Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

Start or end your story with a character making a cup of tea for themself or someone else.

Posted in Short Story on Jan 24, 2025

Submissions are closed

Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy account.

Sign in with Google
Sign in with Facebook

Or use an email address:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 185 stories

Pour Lost Things

Submitted to Contest #287

“I only have about a quart,” Mariole said. “Less after we boil it.”Jack clenched his teeth. “We’ll make it work.”“Really?”“Yeah, kid, knock yourself out.”Mariole’s face lit up behind her mask, and she clapped her little hands together. Jack swept the rubble off of a table while Mariole set up the propane burner, even though the cannister was feeling a little light. The flame kicked on, and Jack poured purified water from his flask into a camping kettle. “In the old days, you were supposed to have a kettle that whistled,” he said. “To let you...

18 likes 9 comments 9
Read story

The Weight of a Cup

Submitted to Contest #287

The tea is hot. She warned me several times already.“Blow on it first.”She leans in, lips pursed, puffing air across the surface.Steam rises toward my face as I lift the mug, my small, sticky fingers barely wrapping around the ceramic. The cup is heavy, teetering in my hands.I take a sip.The liquid stings my tongue. Bitter. Terrible. Nothing like chocolate milk or lemonade.I insisted on trying it. I wanted to be like the grown-ups.I frown. I push the mug away, making a face.My mother laughs. “I told you tea is not for little ones.”She prepar...

17 likes 10 comments 10
Read story

My Kind of People

Submitted to Contest #287

My Kind of PeopleThis interlude of my life began on a Saturday morning when Michelle, my wife, burst into the living room with the kind of energy one usually reserves for a winning lottery ticket. “Wake up! We’re getting new neighbors! Their moving truck is in the parking lot!”I look up from the couch, where admittedly, I’m half-asleep watching endless episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants with my 3-year-old daughter, Megan. She woke me up at 6:30 AM, one of the joys of parenthood.“So?” I reply, unsure why having a new neighbor warrants su...

16 likes 14 comments 14
Read story

Sinister Gift

Submitted to Contest #287

     Corabelle stepped into her kitchen; the scent of the candle she had lit wrapped around her like a hug. After a few hours, the aroma of her cooking still filled the air. She glanced at the clock on the stove and noticed it was nine at night. Her day had slipped past her like a running river. With a smile, she reached for her tea bags, longing for a cup to warm her body and smooth her throat. Her fingers brushed against different flavors neatly organized in a clear tea bucket. Her hand stopped on the chamomile. Sh...

16 likes 9 comments 9
Read story

A Devil for Tea

Submitted to Contest #287

"Do you like milk in your tea, my friend?" Baxter asked through the big open door. Chester starred blankly at the red squirrel casually standing on its hind legs next to a kitchen bar. Spindly fingers grasped a comically large tea pot, tipping it over into an equally proportionally large cup. Baxter had to get help from the neighborhood to find such a set for this very unusual meeting. The normal sized dishes was nothing but a drop to the orange tabby. "The day you stop enjoying a nice acorn fresh from the tree is the day I give up mil...

16 likes 12 comments 12
Read story

Palisades

Submitted to Contest #287

palisades [plural] US : a line of steep cliffs especially along a river or oceanThe special imported tea had been steeping for the requisite seven minutes in the Wedgwood teapot, and Adele poured it into two exquisite matching teacups. She and Eddie both brought the fragrant cups close to their faces and looked through the steam as they sipped, contemplating the glorious Pacific view, and their future.Her grandmother’s funeral had been four days ago, and today they’d had a disappointing meeting with the lawyer. Adele knew her grandmother, Ve...

14 likes 19 comments 19
Read story

TEA-rrific

Submitted to Contest #287

Tea-na and Trevor worked together for years. They had a good working relationship. Employer and employee . . . with benefits. Finally, Tea-na left for a full-time job. They met in the city at times by providence, and Trevor would say, 'Lovely to see you. Howz things? Let's stop for a cup of char.*' Mostly, they met by chance, though he always went to the post office at a set time each Friday, and Tea-na went to her favourite butchers close by at around the same time after work. A nearby tearooms beckoned. For them, tea possessed a ...

14 likes 18 comments 18
Read story

A cup of mortal longing

Submitted to Contest #287

Gillian carried the tray of trembling white porcelain between the tables of the busy cafe, heading towards the corner and the only empty seat.  Once settled at the formica table, on a small, unnecessarily hard chair, she set out her tea things, poured a cup from the bullet shaped teapot and sighed, closing her eyes momentarily.  ‘How a cramped little cafe can be such a source of bliss,’ she thought to herself, and then reached into her bag and took out her paperback, placing it carefully on the table, establishing herself in the co...

