Romance Short Stories

A dog’s life

A Dogs' Life Any moment now, Lycra clad, he will bounce down the stairs and burst in through the kitchen doors. It's Sunday. Of course, I sit up bright eyed…[...]

Bonnie The Dog

Hey, I’m Bonnie and I am a border collie. I’m supposedly smarter that most people know. I have been favorably compared to Presidents and Senators and other notable people of…[...]

Nollie and Luna Have a Conversation

Nollie was racing across an infinite green lawn of grass, the rat was just with in reach, her paws were peddling faster and faster suddenly she was flying through the…[...]

A feather, a fly, a fish

I’m swimming blind in the ocean, but I’m not scared. My eyes are open, but there is only darkness for the time being. I float on my back like a…[...]

A Dog’s Tale: Through My Eyes

I wake before the sun, my nose twitching with the promise of a new day. The world is quiet, except for the distant hum of a car and the soft…[...]

A Modern Fairytale(?) of Love (or friendship, we’re still young)

I look in the mirror and sigh before putting my mousey brown hair into a sloppy ponytail over my t-shirt and plain jeans. I purposefully ignore the makeup my mother…[...]

The Marble

For the marble, the world rarely sat still. He was rolling along the floor at that very moment having been jostled from his place on the side table. The woman…[...]

One Day At A Time in My Life

My mom got the superlative, “A smile for every occasion,” in high school. Her father, my Pop-pop, was in the FBI. There’s a framed photo of him, my grandma, mom…[...]

Pack Dynamics

Papa gasped awake, wheezing like a punctured chew toy leaking air.Cooper’s tail wagged, thumping against the bed. Papa never slept in this late; he was always off to WURK by…[...]

Crosspurposes

CROSSPURPOSES TACOHer eyes caught the light from the dining room hallway and glowed red. I startled before remembering the barrier between us—for she on the patio, and I was inside…[...]

Emma

It felt a lot like standing in your grandma’s dining room. Oddly comfortable, but with a very dated look and feel to the place. The walls were brown wooden panels…[...]

Listening to the Mystical Peruvian Hairless Orchid Dog

*** Anya ---The morning that Gris, the Hairless Peruvian Dog from the Orchid Caves, began communicating with Anya, began with a blush of pink dawn.Their mystical wooden sailing vessel known…[...]

To Protect Her With My Life

TRIGGER WARNING: Contains Death My pet was doing it again. I woke up from my beautiful slumber, to my human blabbering on about who knows what. With her dark brows…[...]

The Choice

I want a very short oral biographical sketch of who you are,” Edith said to William. “How do you describe yourself?” Edith, a marriage counselor with three decades of experience,…[...]

The Blueberry Smudge

My 16th birthday summer was spent on the family farm. The family farm of my aunt and uncle and my crazy cousins. I loved spending the summers with those silly,…[...]

I Quit (Again)

I swore I would never come back to Freedom Frontier RV Supercenter.Freedom Frontier is not just a dealership.It’s an ecosystem.Derek is the general manager. He believes every problem can be…[...]

Limited Coverage

I take care of my equipment.This is not a personality trait so much as a lifestyle and, frankly, a moral stance. My 2011 travel trailer is stored under cover. It’s…[...]

Cecil

One crisp Monday morning in March, Maria found Cecil at the foot of the apple tree at the bottom of her garden. A small grey shadow, a lumpen form at…[...]

Vance Caldwell noticed Timothy Hargrove on the third Tuesday of September 1987, in Room 214 of Jefferson High School. The fluorescent lights buzzed overhead like trapped insects while Mr. Delaney…[...]

A Nudge in the Right Direction

My human thinks no one notices, but I do. When she cries to sleep at night, trying to refrain from being heard. The way she looks at herself in the…[...]

BABBLES AND THE SHOELACE

My Babbles has the nasty knackOf keeping monkeys on his back.There’s Sarah, Amy, Ben and Justin,Friends forever, quite high falutin’ But of my tale, I should cut the slack.‘Coz it’s…[...]

DOC

Hey y'all my name is Doc. I am my mom's beloved Terrier. Haha, my mom just found out from my DNA that I have 18% Mastiff in me. My mom…[...]

Archie in Trouble

The OwnerOllie and I were enjoying a brief respite from the relentless January rain and taking a much needed walk around the country park. Sticking to the gravel pathways helped…[...]

The Mug in the Sink

Every morning, Arthur woke before the kettle did.Not because he needed to. Not because anyone asked him to. It was simply the way his body had learned the rhythm of…[...]

