Jackie Thomas-Kennedy, a finalist in Narrative’s 2025 Winter Story Contest, is the author of the debut novel The Other Wife (Riverhead, 2025). She holds an MFA in fiction writing from Columbia University School of the Arts and was a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Photo credit: Kelly Shimoda

Have You Met Esther

by Jackie Thomas-Kennedy
1.

On their first morning in the cabin, when Levi asked Plum to fry him an egg, she cracked one into a dry pan and set the heat to high.

“This doesn’t look right,” she called from the stove.

Levi approached, wearing his new bathrobe.

“It’s burning a little,” he said, cutting the yolk with the spatula. He took a bite and frowned. “Maybe we need butter.”

Plum opened the fridge, knowing it held only a bottle of champagne.

“We don’t have any,” she said.

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