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Looking for a steady supply of romance short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

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 2 of 10

The Thorne-Hyll Effect

Submitted to Contest #309

To: CassynyaThorne_HN002From: OctovyRend_HN001DSubj: LITRep Cassy, How can I tell you how sorry I am? We all loved him–though maybe not as much as you. We did everything, we really did. Fourteen Lancers working in tandem couldn't see him. They aren't infallible but between them and an eight week search with all hands … I filed the Lost In Transit Report this morning. I'm planning to hold a small ceremony for the rest of the dive locker and it'd mean a lot to everyone if you gave his eulogy. I'd offer you time out of the Sling but we both k...

4 likes 3 comments 3
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Albert and Zelda

Submitted to Contest #309

Albert was a knife thrower. One of the last. He’d seen one once when he was a kid and knew immediately that that was what he wanted to be. A knife thrower. Now a knife thrower does one thing. He throws knives. Big knives, small knives, spinning knives, flat knives, butterfly knives. One potato, two potato it was all the same. Throwing knives at different targets, spinning, swinging, falling, jumping. He could throw at balloons or apples or put a small duckling in a box and pop the top with a perfectly placed blade. Wat...

3 likes 1 comment 1
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Cat Leaves

Submitted to Contest #309

“Why are you leaving, Cat?! I don’t understand…” “I’m taking the sofa, too.” “Please don’t take the sofa. That’s my favorite piece of furniture. And… and I paid for that! Take the bed. The lounge chair! Just not the sofa. Please Cat…” Two muscly men in tight “Mike’s Movers” t-shirts walked in like mindless robots, as if Cathryn had complete power over them via remote control. The villain bad boss and her cronies. Their blank facial expressions frightened Trevor, whose right hand was placed on the backrest as if to comfort his bel...

3 likes 1 comment 1
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Strangers Again

Submitted to Contest #309

She spots him near the café window just as the rain begins to fall — not heavy, not dramatic, just enough to blur the line between past and present. He’s older now, of course. Less hair. A little more quiet in the shoulders. But the way he stirs his coffee with the spoon still in his left hand? His eyes, his lips, the broad shoulders, the presence. She’d know that anywhere. She didn’t mean to walk in. He looks up as the bell above the door jingles, and their eyes meet.Then — just as she starts to turn away — he says it:“Do I know you?” The c...

16 likes 10 comments 10
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The life and feats of the knight Josephine—dedicated to Selvatrice, esquired by she, published in anonymity

Submitted to Contest #309

Desidora sleeps in her gambeson. Skin hugging close to her bones, she reckons herself already dead, each breath she draws a promise to she of damnatio memoriae, whose scent fades from the gambeson each day, replaced by Desidora’s own. But what can she do? She cannot sleep without the thing wrapped around her skeletal frame, and she cannot eat those tasteless meals without knowing she has the gambeson to return to each night. In her paranoia, she checks on the article of clothing, wedged under her straw mattress, every afternoon between her d...

11 likes 2 comments 2
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Miss Hamilton

Submitted to Contest #309

Miss Hamilton I had no idea how my life would change when I followed her into the forest.Although our village has thrived on open secrets and fabricated gossip, my secret has never been discovered. Probably because I never told anyone that I fell in love with my sixth-grade teacher, Miss Hamilton. I never told anyone that I would do anything to have her smile warm me, hear her soft voice, and be near enough to inhale her scent, an intoxicating mixture of exotic flowers and musk. I admired her from a safe distance through my teens. Occasiona...

28 likes 29 comments 29
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No Flinching

Submitted to Contest #309

The Uber eased onto the highway, the air conditioner on full blast to chase off the July heat that clung to everything like a damp second skin. Evelyn peeled the label from a bottle of sparkling water while Aldo tapped through the wedding itinerary on his phone. “Okay,” he said, angling the screen toward her. “So the white linen welcome dinner is not optional. It’s got three exclamation points and a heart.” “Classy,” Evelyn murmured. She creased the label between her fingers, then folded it into a tiny triangle. “I hope we’re allowed to sit ...

