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150+ Romance Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. From the thrill of a first date to a snapshot tour through an entire relationship, our collection of romantic short stories will give you everything your heart desires.

Romance Short Stories – Page 10 of 10

To the lake

Submitted to Contest #300

This is a thought experiment. All that you are about to witness is purely imaginary, forms part of my imagination and produced predominantly by my subconscious, no matter what I might say otherwise past this point. I say this whenever I space out too much. Not daydreaming, nothing mundane or trivial. This is not a form of entertainment or escapism, quite the contrary, ‘tis is mental labour in its finest. When I say space out, I mean it, a kid imagining how he saves an entire school from a terrorist attack or continues a cool fight scene he t...

6 likes 5 comments 5
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Red or Blue?

Submitted to Contest #301

“Buy me a drink?” she asked, one hand sliding to her hip, the other dangling a clutch like a weapon. Her red dress clung to her like temptation wrapped in regret… his regret. He'd struck a deal like this before. He didn’t look up at first. Just swirled his single malt whisky in slow, lazy circles.“Depends,” he said finally, his voice smooth as the golden glow flickering from his glass. “What are you willing to do to earn it?”Her fingers tightened around the clutch, as if his words had just slipped a hand inside her purse. “Excuse me?” she sn...

2 likes 0 comments 0
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THE SKELETON IN MY HEAD AND THE MAN WITH THE PEN

Submitted to Contest #301

You know that moment when you drop a sarcastic comment on Facebook and, instead of sparking a fight with a random idiot, you end up finding the love of your life?Yeah, me neither.Not until I cracked open my crusty-ass keyboard and casually fired off a passive-aggressive opinion about books.Books. The fucking irony.Because me? I was a woman with more emotional scar tissue than well-written paragraphs. A walking anthology of unresolved trauma and questionable coping mechanisms. And somehow, that led me straight into the inbox of a writer. Not ...

4 likes 12 comments 12
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Missing You

Submitted to Contest #300

Missing You My legs are bowed out, knees trembling. My skin is like that of a shar pei puppy. Pushing my walker slowly over the gravel, people stare at me wondering if I’ll make it to the raft. I have to, so I will. My grandson, a spitting image of me in my youth, asked the other visitors to give us a few minutes alone on the raft as this would be my last time. They were gracious folks. Gliding gently across the Kitchitikipi, I see the rich greens and blues of the deep spring-fed wonder. Below, deep in the center, lie dark, moss-covered log...

13 likes 5 comments 5
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Welcome Home

Submitted to Contest #300

“You really wanna come in here?” I hold your hand, gazing into your eyes. I’m daring you to be terrified and enamored all at once and I know it isn’t fair. I never said I played fair. In fact, you think I’m great right now but soon you won’t remember anything that you liked about me. What I’m about to share with you cancels out any good qualities you used to love about me. “You make it sound worse than it probably is,” your kisses reassure me for the moment that this is a good idea. I relish your taste, in case you run out screaming before...

8 likes 3 comments 3
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The first scent of Eucalyptus

Submitted to Contest #300

We watched JoJo as she moved gracefully, like a grey cloud under the water. She came so close to shore that we could have touched her. The water was clear, and she looked like she had a smile on her face. It was then we noticed she was not alone. Three stingrays followed closely behind. They were probably the males as they are always smaller in size. I had seen her here before, a number of times. She frequented these shores and was a popular visitor for the locals. We returned to our spot on the beach and laid our towels on the warm sand. I ...

7 likes 2 comments 2
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The Stranger From the Snow

Submitted to Contest #300

Blood dripped into moonlit snow as I trudged towards either life or death. The healer inside the cottage was my only hope. But as I wrapped my cloak tighter around my body, knowing what I had just done, I feared she would turn me away. Or worse. Murder wasn’t typically in a healer’s wheelhouse, but I knew what she thought of me. Or at least what I imagined she thought of me. Or maybe just what my terrible, self-hating inner monologue assumed she thought about me. Maybe I deserved death.Or maybe, just maybe, she would spare the dying.Though I...

