A Chinese-American woman's past and present collide.

The pros and cons of computerized boyfriend models; reposted in honor of the late fabulist Zachary Doss.

Family dynamics both real and imagined.

A theater as the scene of escalating events.

Strangers want their past relationships witnessed, and other strangers come to Zagreb to witness them.

The lives of professional haunters.

Observations from an AA meeting.

The pros and cons of computerized boyfriend models.

In the midst of devastation, a couple seeks answers from a mysterious figure.

A search for meaning through academics, cultural studies, and terrorism.

Product descriptions propel a complex relationship narrative.

An American wife's keen unhappiness on her European honeymoon.

A whale permeates a series of culture clashes.

A couple deals with animal complications, unhappiness, and terminal illness.

Secular crises of two workers at a religious camp.

Unspoken issues grip a couple's dinner along the Mississippi River.

College friends come together during a power failure and the onset of an ill-fated relationship.

A story of science, weirdness, and alternate realities.

A woman in an unhappy marriage stumbles toward change.

"Without turning the radio on, Hannah drove back into town and into the driveway of her house. She sat there in the car for a long while and ran through the drive with Tex over and over. She wanted to go back and stop herself from touching his leg. She wanted to go back and stop herself from driving there in the first place. She wanted to go back and stop the day from ever starting."

A newfound faith wreaks havoc on a relationship.

A postapocalyptic world, motherhood, and centaurs.

"The girls were born the day before the world ended. You had eighteen hours of bliss and then the satellites went out, and with them the systems that sent news around the world. An asteroid, you heard people say. Huddled in your darkened hospital bed, your daughter’s mouths so pink and empty. Like birds. One asteroid and then another, and another, and then so many more that no one could keep track. They pounded into the oceans and the hills. The shaking made the earthquakes come, and from them, the volcanoes. The oceans rose. The clouds that came in the wake of the asteroids were thick and hard, studded with cosmic ash."

A woman buys a life-like, anamatronic man named Simon.

"She found the little velvet bag, dropped two tokens into his neck, and went to the computer while he booted up. She searched the website, but there weren’t any programs for what she wanted. Apparently, there were rules, the first of which stated that a robot may not injure a human being. Not even a little. Not a butter-knife nick or a cigarette burn or an intentional pull of the hair. She bought the phrase “I hate you” and a package described as brooding that looked close enough to anger. She stuck the USB drive under his arm and waited for the green light."

Vampire movies, sex tapes, aging, and complicated relationships: new fiction from the great Kelly Link.

"It’s not much fun, telling a ghost story while you’re naked. Telling the parts of the ghost story that you’re supposed to tell. Not telling other parts. While the woman you love stands there with the person you used to be."

Infidelity and committment issues with a humanoid robot.

"'You know I love you, and that I have no prejudices against cutting-edge technology,' He taps his temple, at the faint bulge of a high-priced implant. A vanity item, more than anything else, meant to expedite long-distance communication in an utterly cost-ineffective way. “But, I just— I need you as a person. Not as a machine.'"

A story of disintegrated relationships and the odd things left behind.

"Tabitha positioned the big horn sheep in the front yard and I drank a third mimosa. On Sundays, we got together and searched for any random thing to do, but always ended up back at her place. A neighbor, watering bushes, watched as Tabitha dragged the sheep around the yard, trying to find the right place."