21 likes 12 comments 12
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Twice entwined

Submitted to Contest #309

Warning: this story briefly mentions the aftermath of an accident, including a hospital scene. Two sets of footsteps running down the stairs made Elsbeth look up from her knitting project. Two red-haired heads then peeked from the doorway. “Granny, Mommy promised us you would tell us a story before bed today!” Darren said, eyes twinkling with mischief that told Elsbeth immediately knew they were up to no good. His brother Stephen followed silently but nodded in agreement. Elsbeth put her knitting down on her lap. "Is that so?” she asked, r...

5 likes 1 comment 1
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The Last Cup

Submitted to Contest #309

The kettle whistled just as the morning sun spilled through the kitchen window. Nora reached out to switch it off, the steam rising like a ghost in the air. She plucked the spearmint tea bag from the ceramic jar and dropped it into her favorite chipped mug, cream white with blue vines painted around the rim. It had been her mother's once. Everything in this house had been her mother’s until it became hers. As the hot water rushed over the tea bag, coloring the mug with earthy greens, she felt that familiar pang, like missing someone in a dre...

12 likes 8 comments 8
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The Swan Princess Marie Viremont

Submitted to Contest #309

Thunderous applause erupted throughout the auditorium as the performance ended. The ballet dancers, dressed in pristine white, gracefully bowed like white roses, bidding farewell to the audience. In the central row of seats sat a middle-aged woman—she never missed any of the theater's ballet performances, especially the renowned 'Swan Lake". Her gaze followed the ballerina portraying Princess Odette—radiant under the stage lights, each graceful step like a beautiful swan dancing upon a lake. Yet deep in her eyes, that dazzling swan princes...

4 likes 1 comment 1
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Dear R — Scratched Out

Submitted to Contest #309

The sound of the pen against paper scratched against a cavity in my chest that I couldn’t brush off any longer.To the man that I I drew in a deep breath. Touched the inked tip to the straight line.‘Dear R’.I struck that out too.The corners of my lips wobbled.I couldn't even write his name.I'd already wasted three lines with ugly mistakes and messy cross-outs.It was debilitating, searching for the right words.Humbling, because I had to stop and sit with my grief. A grief I’d run away from for so long it spent two years disguised beneath my an...

4 likes 2 comments 2
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Still Writing You Out

Submitted to Contest #309

There is a certain story about a man who sent his servant to his hometown to find a wife for his son. The servant voyaged to the town on his camels, stopped by a well, and prayed for a sign. He said that the first woman to offer a drink to both him and his camels would be his master’s son’s wife. Moments later, a woman came. She turned to the servant, offered him a drink, and his camels too. Just as he had prayed, so it came to pass. My boyfriend and I decided to do the same thing. We were unsure about whether we were meant for each other, ...

3 likes 1 comment 1
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His Heart.

Submitted to Contest #309

I am awakened by loud bangs of thunder as lightning flashes across the window and finds the remainder of its glow on my face. The thump of my heart seconds the music of the skies, and sweat slides from my temples to the bone of my neck. The pitch of my breathing is high, and, as if in sync, I quickly feel a salty tinge well up in my eyes. I try to swallow the tears away, but their ambush is instant—they have already coupled up to form an inundation on my face. That face, in my dreams, it is nearby. It was such a long time ago. I never talk ...

10 likes 4 comments 4
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New Beginnings

Submitted to Contest #309

Maybe it was the dusty air—or just the exhaustion of working in a café wedged between a laundromat and a construction site. Word is, they’re turning that construction into a cat café. My boss made sure my job was secure the moment she heard, probably sensing I’d trade the groaning voices and draining energy of this place for a room full of purring silence in a heartbeat. I’d give anything to sit in stillness instead of absorbing every heavy sigh and spilled-over problem that walks through our door.Luckily—for her, at least—I’m allergic to ca...

4 likes 1 comment 1
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Jenny

Submitted to Contest #309

The air in Haight-Ashbury vibrated with a thousand conversations, a symphony of strummed guitars, and the scent of patchouli and freedom. Jenny McCormick, her long, dirty blonde hair catching the afternoon sun, leaned against a weathered storefront, sketching in her notebook. Suddenly, a young man with eyes the color of a summer sky and a mop of unruly dark hair bumped into her, scattering her charcoal pencils. "Whoa, sorry!" he exclaimed, a grin splitting his face. "Heath's the name." "Jenny," she replied, laughing at the slight chaos. He h...

43 likes 24 comments 24
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RBE | RBE Romance | 2024-03

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