headed by Dr. Winnie Thompson, a woman who is also in need of a life change due to a particularly unsatisfying love affair with her boss at the local university....

Mr. Jefferson's Piano & Other Central Harlem Stories is an anthology that weaves together a rich tapestry of 68 short stories, agency memos, and letters of events that take place during the late seventies, eighties, and nineties as seen through Melba Farris' eyes. Melba writes notes about everything work-related, chronicling her journey into the field of property management as she tries to help her less fortunate brothers and sisters with their housing woes. She meets the oldest woman in Harlem in the title story Mr. Jefferson's Piano. 101-year-old Nora Jefferson and her kid sister, 96-year...

Cassandra Johnson and Ramona Wright lived together as college roommates and lovers until Ramona grew nervous about her sexual orientation and deserted Cassandra for a life of loving men. Flash forward twenty-seven years... Ramona's daughter announces that she has met the man of her dreams and his mother is none other than Dr. Cassandra Johnson. Cassandra offers the use of her estate home to hold the wedding, but Ramona has another problem...she has Stage Two breast cancer and is seeking Cassandra's help. Other issues arise as the wedding plans get pushed aside, including Ramona's and...