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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#237: Sugar Rush

As a self-proclaimed hopeless romantic, Valentine’s Day is one of my favorite holidays of the year, and it has been ever since I was young. I can still remember how excited I would get whenever I gave and received candy hearts in class: those heart-shaped chunks of sugar said so much in just a few letters, from cute little confessions to grand decorations of love.

As romance is in the air this month, let’s write some stories inspired by the following candy heart messages: “1 4 3,” “MARRY ME,” “DATE NIGHT,” “LET’S KISS,” and “EMAIL ME.” Whether you write something heart-wrenching and contemplative, or sappy and sweet, is up to you!

🥇 Winner

“Love.edu: Courtship and Coincidence in Modern Academia” by Eliza Levin

🏆 Winner of Contest #237

Thursday, Jan 18 2:12 PMTo: eliserhodes@elliott.eduFrom: fredericklaird@greerstate.eduSUBJECT: Your (Brilliant) Paper on Mirrors/Jane EyreDear Professor Rhodes,I hope this email finds you well. I must confess that, although we have never met, I am a longtime admirer of your work—I was actually at your talk on Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell last year, which I greatly enjoyed.I write to you today to express my sincerest compliments on your paper The Beast Within: Mirrors and the Internalized Male Gaze in Jane Eyre. I know better than a...

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⭐️ Shortlisted

“Butterfly Memory ” by Michelle Oliver

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #237

Leonard paused at the door, taking a deep, steadying breath. His hand holding the bouquet of daisies trembled, causing the delicate white and blue petals to flutter like butterflies. He knocked and waited. A gentleman always waited to be invited in, but no invitation was forthcoming, so he cracked open the door a little to peer in. Maybe she was sleeping.Martha was sitting in her chair staring out the window, looking beyond the walled garden, examining an image that was visible only inside her head.“May I come in?” Leonard asked softly, not ...

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“For the Last Time” by Trudy Jas

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #237

Tuesday afternoon, she turns the key in the lock and opens the door. As she shrugs out of her coat, she shivers and adjusts the thermostat. Carrying the shopping bag through to the kitchen, she fills the kettle and sets it on the flame. She rinses the teapot with warm water and carefully measures the leaves. With a sigh, she pulls the tray from its storage space next to the fridge and sets out two cups and saucers. She cuts up a lemon and pours a little cream in the pitcher. She unwraps the raspberry tarts, his favorite.Just as the water com...

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“Okay? Okay. ” by Camille Crutcher

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #237

I open the door to the restaurant. The hostess smiles with a set of pearly white teeth asking if I have a reservation and I remember Dan is dead. He had the nicest teeth of anyone I had ever met. “Four years of braces,” he would tease with a rap of his pointer finger against his two front incisors. “It’s for seven-o-clock, under Clara,” I say to the hostess with a nod. She looks down at her stand and I am thinking of the last time I saw Dan’s teeth. A morbid book my therapist recommended explained that morticians sew the mouths of the d...

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“If Life Gives You Plastic” by Kimberly Espeland

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #237

Kimberly Espeland A love story without using the word “love” If Life Gives You Plastic The day Brayden and his family left the Biodome, easing their boat down the ramp, through the airlock and into the water, it occurred to me: this was permanent. The small crowd seeing them off dispersed quickly, as if business could go on as usual. Mom patted Dad’s arm. Softly, she said, “It’s all for the best, and we really need to keep settling higher ground. We have to keep trying.” Dad pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes, then looked a...

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“Cat” by C. Charles

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #237

Sleep hadn't come. Tom brushed up against it—touched it, but it hadn't wrapped itself around him and taken him in. He'd kept his eyes closed, wishing he could slip away but one o'clock gave way to two, to three, and so on. Tom opened his eyes again to check the time. It was a little after seven. He couldn't lay there anymore. He had to get up. He groaned as he creaked out of the recliner (He hadn't slept in his bed in four days; he just couldn't stand to) careful not to wake Maggie, who had started in her room but was now asleep on the couch...

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This week's prompts

Write a love story without using the word “love.”

Valentine's Day – 104 stories

Write about a successful marriage proposal, or one that goes horribly wrong.

Valentine's Day – 45 stories

Write about a cynical character who somehow ends up on a blind date.

Valentine's Day – 39 stories

Write a story about a first or last kiss.