Check, Check, Crush

Smiling, as if he hadn't just short-circuited her brain with his touch. Eric stays too close for just another second. His cinnamon-peppery scent lingers as he moves back a little.…[...]

Love in an Antique Mall

She put on her comfortable jeans, a warm sweater and her favorite boots. She was taking herself out for an afternoon in one of her favorite places on this day…[...]

Counting Breaths

When I first saw her, I didn’t trust her one bit.I’ve always been skeptical of people. My first home was loud and crowded, and if you weren’t quick, you went…[...]

What’s Up?

In the spring of 1917, the British casualty clearing station outside Arras maintained a pigeon loft that stood straighter than most men.It was a narrow wooden tower behind the supply…[...]

A Walk Back Through Our Love

Jack sat on his front porch, gently rocking in his wicker rocking chair. A tall glass of iced tea sat on the side table next to him, sweating in the…[...]

The Enormous Pressure of Impending Despair

Around a month ago, I found a lump on my son’s wrist. After his bath one night I was drying him off and we were having our usual post-bath giggles.…[...]

To Be Loved By You

Twenty-three years agoI push through the tall weeds as the breeze whispers into the sky. I run as fast as my legs could carry me, each breath heavier than the…[...]

I think I love you a little bit

The wind gently caressed her golden hair, and she stood for a long time with her eyes closed.She said: “I want to remember this moment, I want it to stay…[...]

Idle Thoughts Fill Freezers

TheGreatandPowerfulDM: @everyone, the march 1st game is cancelled. They will be inducing me on the 26th to hopefully give birth the 27th. Even if I am out of the hospital…[...]

Dandy

Jason took the hammer out of his cart and slotted it back on the rack. The itch under his shoulderblade came back. He contorted his arm under the bright red…[...]

No Different Than Before

There you are, your perfect form casting long against the sunset. Your golden curtain, your golden curls, billowing in the soft wind like gilded flames against the orange hues of…[...]

Binding Love.

"Valentine's Day is tomorrow! We can look forward to that," Danielle's boss said. His eyes were smiling after his medical receptionist had farewelled the last client and sprog for the…[...]

Transfixed Eternity

It was a moment that had been building for three weeks. Some of the best weeks of my life, I can now say confidently. Our first kiss. The seal was…[...]

Biscuit

He hated Valentines Day. Well, he didn’t hate it, he just didn’t know what to do with it. It felt like a celebration for people who already had someone; a…[...]

The Red String of Fate

A self-described “K-drama-holic,” she once saw a show that introduced her to the Korean belief of the red strings of fate.According to that belief, people destined to be in each…[...]

She Loves Me…

Main Prompt: End your story with someone saying “I love you” or “I do.” She Loves Me “Daisy, Daisy, I’m half-crazy all for all my love of you! She loves…[...]

A love story

I opened the door to find the only girl who would talk with me during vacation classes. I never thought I’d see her again, yet here she was. Apart from…[...]

In These Moments I Know

In These Moments I KnowOnce a week, Alicia and I meet on Zoom for an hour of Write Club. To call it a club is a bit generous, as it…[...]

From Tank to Home

Hello there! My name is Fibbles; Fibbles the Goldfish - a fancy goldfish - who survived my first life to arrive where I am today. And where is that?, you…[...]

Life’s Door

Adam had lived his entire life between the Walls, and in all those years, he had never seen anything quite like the door on the Eastern Wall. It wasn't like…[...]

The Chapel on the Hill

The chapel stood alone on the top of a small hill. Its beige sandstone was over one hundred years old and showed visible cracks in the mortar. Maria sat inside,…[...]

My wife’s boyfriend’s baby

Megan had been in labor for nine hours, sweating and swearing and looking like a Southern Baptist angel who’d just fist-fought a tornado, and I was standing there holding a…[...]

Lucy Turns 6

Lucy packed Paulina, her favorite doll, in her suitcase. She had already packed her birthday dress, her pajamas, her favorite shirt, one pair of shorts, a Pull-Up, socks, and a…[...]

Seven Minutes in Collegiate Heaven ft. One-Pound Pizza and A Tub of Yogurt

The washing machine is doing it again. It’s walking around the living room like a petulant child does when he wants a snack. “I already fed you, now sit still…[...]

Luck of the Irish

(This story contains mental health, physical abuse, and substance abuse in it. Only meant for twelve and up.)How to fit your whole life in one suitcase? Boy, Liam wished there…[...]

Mr. Popo’s Lineup

Lined up on the table, naked, I count ten beautiful specimens. One of the masters inform me that each one is the cream of this season’s crop. He wears a…[...]

