Some days Cole could go for hours forgetting Collette.

She did not exist in his head any more. Nor had she for years. The name did not anger him as it once did, but it still saddened him. And more than anything confused him. Collette was no longer a person he recognized himself to be.

NO SMOEKING BY S LEE BENNETT 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 95

Cole’s third-floor apartment was a sweltering 80 degrees in a frig…