Valentine's Day – 109 stories

Write a story about two people falling in love via email.

Valentine's Day – 32 stories

Stories

“Love.edu: Courtship and Coincidence in Modern Academia” by Eliza Levin

🏆 Winner of Contest #237

Thursday, Jan 18 2:12 PMTo: eliserhodes@elliott.eduFrom: fredericklaird@greerstate.eduSUBJECT: Your (Brilliant) Paper on Mirrors/Jane EyreDear Professor Rhodes,I hope this email finds you well. I must confess that, although we have never met, I am a longtime admirer of your work—I was actually at your talk on Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell last year, which I greatly enjoyed.I write to you today to express my sincerest compliments on your paper The Beast Within: Mirrors and the Internalized Male Gaze in Jane Eyre. I know better than a...

Read story

“Butterfly Memory ” by Michelle Oliver

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #237

Leonard paused at the door, taking a deep, steadying breath. His hand holding the bouquet of daisies trembled, causing the delicate white and blue petals to flutter like butterflies. He knocked and waited. A gentleman always waited to be invited in, but no invitation was forthcoming, so he cracked open the door a little to peer in. Maybe she was sleeping.Martha was sitting in her chair staring out the window, looking beyond the walled garden, examining an image that was visible only inside her head.“May I come in?” Leonard asked softly, not ...

Read story

“Lottie and the Rat ” by Livana Teagan

Submitted to Contest #237

They always leave and they never come back.It was a truth that slid down Lottie’s throat like a knife. It made her so jealous she couldn’t stand it. If she had only been born a boy, she could escape the village alongside them. It wasn’t fair. The world was a bigger place for the opposite gender. All because they had a dangling thing right between their legs! Men had access to places full of exciting things to see and new adventures. She drew her knees to her chest feeling small. Cold bricks pressed through the thin layer of her skirt while s...

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“Love Me, Love Me Not” by Alexis Araneta

Submitted to Contest #237

TW: Mental health, mention of sex“Oh crap,” I whisper as the morning sun’s rays come pouring into the large bay windows of my room, piercing my eyeballs with so much light that I could feel my irises sweat.Geez, why is the sun up so high, so early. Damn it, it’s February in bloody Barnet. Shouldn’t I still be waking up to a jet black sky littered with twinkling stars at six in the morning? Why has the cool, chilly breeze blowing from the Arctic that has caressed me for the past couple of months been replaced by the burning lasers from hell? ...

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“The Lottery” by Jonathan Page

Submitted to Contest #237

Steve says, “My wife married the wrong man.” He says it matter-of-factly and chuckles. I take a long drink and wait for them to take their seats. “I’m no good at pleasing her anymore.” He winks at Alli when he says it and pulls the chair out for her.Jane, his wife, says to my wife, Alli, “He really wanted it then. A charity case. I had to take him in. Like the way you take in a stray.” They are a good couple. They are friends. But this act is well rehearsed.My wife married the right man, and I married the right woman. We became the wrong peo...

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“The Pen-Ultimate” by Michał Przywara

Submitted to Contest #237

It was a bit of a shock to see Sophie again at the door, on a Thursday evening during the pre-news sitcoms, because by all accounts she was quite dead. Peter Lander distinctly recalled kissing her passionately – bittersweetly, even, because it was their last kiss, and he knew it even if she didn’t – right before he blew her brains out with his Colt Python. He knew he was right because Eileen made a big fuss. “Why the hell did you kiss her?” “She’s my wife.” “Not anymore!” True. And given the insides of her skull confettied all over the livin...

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“'Til Death we're apart” by Kristina Aziz

Submitted to Contest #237

Content warning: implied alcohol, death (abstract) From: SJG2354@IntimateLibrary.com To: ATD6534@InfiniteLibrary.com Subject: Vent Sesh - Read with wine Emily!!!!! I am AT MY LIMIT with him! I swear, he is running this whole company into the ground. Nobody is paid enough, everyone works too many hours, AND he just laid off like forty people. Were they bad people? Hell if I know! We had just hired them last month!!! Seriously, their benefits hadn’t even kicked in yet. I wish he was dead. At least then his spot would be open and maybe we...

