Sweet Beginnings: Short Romance Stories About New Love

By Erica Anoe

If you love the shivery thrill of a crush, you've come to the right place. 

 

The first sparks of attraction, the risk of letting the other person know you're interested, the relief of finding out the other person likes you, too… Beginnings are about possibilities and imagination, and the five romantic stories in this collection are about those sweet first moments. 

 

Meet a former football star whose humiliating failure in the big game has haunted his life ever since – and see how his sister pushes him out of his slump and helps him take the first steps toward finding life and love. 

 

A cynical woman on vacation can't relax – until she finds herself cracking jokes on a bench by the water with an attractive stranger. 

 

An ambitious career woman gives herself permission to pursue her romantic desires, pushing through the shame she feels about her desire for control. 

 

A woman's best friend pushes her to connect for a second time with a handsome man, despite their first date having ended in disaster. 

 

Two people who constantly run into each other as they pursue common interests decide to find out if these chance encounters are actually the whispers of fate.

 

Enjoy the comfort and hope of couples taking the first brave, tentative steps toward finding love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lonely Robot Press
• Release date: May 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201775858

Book preview

Sweet Beginnings

Sweet Beginnings

SHORT ROMANCE STORIES ABOUT NEW LOVE

ERICA ANOE

Lonely Robot Press

Copyright © 2022 by Erica Anoe

Cover art copyright © 2022 by Elizabeth Naone

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Vellum flower icon Created with Vellum

For everyone taking the first tentative steps into something wonderful

To be happy, or even to have the possibility of happiness, when the world tells you you shouldn’t, it’s downright subversive.

ALISHA RAI

Contents

Introduction

Failure Is My Wingman

By the Water

Permission to Want

Love and Taxes

The Love You Don’t Know Yet

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Also by Erica Anoe

Introduction

If you love the shivery thrill of a crush, you’ve come to the right place. If, like me, you’re a fan of the triumphant feeling as a first date turns from awkward moments to a promising connection, this is the collection for you.

The beginning of a romance has its own special appeal – the first sparks of attraction, the roller coaster ride of taking the risk of letting the other person know you’re interested, the relief if it turns out that person likes you, too.

The five stories in this collection are all about these first moments. They leave a lot to the imagination – they’re sweet, and they typically end once the characters solidly decide to pursue their feelings. And this, of course, is the point. Beginnings are about possibilities and imagination.

Here, you’ll meet a former football star whose humiliating failure in the big game has haunted his life ever since – and see how his sister pushes him out of his slump and helps him take the first steps toward finding life and love. You’ll meet a cynical woman on vacation who can’t relax – until she finds herself cracking jokes on a bench by the water with an attractive stranger. An ambitious career woman gives herself permission to pursue her romantic desires, pushing through the shame she feels about her desire for control. A woman’s best friend pushes her to connect for a second time with a handsome man, despite their first date having ended in disaster.

And finally, the story that for me is the heart of the book: Two people who constantly run into each other as they pursue common interests decide to find out if these chance encounters are actually the whispers of fate.

I found sweetness, comfort and hope as I wrote these stories, and I wish the same to you.

Here’s to the possibilities of sweet beginnings!

Erica Anoe, May 2022

Failure Is My Wingman

Russ stared at the empty about me field on the dating site’s setup page. For what felt like the hundredth time, he began to type. I’m Russell Gomes, best known for choking in the Big Game in ‘19. He groaned and deleted the words. His hands were too big for the keyboard, and he felt ridiculous perching his muscular bulk in his sister’s delicate-looking computer chair.

He turned his head over his shoulder and called to her. Lola, let’s just forget this. I’m not going to get a date.

Huh? His sister was cooking in her kitchen, and anytime she really got going, it was like a factory in there with all sorts of bangs, whistles, bubbles and whirs. The only difference was that the smoke clouds that came up from the half-hearted hood above her stove smelled like onions and pork fat, not chemicals.

So she couldn’t hear him. He didn’t mind. It was a great excuse to get up from this stupid chair and turn his back on this website with all its cutesy pictures and empty promises. He walked out of the little room she called an office – more of a storage closet, really – and went over to the stove, lifting the lid of one pot to smell what was inside. The simmering stew smelled so spicy, savory and perfectly balanced that it weakened his knees. He turned to look for a spoon so he could have a taste, but she caught him and smacked his hand, taking the lid away.

"That needs to simmer covered, she said. You can’t let the deliciousness out until it’s ready to be in the world." Her voice was more forceful than her size suggested it would be. When they were kids, she’d been the one who got in fights, while he was the one who let himself get pushed around.

"It looks delicious now," Russ whined, already knowing it was hopeless.

Whatever. Did you finish that profile?

Yeah, about that…

Get out of here. No food until you finish it.

Lola, please.

Russ, there are lots of women who would love to meet a man like you. You’re kind, hardworking and–

And I choked in the Big Game. On national television.

Look, no one cares that you didn’t catch a pass in one football game–

"The Super Bowl."

Years ago.

"Basically yesterday. But even if it was years ago, people care about things that happened decades ago in the Super Bowl. Because it’s, I don’t know, the Super Bowl."

It was one pass.

It would have been the winning pass. She started to shake her head, but he took her by the wrist. "You can’t just make this go away because you want it