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Discover weekly, the best short stories

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

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

The Summer I Met Myself

Christine Clark

Weekly Contest #361

Our timing couldn’t have been worse! The large water-taxi launch was bearing down full speed straight towards us as my date, Sandro and I struggled to get ahead of its path. “Paddle for your life!” he shouted above the roar of the approaching motorboat.~~~~~Both in our late sixties, I met Alessandro in our Seniors’ Center carpet bowling club. I had been a widow for over 30 years and my friends relentlessly nagged me to start dating seriously. “If you don’t get out of your house you’ll never meet Mr. Right!” they warned. I had dated randomly ...

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Pretty Things In Summer

Eleanor M. Boronia

Weekly Contest #361

[Sensitive Content - Implied homophobia] I was young when a man warned me about pretty things. It was half-way through a road trip when my family stopped at an almost ghost town. By the street perched a house, advertising its collection of antiques: the memories of so many people, so many lives now gone. While Mum looked at a rusty wheelbarrow, I found a clock beneath a glass dome, wedged between a photo frame more nails than timber and a collection of silverish spoons. With painted gold plastic and an art deco face, it was the most beautifu...

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Missing Words, Found Love

Weekly Contest #360

Questions had always been a big part of Adena’s life. Her upbringing had been filled with them. Siblings both young and old asking parents and grandparents everything from how to make food to what political leader the other supported and why. She guessed that was why she had decided to work somewhere that contained the answers to every question. She liked knowing the answer to things and at the library everything was answers. She loved the feel of the library as well. How everything felt possible when walking through the rows of shelves. Lik...

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Happy Deathday

D Kay Valentine

Weekly Contest #360

Jonah stared at the lake. He’d been alternating between watching the colors of the sunset dance on the water and his countdown timer. Today was his deathday. He had less than an hour to live. He’d invited his friends and family to come help him watch the timer go to 0.0.00.00.No takers.They were afraid they’d compromise their own deathday clocks, that there would be a calamity making it their deathday as well. Jonah was healthy, so everyone, including his well-paid deathday consultant, assumed there would be an incident. People close to him ...

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There Are Rules for Lovers

Annalisa M

Weekly Contest #360

Time was running out. He could feel the little hairs prickling on the back of his neck, could feel his heart starting to ramp up, as if he were on his mark at the start of a race. Waiting for the pistol to go boom. The clock was ticking. Every time he looked at the face, it seemed that the minute hand was rushing him. Or mocking him. He didn’t know which one was worse. Nobody around him seemed to realize what he was going through. The sweat on his brow. His wet palms. He took a swig of his beer in an effort to calm himself. He closed his eye...

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The Cuckoo Clock

Adam Johnson

Weekly Contest #360

Rain and wind thrashed the windows outside the Park Avenue apartment. Anthony pulled the wooden clock out of the packing peanuts and examined the ornate treasure. It was a cuckoo clock that was shaped like a lovely log cabin. It had shingles and a chimney, a balcony with twirling townsfolk, and a working water wheel. The wheel was beautifully detailed and painted blue to resemble churning water. There were dangling, weighted pine cones, wrapped neatly in bubble wrap. It even told the time in roman numerals.“Wow, look, there’s a woodsman chop...

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Where the Golden Flowers Bloom

Weekly Contest #360

The sole of Elise’s boot nearly skids on the slippery moss, the path overgrown and damp from years of neglect. Not many hikers use it anymore, despite its once popularity. Elise doesn’t mind being the only one here. She prefers the quiet.The trail has been steadily leading upward for over an hour, which means it’s close.The Golden Hill. At least, that’s what Elise calls it. She has no idea what its actual name is, or whether it ever had one.Dried-up leaves crunch under her boots, loud in the morning stillness. Darkness lingers between the tr...