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“For the Last Time” by Trudy Jas

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #237

Tuesday afternoon, she turns the key in the lock and opens the door. As she shrugs out of her coat, she shivers and adjusts the thermostat. Carrying the shopping bag through to the kitchen, she fills the kettle and sets it on the flame. She rinses the teapot with warm water and carefully measures the leaves. With a sigh, she pulls the tray from its storage space next to the fridge and sets out two cups and saucers. She cuts up a lemon and pours a little cream in the pitcher. She unwraps the raspberry tarts, his favorite.Just as the water com...

Read story

“Alyce's Restaurant” by Mary Bendickson

Submitted to Contest #237

Alyce's RestaurantHigh Plains Drifter drifted through the high plains looking for a comfortable corner. The zipper zipped beside him on the left. The fog line to his right. The easy double nickles he was maintaining was lulling him to the point of shutter trouble. His hours were nearly expired. It was time to back it down and pull off ramp. According to his Qualcom a small place should be within five miles. It would have to do even if he wasn't familiar with it. Next place would be too far and run him out of hours.Rules, rules. Every which w...

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“Aunt Cass” by K.A. Murray

Submitted to Contest #237

If I felt anything for the man sitting across from me at the dinner table, it would have been an incredibly romantic evening.The restaurant was dimly lit, we’d each had two glasses of red wine, there was a string quartet playing a lovely tune at the center of the dining room, and Samuel looked handsome that night. Well, for him. His suit was a size too big and he had gotten a weird haircut that week, but he’d never looked better.“Champagne?” he asked me.Dear God, I thought to myself. He did not put the ring in a champagne glass.Three minutes...

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“Okay? Okay. ” by Camille Crutcher

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #237

I open the door to the restaurant. The hostess smiles with a set of pearly white teeth asking if I have a reservation and I remember Dan is dead. He had the nicest teeth of anyone I had ever met. “Four years of braces,” he would tease with a rap of his pointer finger against his two front incisors. “It’s for seven-o-clock, under Clara,” I say to the hostess with a nod. She looks down at her stand and I am thinking of the last time I saw Dan’s teeth. A morbid book my therapist recommended explained that morticians sew the mouths of the d...

Read story

“Smoky Rose” by Howard Halsall

Submitted to Contest #237

I miss that little nudge in my ribs at seven A.M. and waking up to her vivacious smile. But now I recall her freckled face and tousled copper locks, I wonder, was it a pout rather than a lively grin? Her lips had a life of their own and quivered like the smouldering rim of an active volcano. She was just as likely to pounce on me as erupt into laughter. I’d blink in bewilderment as she drew near, uncertain of her mood and prepare for a possible onslaught. However, most mornings it was her dark hazel eyes that held me captive, glistening like...

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“Jakob and Leena” by Thom With An H

Submitted to Contest #237

“Jakob?”“Yes, Leena.”“Did you get the newspaper? It should be here by now.”“Not today, my love. You were so tired.”“I’m never too tired to read to you.”In sixty years, Jakob had never won an argument with his wife, and he was sure he wasn’t going to win this one either. He went to the front door, opened it, and picked up the daily newspaper from the mat.A generation prior, Jakob’s and Leena’s parents came from Uglich, a rural Russian town. Their families had lived three streets apart, yet were strangers until the day Jakob first met Leena at...

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“Embrace” by Nolan Shultz

Submitted to Contest #237

Chelsea never stumbled upon love's embrace. It wasn't a waltz she was privy to in the halls of high school, nor a slow dance under the shimmering lights of prom. No, love was a foreign concept, an uncharted territory she never dared to tread. She wasn't crafted from the mold of conventional beauty; her features were subpar according to Instagram's standards. Instead, she was a reel of imperfections: short in stature, a wisp of a figure, burdened by blemishes, and a mane of unkempt red strands: her ends were totally split. She was a silent ob...

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“Valentiming” by Chris Campbell

Submitted to Contest #237

“Never in a month of honest Sunday mornings would I marry you!” Desmond Whittiker balanced precariously on one knee with both arms outstretched, his hands cradling the engagement ring box open for inspection. This moment was the culmination of several months in the planning, and a secret their shared circle of friends kept amongst themselves until the surprise was hatched. Not only significant because of the date, it was also the birthday of the proposal recipient, Amanda. “Desi” and “Mandi” had been introduced to each other through mutual...

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$250

Prize money

328

Contest entries

133

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Feb 16, 2024 EST

Won by Eliza Levin 🏆

Title: Love.edu: Courtship and Coincidence in Modern Academia

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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