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

Posted in Valentine's Day on Feb 9, 2024

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✍️ 100 stories

Butterfly Memory

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 ...

72 likes 88 comments 88
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The Lottery

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...

52 likes 49 comments 49
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Ring Me Up

Submitted to Contest #237

Missed Connections London Facebook Group15 February 2024Post Number 1984:To the blue-eyed man in the lilac shirt at Rhodri's on the night of 10 February:Hello!Look, I’m not usually the type to do this. Before you walked into my life and changed the flow of my days with just a radiant smile, I would have looked at this page, sighed at all the syrupy confessions of deep longing and affection, and started being concerned for the safety of all who yearn to connect with a stranger, to all who dare shout into, well, a void. Now, look at me prattl...

35 likes 40 comments 40
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If Life Gives You Plastic

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...

34 likes 18 comments 18
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Hearts Aflutter

Submitted to Contest #237

Crumbs fall at my feet. I peck at them, searching for the softer bits. It doesn’t taste right and I briskly wipe my beak on the ground. I strut off in search of other offerings, but so far only stale crumbs and rancid seeds litter the stony ground.Leaving the open area, I wander over the uneven grass, pecking at any potential spot. I only find seed shells and things that might have satisfied me, but are now covered in ants. I raise my beak at the uncivilized spectacle of the ants and take flight, landing on a cold, damp twig. I ruffle my fea...

33 likes 35 comments 35
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Can't Help Falling in Mud

Submitted to Contest #237

This is Melissa; I'm out right now; please leave me a message… Beep.Hi there, Melissa. This is Daniel. You probably wouldn't believe it if you saw me, but I am walking down the street covered in mud. Let me explain. I had such a wonderful time with you this afternoon. I've not gelled with someone like that so quickly in forever. I guess you could say I've never been very lucky in finding a suitable partner. But the moment I laid eyes on you at the fitness club, it really was like being struck by lightning. I have never believed in falling fo...

33 likes 28 comments 28
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Serendipity Calls

Submitted to Contest #237

On two different coasts, the warp and weft of the loom of destiny drew two threads together. A fortunate stroke of serendipity began to weave them into one fabric. Two lives, thousands of miles apart, became intertwined.In 1898, on the East Coast, Maryanne sat reading by kerosene lantern light in a house near the harbor. Three-masted schooners and steamships rested on the sheltered waters of her Atlantic Ocean seafaring community.The streets and busy shops were quiet in the evening's twilight. Horses pulling carriages passed occasionall...

33 likes 30 comments 30
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Hello, Venus!

Submitted to Contest #237

Author’s note: the word “love” doesn’t appear in this tale, but there are several instances of the letters l-o-v-e in the tale, either within a word or within a combination of two words. The day began normally, but ended with three deaths, a minor rant, and a married couple reposing in a field of clover.Here’s how it all happened.                                    ...

31 likes 26 comments 26
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Amigurumi

Submitted to Contest #237

The spindly shop reached up through the Lego block office buildings and crawling freeway ramps as if reaching for the sun, to escape from the street below. The plate glass front looked out with sad eyes on what had become of its home, doing all it could to grip the ground, to hang on and not be sucked up by the great maw of progress. This little building, a colorful grandma, held tight, though the rest of its neighboring shops had left, away from the dark shadows, and detritus of the street below.When it had been planted into this ferti...

29 likes 16 comments 16
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Short Line

Submitted to Contest #237

Maggie made sure to go to the fancy grocery store since a storm was coming. The weather had been unusually warm for a few days, and that’s how you knew you were going to get a blizzard. Everything in New England came with a cost. You paid for sun with snow the same way you paid for decent radishes with half a paycheck. She wasn’t going to be one of those people who complained about the price of this or that, but she still cringed when the final item was rung out. The cashier had a note of apology in her sixteen-year-old voice when she quot...

27 likes 11 comments 11
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Words Left Unsaid

Submitted to Contest #237

“Boss, we got a shipment of gowns!” The orderly approached me holding a box. “Gowns? That can’t be right. Let me see.” The young man handed me the box clearly labeled, but I knew the contents were not the rare surgical gowns as we hadn’t even attempted to order them in a while. Our small supply was washed and rewashed to the point of becoming tattered. The usable ones the patients wore, the others ripped into strips for bandages.Must be the personal order from my transport guy, I realized. What a dumba...

27 likes 15 comments 15
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We won

Submitted to Contest #237

Sir? Sir!” Plete’s voice, “Please, sir, wake up! Please!”Even half-asleep, Warrian could tell that the boy sounded panicked. All but weeping.“Wake up, sir! Please, get up! We are under attack.” Plete was shaking him now.Go, said another voice, this one steady and calm, a remnant of the quickly disintegrating dream, Stay on the left side of the lake. We’ll push through.The voice cut off, a memory that shimmered, whirled, and vanished, as Plete’s words finally sank in. Warrian bolted upright.“How many?” He was already moving, pulling on his bo...

25 likes 19 comments 19
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Season of The Ring

Submitted to Contest #237

I sat idly as Iritha, our handmaiden, braided my hair back. I’d become fairly excellent at twiddling my thumbs and looking as though not a single thought pierced my brain. It is what is expected of me, of course. I am the eldest of my sisters, merely eighteen and unwed. What an unglamorous picture to be seen. I cannot and will not listen to my sister's chatter in my ear for a second more about the list of unsuspecting, eligible bachelors, who would sooner marry in their own cousins than to someone with such high opinions.  No, opinions...

24 likes 16 comments 16
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A thing for you

Submitted to Contest #237

2000I first heard about Chris from my then boyfriend Luke. Luke and his college friends enjoyed affectionally berating each other and so I heard plenty of stories about Chris and his awkward loss of virginity with a girl who subsequently followed him around college as well as lots of other unsuccessful attempts with the ladies.After graduating with a 1st and commendations for his biology degree from Christ Church college, Oxford, Chris had ‘fucked off to Africa’. I think Luke was incredibly envious that Chris had escaped the ‘real world’ and...

22 likes 17 comments 17
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No Beds

Submitted to Contest #237

There were no beds, outside of Peyr. Not as far as Jagos knew, at least. He and Mirdel slept on planks hoisted up into low marshland trees, for as long as the boughs would hold them. When they were intimate it was standing calf-deep in mud more often than not. They’d lean against their slobsled, the one that Mirdel had stolen and piled everything they owned onto, and they’d take each other rough.That’s what made this such a treat, rolling around in feather-filled luxury. It wasn’t even a particularly nice mattress, frayed and clumpy, bu...

22 likes 8 comments 8
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