The Necklace

It was the 28th of September in the year of our Lord 2006. I know this because it was the 10th anniversary of my wife’s death. That's when I was…[...]

Beyond Heaven’s Door

On her first day at her new job, Joanna Fan stood at the front door of a white clapboard church in the shadow of its soaring steeple. She raised the…[...]

To them, it was a miserable day.

To them, it was a miserable day; gray and too rainy to go about their schedule, but too late to cancel everything. It's something that interferes, her grandmother always muttered,…[...]

Go The Distance

The road began the moment the door slammed behind me.Taking this road would mean leaving everything I had grown comfortable with, but staying meant enduring the pain for the rest…[...]

rockets in the night

Nearly two decades have passed since I last set foot in this place, and the anticipation of returning fills me with bittersweet nostalgia. I felt a strong urge to revisit…[...]

La Mamma – An Hommage to my Mother-In-Law

“Ciao, piacere di conoscerti,” which translates to, “Hello, it’s a pleasure to meet you” in Italian. I repeated these words over and over again, as I greeted my boyfriend’s family…[...]

The Pekingese in 301

Love at first sight. I’m sure that’s what Tim thought. Barely spent three days in Mumbai and he was already lusting after a gal. He always did this. Dude could…[...]

The Detective who solves nothing

Brackmere is a town that lives by the sea and the market. Its cobbled square bustles with fishmongers, bakers, and gossiping matrons, while gulls wheel overhead, shrieking like heralds of…[...]

Heartbeat of Labor

Possible TW: birth trauma The sound of a heartbeat filled the room before I ever understood what it meant to lose it.Not a literal sound—not something my ears could actually…[...]

Plain Vanilla

The early bird catches the worm.That was her motto, her rule, and she lived by it. She considered herself vanilla, boring and predictable, she loved routine and the simple life.…[...]

The Giving Gizmo

The Giving Gizmo “Beep, Boop, Beep.” My heart vibrated inside my chest for a final time and then went still. “Are you dead?” The girl wiped her hand across my…[...]

A Letter to My Niece

I lost myself somewhere along the way. Along the path of wildly chasing after a figment of my mother’s imagination. My body was changing, my mind bending to the will…[...]

The Wall

Your heart is beating like a freight train in your chest. Endless rolling of steel wheels over an uneven track over and over again, the noise deafening you until you…[...]

SPECULATION

understanding- SPECULATION- Start ‘on’ the beginning “Write…..write….write about me” …. “and let people know that they’re not wasting their time”! ‘And so I will’! To my few followers, I apologise…[...]

More Than Enough

MORE THAN ENOUGH It is so alarming how fast her little heart beats. My ultrasound technician assures me it is normal, Thank God. Just one more day and she’ll be…[...]

The Need to be Strong

I am the table and the chair. I am the lamp that burns so softly. I am the window shades that are pulled halfway so that the dress of the…[...]

Today is April 31

Today is April 31A Day That Lives Beyond the Calendar April 31 does not exist on any calendar.Yet for me, it has lived for fifty-five years. It is the day…[...]

A Promise Kept

*Inspired by true events* My first conscious thought as I come to in the icy water is: Mollie. Where’s Mollie? The fact that I’m even conscious at all after plummeting…[...]

My Kitchen Chaos

„Mama! Maaaamaaa!“I step to the sink. With one hand, I open the tap. The water rushes out. It hits the spoon. A small fountain sprays upwards, soaking my apron. I…[...]

Sneaking out to the woods at night

Fluffy white clouds floated in an aquarium sky. Bluejays flew overhead, singing. Dogs rolled in the grass barking. The smell of roasting meat, cooked on a charcoal grill filled the…[...]

ETERNITY

ETERNITY “The ambulance is here for you.” I heard a voice and there was a bright light, but nothing else. “What do you mean?” I asked. “I don’t see an…[...]

My Love Affair

My Love Affair by Atlas Wilder Arthur didn't have a midlife crisis. He had a midlife arrest. He stood in the interrogation room, his knees knocking together like maracas, staring…[...]

Frustration

Include the line ‘I don’t understand’, or ‘I should’ve known’, in your story. IGNORANCE IS BLISS(“No it’s not, it ‘sucks”!) When I was a young kid(“not a baby goat”!), my…[...]

Mary’s Guest

MARY’S GUEST “Oh, do come in won’t you.” Mary turned to see a shadowy figure standing in the doorway of her small flat. “You must be the gentleman from the…[...]

Everything the Light Touches

The morning smells like rain that he hasn't felt in ages. Gerald knows this smell the way he knows the creak of the third porch step, the way he knows…[...]

