Romance - page 1 - all works

Short Fiction

The Last Quagga

I woke up before you, looking down at your peaceful, sleeping face. You were curled into me, your breaths warm against my collarbone. I wanted to lean down and kiss you, but you needed the rest. I ... [+]

Short Fiction

Romance Sci-Fi & Fantasy 4 min Mature Audience

Roping in the Wind

Ej Sidle

Olivier Brossard had been hanging men for the best part of a decade, and he'd never seen the rope break. It wasn't uncommon for folk to try, usually magicians spitting fire and brimstone as they ... [+]

Short Fiction

Romance 3 min

Hope

Suandri Esterhuizen

Hope is the killer that perches in the soul and slowly hacks away at the heart and never stops at all. I met her while working for the university newspaper. She was an aspiring journalist, and I was ... [+]

Short Fiction

Romance Young Adult 1 min

Pulse

M.R. Lehman Wiens

You stare as the fence silently pulses, ready to shock curious sheep away. The pulse gives them time to retreat, to let go. If the power was continuous, you and the sheep would be stuck, glued to the ... [+]

Short Fiction

Romance Joy Slice of Life Young Adult 4 min

Freefall

Angela Teagardner

The wind was sharper this close to the water. Hands trembling, Astrid hurried to zip her jacket before the ride operator checked her seatbelt. She wished her tremors had more to do with the chill in ... [+]

Short Fiction

Romance Magical Realism 3 min Mature Audience

Tower of Light

Travis Wade Beaty

Long ago, an incorporeal god of light named Belgrin flew over the face of the earth searching for new and interesting objects to illuminate. When he found a young woman named Isil, he stopped. He was ... [+]

Short Fiction

Romance Portrait 5 min

Lucia and Salvatore

Annette D. Koch

There was no sunlight that day, and flowers with banners naming the giver had no aroma. The Godfather theme music played in Maria's head while a cast of characters, like sepia photos in her mother's ... [+]

Short Fiction

Romance Sorrow 1 min Mature Audience

Just Enough for Jenny

Jennifer Shelby

While pulling lobster pots from the bay, Finn chanced upon the mermaid. His mind was on Jenny, dark with worry, when the mermaid appeared alongside his boat. An old friend once told him of a legend ... [+]

Short Fiction

Romance 2 min Mature Audience

Open Wide

Camille Clark

In college, I went on a date with the son of my mother's coworker. I couldn't remember if his name was Jason or Justin, so I spent the entire night maneuvering my way out of saying his name. He was ... [+]

Short Fiction

Romance Modern Love 3 min Mature Audience

First In, Last Out

Daniel Wallace

On our last day at the beach the sun came out, and the fog, which for that whole week had draped the shore in a veil of cotton, burned away: we discovered there was an ocean here, after all. It ... [+]

Short Fiction

Romance Sci-Fi & Fantasy 5 min

The Menagerie Machine

Katherine Quevedo

Zebra, Mule, and I stood abreast, as always, and studied the newcomer. Sea Horse reared up from his pale green tentacle of a tail. His upper half resembled the cavalry horses behind us, complete ... [+]

Short Fiction

Romance Young Adult 4 min

Snow Angel

Celeste Bonfanti

The meep of the alarm dragged me from the warmth of my quilt cocoon and smack into Monday morning. I had to bat at it four times before it finally stopped and I found my glasses. 6:00 A.M. and still ... [+]

Short Fiction

Romance Humor Absurd 5 min Mature Audience

Stop

Conall Walsh

Of the over 5,000 numbers in the English language, it is the number 14 alone that has come to hold a special place in my heart. I'm not a superstitious woman, or a woman at all for that matter. I am ... [+]

Short Fiction

Romance Historical 5 min

Bread and Iron

Adriana Kantcheva

We are simple people. For us, fulfillment comes from hammering a piece of iron into a useful shape; from plowing the black soil for the new crop; from kneading the dough for the bread we all need ... [+]

Short Fiction

Romance Nostalgia 2 min Mature Audience

The Sunshine State

Laura Bates

Our new house really felt like a home, with cockroaches and two pit bulls and a palm tree and a chain-link fence. On that first day, I heated up a can of kidney beans for breakfast and ate it ... [+]

Short Fiction

Romance Nostalgia Slice of Life 4 min

Noodles for Breakfast

Richard Risemberg

When you are a competent old man who lives alone, you can eat what you want for breakfast. This morning I had noodles, or rather noodle soup, a favorite of mine for colder weather. Broth with ... [+]

Short Fiction

Romance Humor 5 min

The Blue Lady

Susan Ayotte

Melody jostled a dust-coated box into the backseat of her car. The box had remained untouched for the three years she'd been at Harvard. Why had she insisted on bringing it to law school? She'd just ... [+]

Short Fiction

Romance Suspense & Mystery 5 min

The Hidden Letter

Patrick Ferrer

The moment he entered the bar, I knew that Mister J. wasn't your usual guest. Maybe it was the way his eyes darted around, taking the measure of everything he saw, or that half smile as he twirled ... [+]

Short Fiction

Romance Joy 2 min

House for Sale

Christiane Tuffery

"The baseboards can always be painted over."

The sentence played over and over again in Margaret's head. The real estate agent had muttered it innocently under her breath, but it stuck with he ... [+]

Short Fiction

Romance 6 min

Room 414

Élodie Torrente

How did they first meet? By the revolving door, on the beach side. It was like a scene in a Lelouch film. Being a person who hums shoobedoobedoo every time I walk into our dear old hotel, I was ... [+]

A New Kind of Literary Pulse

A New Kind of Literary Pulse

The Last Quagga

Roping in the Wind

Hope

Pulse

Freefall

Tower of Light

Lucia and Salvatore

Just Enough for Jenny

Open Wide

First In, Last Out

The Menagerie Machine

Snow Angel

Stop

Bread and Iron

The Sunshine State

Noodles for Breakfast

The Blue Lady

The Hidden Letter

House for Sale

Room 414