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Hamlet's Cock

Weekly Contest #360

If, as they say, courage is not the absence of fear, but the ability to overcome it, logically it follows that fidelity is not the absence of temptation..? T'was thusly Rehtse excused herself in any case from the imperious commandments of her moral fortitude in recent years, favoring instead the magnetic interference of her heart's somewhat fluttery alignments - just long enough to become predictably and passionately enamored with every other male of her acquaintance (and a few of the females at that.)... Rehtse had, against her parent's wis...

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Resin

J R Duncan

Weekly Contest #360

ResinThis Scrabble board is bright with possibilities, a grid of things that might be said if only I had the tiles. I chose it because it is not the dull, traditional cream and green. It lies there, bright as a primary-school classroom, waiting to be encased.I have the resin. It arrived in plastic bottles, clear and chemical. I have the turntable—the Lazy Susan—a wooden circle waiting for its revolution. Of course, it is too small. This world is often too small for the games we try to play. To make it fit, I must perform a surgery. I must lo...

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The river that kept promises

Danny P

Weekly Contest #360

People said the river kept its promises, but not the ones lovers carved into willow trees. Those faded from its memory like rain. The river remembered the desperate promises instead—the cruel words spoken in pain, when grief was stronger than mercy and anger outgrew love. I wish they were dead. The river heard every one of them. And so did she. For centuries, the spirit of the river answered those wishes. She never chose or judged them. She believed choice belonged to the living. People brought their anger and pain to the water’s edge and tu...

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I Was The One

Jed Cope

Weekly Contest #360

Pete lived his life in the shadow of his own expectations. Past and future were not concepts that concerned him as much as his lack and the frustration he experienced in attempting to address the chasm between what he was and what he believed he should be. He consumed time in order to acquire those things that would make him whole. This was not to say that he was materialistic. Few people get things wrong as conspicuously as that. There came a time when Pete appeared to be keeping up with the Joneses. His car alone told people what they nee...

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Brighter Days

Weekly Contest #360

“How could you?!” I say. Over the last hour this argument between my boyfriend and I has been simmering over. “Do you understand how you’re making me feel?!” I say exasperated with going in circles with this mess.“Of course I understand!” He replies. “Do you?!” I told you weeks ago I want to go to my best friend's birthday and I’m going alone. I told you this, and you acknowledged it. What I’m trying to understand is the sudden change of heart and not allowing me to go now.” Between how busy we both are and how little time I’ve spent with my...

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Heartful Inheritance

Jim Lamoreux

Weekly Contest #360

The sea of reflections from the flutes momentarily blinded Mark.As he blinked, the room sharpened—couples everywhere, champagne in one hand, the other curled around a waist or laced with a partner’s fingers.His stomach jolted.The invitation in his hand trembled as he read it again: “Private New Year’s Eve reception. Bring a friend or find one tonight.” 10Mark wiped his sweaty palms on his pants. His heart kicked hard, and a smile tugged at his lips. Regina, his childhood neighbor, stood in the center of the room, head down, one arm across he...

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When Reality Comes Knocking

Destiny E

Weekly Contest #360

I stared at her bemusedly from across the kitchen– no, I was staring THROUGH her, rather– trying to remember the exact moment she became a completely different person. My stare was vacant with disassociation while I let myself get lost in thought. She looked like the same Amira that I married 11 years ago; she dressed like her, wore the same vanilla/cinnamon perfume, even tied her hair low and loosely the way my other half did. But the woman standing in front of me wasn’t my wife. The way the inflection in her tone changed slightly upwards a...

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Best and Worst First Dates

Weekly Contest #360

Friday night, I had the best first date of my life. Moz was a good-looking bricklayer and had similar interests to my own. I was recently out of school and was working a clerical job at an insurance company, so I didn’t have much of a budget for going out. We had agreed to have a cheap dinner (splitting the costs) and then listen to a free concert in the park. In accordance with modern custom, I had met him at the restaurant, so I didn’t have to get in his car or let him know where I lived. We ate cheap, tasty Lebanese food that we both love...

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