10 likes 2 comments 2
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Sunshine Beams

Submitted to Contest #300

The Marcy wagon train headed west to California from Independence, Missouri right on schedule. During the five days it took to reach Topeka, Kansas, Ford Marcy, the trail master would often visit the newly joined Potter three-wagon party mostly talking to the seventeen-year-old person in charge, Kendra. He became enchanted with her. She always looked forward to his drop-in visits no matter how brief they might be.Tragedy had struck Kendra's family and she had given up on her Pappy's dream of going to California. Trying to help her choose a n...

28 likes 28 comments 28
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Intertwined Apart

Submitted to Contest #300

CW: contains themes of domestic violence, emotional abuse, self-harm, and trauma.Hands on the wheel. Hands on the wheel. Focus focus focus focus. Not on the raging thoughts within my head, or the white patches of skin making their way to my fingertips from how hard I'm gripping. Not on the pounding in my chest that still hasn't gone away, or on the tears I so desperately want to let go of.No. I have to focus on the road. The miles and miles of what once was an empty field, filled with the beauty of greenery, flowers, maybe even a river, who ...

8 likes 3 comments 3
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The City That Fell

Submitted to Contest #300

There was a time when I believed love was a city—solid, immovable, built on trust and paved with memories that could never fade. It stood tall in my heart, a place where I could rest, where I could belong.But cities, like hearts, are fragile things.Betrayal does not come as an earthquake, not at first. It begins as a whisper in the foundation, a small, unnoticed shift beneath the surface. The first betrayal was slight; a promise unkept, a hesitation where certainty had always been. I noticed, but I told myself it was nothing. A crack so fine...

7 likes 5 comments 5
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Ich habe mich in Würzburg verliebt

Submitted to Contest #300

“Aren’t you looking suspiciously radiant today! Is there a new man in your life?” Doris leaned forward with an eager grin and raised eyebrows. Their regular Friday lunches at Ulele had resumed after Jean’s return from Germany, and Doris hoped to get all the details of the trip. Life in Tampa could be too predictable; she longed for a vicarious adventure. The server approached with menus, but Doris waved him off like a duchess dismissing a footman. “Later, please.” Jean toyed with the straw in her Ulele Sunrise cocktail as her oversized hoop...

3 likes 0 comments 0
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The Fire Inside

Submitted to Contest #300

My Beloved Lucius,You have always seen the fire inside me, a smouldering beacon rising to the heavens that not even the gods could quench. I will never forget that, you know.Many leering eyes have beheld mine, each one a piece of rope tying me down to the columns of the temple of expectation. Yours, azure like a summer sky, lift me to Jupiter’s throne room, there where time bends to the will of his thunderbolts. Whilst the city views me as but a mere glass doll, — delicate, decorative, hollow — you cut through my silken tunics and find a hea...

49 likes 38 comments 38
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Scoops of Love On Omote-Sando Ave.

Submitted to Contest #300

Since childhood, Arisa had battled type 1 diabetes, a well-guarded secret that shaped every aspect of her life. Bound to an insulin pump and vigilant about every morsel she consumed, she lived with discipline and a twinge of longing. Her doctor, compassionate but strict, only allowed her one small indulgence—a single scoop of ice cream each month. That rare moment of sweetness was more than a treat; it was a celebration of freedom, no matter how fleeting. That day, it was very hot, so Arisa made her eager way to the ice cream cart. She notic...

3 likes 0 comments 0
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Acceptance

Submitted to Contest #300

The breeze is something I've missed. All these years gone by, forever to stay in the past, and not one did I come back here. Not even for a month. Not even for a week nor just one singular day. 24 hours. Why didn't I come back here? It's stupid of me to ask myself that question, really, when I know the answer. I know myself, I'm not that stupid. My knowledge can overtake me sometimes, tricking me into trying to forget how I really feel as to make myself feel better. But the truth hurts, and it really fucking sucks sometimes. There's nothing ...

4 likes 0 comments 0
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Enter the Virgins we are...

Submitted to Contest #300

Kirrily, with more than a few silver threads amid her grey, hopped in her wheels, thinking how her other car was a broom. When she was so young, she and her sister had loved viewing the TV sitcom, "Bewitched'. It was fascinating and funny, a tale of Endora's daughter, conveying the old mother/daughter thing. Kirrily sat in the traffic jam, wondering why she was not magic, would have made driving, housework and cooking so much easier and faster.Kirrily' s tapestry of life was also about a tale of two women. Her late ex-husband had been an It...

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RBE | RBE Romance | 2024-03

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