Archive for Romance
-
SOME DAY WE’LL MEET • by Tim Lieder
12 Comments
Some day we’ll meet. We’ll flirt. We’ll tell stupid jokes and listen just attentively enough to forget all those promises about honesty and intimacy. We’ll touch without saying “let me pick that lint off your sweater.” We’ll spend an hour talking, just talking and thinking “don’t say anything stupid.” We’ll make excuses to find ourselves [...]
Humour/Satire, Romance, Stories
-
PHOTOCOPIES • by Pamela Tartaglio 15 Comments
Usually, I’m the first to pull in the office parking lot, but today there’s a car I don’t recognize, a small silver Mercedes, careening across the painted lines of the parking places. The driver throws papers, hundreds of them, in front of the office, onto the manicured grass between the palm trees.
Romance, Stories
The tires of the [...]
-
A TRIAL BY KISS • by David Beers 12 Comments
The lights came on, and Lisa looked away from the stranger for what felt like the first time in years. The bar was nearly empty, and through the haze of four martinis, she realized it was closing time. The stranger, Michael, looked up as well, surprised by the time.
Romance, Stories
Lisa’s eyes widened as she realized her [...]
-
RAINDROPS LIKE COLD KISSES • by Ramon Rozas III 14 Comments
The rain poured down as she climbed the front porch steps with trepidation. Runnels of water snaked down her bare neck through the rubberized collar of her storm coat. She gathered herself and rang his doorbell.
Romance, Stories
The door opened, and he looked at her, surprised. “Oh, hey. I didn’t expect you.” His hair was mussed in [...]
-
SHOW ME BRAVE • by Kevin Shamel 36 Comments
“Someone has taken our table.” She spoke through me, as if to a ghost of herself standing behind me.
Literary, Romance, Stories
Her eyes hardened under a glacial frost–gritty, grating winter. Her lips pressed whitely together, crinkling the edges of her mouth into mean postures of offense. Over the sounds of the cantina I heard the growling near-words in [...]
-
TRAVEL BLUES • by Sylvia Spruck Wrigley 18 Comments
The reflection of the setting sun shimmered on the Mediterranean. Her face glowed in the rose-gold light as she dug a toe into the sand.
Humour/Satire, Romance, Stories
“I like it here.”
“It’s not practical.”
His back was to the water, his eyes on the buildings bunched up at the shore. The wind blew his overlong hair into his face.
“Come on, [...]
-
VOICE MAIL AFFAIR • by R.A. Lewis 16 Comments
Hi, this is Jill. Sorry I’m not here to pick up, but leave a message and I’ll get back to ya soon as I can. Bye! beep
Romance, Stories
Hi Jill, my name’s Allen. You don’t know me, but… well… this is weird, I know, but I ran into your cousin Linda here at work. She’s in HR [...]
-
GHOST OF A VALENTINE • by Walter Giersbach 15 Comments
Alison was gone, but never forgotten. Not in the morning when I brushed my teeth and looked at her toothbrush, which I neglected to throw out. Not in the evening, when I unconsciously poured two glasses of wine.
Romance, Stories
Alison had died of cancer a year earlier. A melanoma, though why she had skin cancer I don’t [...]
-
RUBY WITH SAPPHIRE EYES • by Oonah V Joslin 30 Comments
Ruby was wearing a cherry red coat, the hood trimmed with white fur, the skirt full from the waist, red boots, berry-bright against the snow. It was lying unusually deep. You might have thought it Christmas, not Valentine’s. A few flakes were still falling as Joe came out of the church door. Young children were [...]
Romance, Stories
-
CRACKLING FLAMES • by Julie Ann Shapiro 7 Comments
Sam got way too excited over those bright orange flames with the fingertips all a-blue and insisted we drive out to see the wild fires. I thought of Grandpa Joe’s warning, “Be wary of the fire spirit,” as we headed out and knew we should turn back, but Sam got so horny seeing half the [...]
Romance, Stories
-
HAVEN • by Kevin Shamel 12 Comments
Spears of sunlight pierced the high canopy and plunged themselves into the forest floor. The floating things of the forest shone in the twisting rays of light–seedpods, and dust, and bugs flashing into the shadows.
Fantasy, Romance, Stories
Lylee tried to ignore the slow beauty of the deep grove. Blanketed by a thousand years of cedar needles, the floor [...]
-
PRECIPITATE • by Stacy Sinclair 5 Comments
It hasn’t rained for seven days. I am Cloud, and I ache.
Romance, Stories, Surreal
They, the two, walk in the long, untended grass by the stream. He takes she-sized steps with swelling calves. She breathes he-sized gulps through curving lips. He’s tall and lean, like maple. She’s short and strong, like pine.
The valley is open. A sycamore tree [...]
-
THE ANNIVERSARY • by Lyndon Perry 10 Comments
“Those three words,” I say as I pour her another glass of wine.
Romance, Stories
“Love you, too,” she coos. An impish grin flickers across her face.
I quickly refill my glass and snuggle back down beside her. The fire crackles in front of us. After all these years we’re still caught up in the romance.
“Perfect ending to a [...]
-
ONE QUESTION • by Gay Degani 39 Comments
Hank asks me questions I shouldn’t have to answer. Like when I get up to pee at two o’clock in the morning. He says, “Where you going?”
Romance, Stories
So he’s a light sleeper and worried that Jack the Ripper might be breaking in through the kitchen window, but does he really think I’m going to face down [...]
-
STAR-CROSSED LOVE • by Harley Crowley 7 Comments
“Chocolate soy chai latte, please.” Joe couldn’t believe it. This was Joe’s Diner. How could she say that? Decaf was as far as he went, grudgingly.
Humour/Satire, Romance, Stories
But she was cute, in an odd way. Black lipstick. Green fingernails. Five-colored hair. She was probably a vegetarian. Joe was a bacon and beef guy. Still, he wanted to [...]
-
BUYING A CARTON OF MILK • by James Hartley 6 Comments
A carton of milk. A God Damn Carton of Milk! Who’d have thought going out for a carton of milk would have gotten me in such deep trouble?
Romance, Stories
I was lying on the couch watching one of those junky daytime TV soaps, General Horsepiddle or some such, when Ma yelled at me.
“Julie, honey, I need milk. [...]
-
METHODOLOGY • by Jude-Marie Green 8 Comments
“For christ’s sake.” I shrugged my irritation away. “Let’s try it again.”
Romance, Stories
Moody sat on the cold sidewalk, the denuded flower stalk in one hand, swabbing his damp eyes with the other.
“She doesn’t love me!”
I handed him another daisy, yellow and fresh-snipped from the decorative hedge behind us.
“Like this.” I held up my own daisy, slightly damp [...]
-
TAKE FIVE • by Jeanne Holtzman 4 Comments
“Fuck you, Miller! I’m not speeding up. You’re dragging.” Jake jumps up and kicks the drum stand. The snare crashes to the floor. “Fucking loser,” he says, stomping out the door.
Literary, Romance, Stories
Not this shit again. I put down the mike and check my nails. At least it’s not my job to chill Jake out anymore.
Miller just [...]
-
SECOND TIME AROUND • by Martha Conte 10 Comments
The invitation to Melissa’s wedding–her second–came from my mother over the phone.
Romance, Stories
“Well, Patty, are you coming?” Mom asked.
“Coming to what?” I tried not to sound impatient, but I was on my cell while driving to work.
“Melissa’s wedding. She says you didn’t RSVP to the invitation.”
“Melissa’s getting married again? Wonderful! I didn’t get any invitation.”
“Well, I thought I gave her [...]