14 likes 10 comments 10
Read story

Tell Me Everything

Submitted to Contest #287

Will the old woman realize I put something in her tea? She rests in the lounge, I work in the kitchen. She sits in her old leather chesterfield recliner. Quiet… listening? I’ve prepared tea for her many times. The lounge lies two doors down the hall, maybe ten feet separates the two of us. Art surrounds her: vases, sculptures, but just one painting, a lakeside view of mostly shades of purple, but punctuated by bright stabs of yellow representing fireflies. It’s the painting that hides her safe.She’s likely already opened a magazine, or, less...

12 likes 9 comments 9
Read story

A Cup Without Tea

Submitted to Contest #287

She was late coming home one October night. Fireworks from outside rattled the teacups on the shelf. The sound of fingertips tapped the glass windows. Was she home? The tapping dissolved into a heavy rain coaxing the windowpanes. I sat in the kitchen waiting. Then finally, she came home. The rain made her porcelain-colored skin glow. She wasn’t alone; a man trailed behind her. They were drenched from head to toe. Their laughter filled the air. He appeared exotic, clad in a long sequined shirt and sandals. “Is this usually how Diwali ends? Ru...

12 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

Red tea

Submitted to Contest #287

Every summer, I visit my grandmother. Every evening, I make red tea. To get that deep, crimson color, I had to learn steps that took me a while to perfect. When you’re a teenager, you don’t care much about measuring everything precisely — sugar, tea powder, water temperature, or even the brewing time. I also had to be careful not to let the tea boil over while daydreaming.Finally, I poured the tea into clear cups and stepped out into the courtyard. My grandmother was sitting there.“Where is everyone?” I asked.“They’re coming,” she said.I sat...

12 likes 11 comments 11
Read story

Time Travelers Photography - open from 11am to 4pm

Submitted to Contest #287

Trigger warning: historical accuracy may not be the best, and certain historical figures are not treated with proper care. Everything is used in a non-serious manner. Arthur placed the cup of tea on the table. It was the porcelain cup with the floral pattern which we usually stored in the glass cabinet to spruce up the place for whenever unbearable guests visited. Now it was here filled with hot water, milk, one sugar, and ground tea leaves.“This isn’t happening,” I groaned.“Do you not love my tea?” Arthur displayed theatrics equivalent to a...

11 likes 15 comments 15
Read story

An Unexpected Guest

Submitted to Contest #287

[Note: This story contains implied references to possible child abuse. Nothing graphic, but take care of yourself!]A gust of wind rushes down the chimney, making the fire flicker before flaring brighter. The little girl is huddled in front of the fireplace, wrapped in the maroon chenille blanket from the back of my couch. The logs, real ones gathered from my property, pop and hiss away any remaining moisture.Trying to keep my movements light, I bustle around the kitchen, acting as if the child is nothing more than a niece or neighbor's kid. ...

11 likes 11 comments 11
Read story

Her Universal Sign.

Submitted to Contest #287

Elly sighed, as she was boiling the kettle for making her cup of healing tea. She was still focusing on being herself here in Goodly Town again, her comfort zone. Big Al and his true romance, Cosmic Mystic Elke, had both welcomed her into their fold again. The whole community and church enfolded her in one giant hug. Elly had her own apartment now, where she could rest on the balcony, meditating with her cuppa, planning how to develop her next original aim in advancing her millenial contribution to Biomedicine. Elly's last invention was stil...

11 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Measures of Malice

Submitted to Contest #287

Bull's-eye paned windows drove November light into the kitchen of Matthias Aldrich's burgher house. Warped reflections cast warped shadows across the oak table where Matthias was measuring deadly herbs with the same brass scales he used for Lankan cinnamon and Moluccan mace. The scale’s tray cradled monkshood from Jakob Bauer's apothecary—which can mimic death by fever or, in sufficient dosage, actually cause it.Magda, the Aldrich's maidservant, was turning a spit roast pig with precision in the kitchen’s hearth and smoke curled up through t...

11 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Set your story in a café, garden, or restaurant.

Short Story – 71 stories

Center your story around someone who’s boiling over with anger, frustration, or jealousy.

Angst – 56 stories

Write a story with a character pouring out their emotions.

Dramatic – 44 stories

Start or end your story with someone being soothed by a hug or words of comfort.

Short Story – 47 stories

How to Write a Novel

Join Tom Bromley for a writing master class and finish your first draft in 3 months. Learn more →

How to Write a Novel