This story was not intended to become an epic. Somehow they just have gotten away from me so badly lately. Dog Days is now the longest single-chapter story on the site. I would have looked into splitting it into chapters, and I still might, but there really aren't any convenient places to do that. Prior to Dog Days, The Vacation Place was the longest, which I think exemplifies the stories becoming increasingly bloated.
Ironically, I switched to working on Dog Days exclusively when another story I was writing at the same time started becoming unmanageably long. I have no idea what its eventual fate will be, but I like the idea so much that I think I need to write it, even if I have to rework its presentation.
Dog Days is a little unusual for me in that the protagonist, Linda, seems to be someone comfortable with a "conventional" "homemaker" role. I tend to go out of my way to make a woman's role in a story an equal partner or unusual situation rather than what society expects. But there's nothing wrong with a woman choosing that role, and I felt that I wanted to meet someone who's subject to the pressures of being an attractive woman in a difficult position navigating her needs for family, security and intimacy.
If I switch it to two or three parts the story will not be any different than it is now, just broken into chapters.