When Judith gets dumped by her girlfriend, she feels like her world has imploded. It will take the love and care of her queer chosen family, and the support of her best friend Shiloh in particular, to help her cope with the havoc that this break up has wreaked on her life. This chosen family love story illuminates the ways we can find hope amidst devastating change, if we are supported by folks who understand and care for us as we really are. This chosen family love story is 6,000 words and contains Jewish, bisexual, fat, autistic, non-binary, and chronic pain representation. It is a prequel to Their Troublesome Crush and includes many of the same characters. It was previously published in the anthology Queerly Loving, Volume 2. Early praise for Tenderness: “So poignant and sad but uplifting at the same time. I love seeing a queer found family coming together to comfort one of their own.” –Small Queer, Big Opinions “Engulfing and warm, ‘Tenderness’ is a thoroughly enjoyable read, and was gloriously inclusive…watching Judith become more herself was the truest gift of this story.” –Dena Celeste “Made me feel safe, accepted, and loved. I will be treasuring this story for the rest of my life.” –BookDeviant “Gorgeous, gentle, and hopeful in exactly the ways I needed.” –Mo

In this queer polyamorous m/f romance novella, two metamours realize they have crushes on each other while planning their shared partner's birthday party together. Ernest, a Jewish autistic demiromantic queer fat trans man submissive, and Nora, a Jewish disabled queer fat femme cis woman switch, have to contend with an age gap, a desire not to mess up their lovely polyamorous dynamic as metamours, the fact that Ernest has never been attracted to a cis person before, and the reality that they are romantically attracted to each other, all while planning their dominant's birthday party and trying to do a really good job.