The Birth of Sunshine Adult Day Care Home

There is a saying: Where there is a will, there is a way. That is exactly what happened in my life. It had always been my dream to open a…[...]

Ted Talk: Letters From the Bottom Rung, part 2

Dear Albert the Unbothered,I hope this letter finds you ever unbothered (for that is what your name suggests).I thank you so much for your advice. I just knew such a…[...]

Are You Happy?

I recently volunteered for the second time as the coordinator of the Chaska River City Days Annual Photo Contest. The tasks were labor intensive, involving all the contest submissions, required…[...]

The bar exam

THE BAR EXAMIt was the spring of 2026. For a semester, Arthur had been studying to prepare for the bar exam. Three months of classes followed by three months of…[...]

A Few Laughs

A Few LaughsA gathering of friends in a pub became a source of their anecdotes for a bunch of travelling musicians. Jennifer was the first to relate her tale.“I sang…[...]

Untitled 17

Part 1 – Prune juice Vicki looks a bit surprised to see me enter the main room with the baby in my arms. Ellie is not just awake, but crying,…[...]

Where is the diaper? – A toddler’s report

One Saturday afternoon my day was like any other Saturday. I woke up, I chatted with my stuffed toys and eventually my dad came to get my out of the…[...]

The Vows of Lord Pigglesworth

Nigel Wickham had thought of everything. He had thought of the hydrangeas. He had thought of the broth. He had thought of the Bath Conservatoire quartet he had personally recommissioned.…[...]

Still Open

I have been many things. I was, first, a dream — a set of blueprints spread across a folding table in 1979, held down at the corners by a coffee…[...]

Full heart

“That’s not what I meant,” Jane replied after the class burst into laughter. It was a simple comment on a very warm spring day. All she had said was, “You…[...]

His color is Vermilion RED

Owen W SullivanLife and Style At twenty-six years old, Owen W Sullivan works as a health receptionist in Baltimore. However, he is more into fashion, building his clothes around a…[...]

Pick A Color

I woke up in a dead sweat even though the fan was blowing the hot air around on my boat and the Florida sun hadn’t yet ripped through the morning…[...]

Tastes Like Yellow

The summer sunshine flooding Liam Lambert’s bright yellow kitchen perfectly suited the fragrance of his special lemon-infused cookies, fresh out of the oven. Even so, Liam was feeling anything but…[...]

The Grass Is Always Green(er) on My Side

PrologueMerryan had always been a good girl. There wasn’t an instance she remembered in which she upset anybody. Even the tiniest hint of a conflict made her stomach shrink and…[...]

Roy-A Palette of Color

Prompt: Write a story in which a character can taste, smell, hear, and/or feel color. Roy-A Palette of Color Hello citizens, of this magnificent world! My name is Roy G.…[...]

A Fresh Start

The sky is dark. Pitch black. Except for the twinkling stars that blanket it. Constellations shine brightly and my eyes trace the sky, searching for them. A small breeze brushes…[...]

Why Go Home When the Unicorn Isn’t Ready?

She babysits her grandchildren on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. Her daughter works third shift and when she leaves at eleven, someone needs to watch the three girls until their father…[...]

The Forest Remembers

Knowledge truly is a curse. My leaves shake and shiver in the wind as a plea to my mother. But she does not answer. She has not answered in hundreds…[...]

FAT

Maribel Diaphanousky did not merely enjoy food. She orchestrated it. Her kitchen functioned less like a room and more like a bustling airport, with snacks taking off and landing at…[...]

Flying Home

Sitting at the local Barnes and Noble just outside my mom’s house before heading to the airport after a wonderful Mother’s Day, I am looking out the window just in…[...]

The Not Scary Ghost Story

Last night I saw a ghost. Cutting through the overgrown cemetery is the quickest way to my apartment complex, where I share rent with a roommate. Some people think I'm…[...]

Gary and Anna

Gary never took the bus. He preferred to walk, tracking long, gentle paths down narrow streets in Tirana. He passed bakeries opening their shutters, the smell of warm bread wafting…[...]

A little company

"That's silly!" She giggled."No, it's not. I'm an Operational Business Analyst for Telo-nelco."The little girl giggled again. "That's not a real job.""Sure it is!" Isaac protested."What do you do?"After a…[...]

The Rooting

Roots E.A. Adams Dear Sarah, I've started this letter seven times. Seven different openings, seven different ways to say "I've been thinking about home", and none of them feel right.…[...]

Raindrops

The raindrops turned into a steady stream as I watched them drizzle along the coffee shop windowsill, my eyes drifting from my book for a simple second. As I planned…[...]