Sweet Occasions: Short Romance Stories About Love on Special Days: Short and Sweet Romance, #3

By Erica Anoe

Inside the heart of every special occasion lies hope and possibility.

 

Special occasions promise joy and wonder – but they can also bring stress and difficulty. The five romantic stories in this collection are about how love can help people through the hard times and bring the true meaning of a holiday into focus. 

 

Veterans struggling with fireworks on New Year's Eve find love as they seek a peaceful place to wait out the holiday. 

 

A woman who hates Valentine's Day gives herself permission to receive good things. 

 

A man seeks to show his Jewish girlfriend how much he loves her and respects her traditions by participating in her family's Passover seder. 

 

An adopted woman seeks connection to her heritage by learning to celebrate Diwali – and meets a handsome, homesick stranger. 

 

A couple's Christmas tradition inspires the next generation to open themselves to love. 

 

In these stories, the spirit of each special occasion ultimately points the way to love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lonely Robot Press
• Release date: Sep 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215456521

Book preview

Sweet Occasions

Sweet Occasions

Short Romance Stories About Love on Special Days

Erica Anoe

Lonely Robot Press

Copyright © 2022 by Erica Anoe

Cover art © 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 anyone who’s ever felt like a misfit on a special occasion

Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.

Hamilton Wright Mabie

Contents

Introduction

No Need for Fireworks

I Hate Valentine’s Day

Why Is This Night Different?

Heart of Diwali

Don’t Open Until Christmas

Sweet Beginnings Bonus Story

Love and Taxes

Sweet Getaways Bonus Story

Happily Ever After

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Also by Erica Anoe

Introduction

I confess I’m not someone who normally enjoys special occasions. Christmas may be the most wonderful time of the year – but I tend to find it the most stressful. Still, I can’t deny the way magic can happen on a special occasion, and the way love can amplify that magic.

I think you’ll see my ambivalence about special occasions in the stories that follow. While I didn’t intend to write about a bunch of contrarians, there’s a reason my Valentine’s Day story is called I Hate Valentine’s Day. However, what I love about writing a series of sweet romance short story books is that gentleness and hopefulness suffuse the stories as they unfold. In other words, the character who hates Valentine’s Day is going to discover the spirit of the occasion by the end of the story.

The characters in this book are often misfits – veterans struggling with New Year’s Eve fireworks, an adopted woman trying to find a way to celebrate an ancestral holiday despite feeling out of her depth. What I love about them – and what I hope you’ll love, too – is that they find their way to healing through romance and a deeper connection to what these special occasions are supposed to be about.

This book is a set of short romance stories about special occasions. I’ve also included two bonus stories at the end – one from Sweet Beginnings: Short Romance Stories of New Love and one from Sweet Getaways: Short Romance Stories About Love on Holiday. I hope you enjoy the extras, and that you’ll consider picking up one of those books if you like what you read here.

Above all, may these stories contribute a sense of magic and hope to your next special occasion.

Erica Anoe, September 2022

No Need for Fireworks

Robyn Nash opened and closed the cabinets and refrigerator in her cramped apartment kitchen, trying to make up her mind about whether to drink alone. A bottle rocket exploded way too close to her building, making her shriek and hunch her shoulders. Glancing out the window over the sink, she saw fireworks going off haphazardly in every visible direction, as if people had decided to pick up the slack themselves after the city had reduced the budget on the official fireworks over the lake.

With an irritated growl, she returned to her indecisive search. If she was going to have to listen to this, she could use a drink.

Robyn had some cans of rosé in the door of her fridge left over from the night her friend Sabrina had come over last week. She had a bottle of cheap rum she’d brought to a party and then brought home in embarrassment after seeing the high-quality bottles everyone else had supplied.

She was supposed to have had a date, but Zach had texted fifteen minutes ago to say he didn’t think they had enough chemistry and shouldn’t see each other anymore. Robyn had only been out with him a few times, and she didn’t exactly disagree about the chemistry – but he’d convinced her to stay in town for a New Year’s Eve date despite her usual habit of getting away from the fireworks, and now every explosive burst made her want to curse his name.

Robyn tugged at the stupid hoop earrings she’d put on and the hem of her short, sparkly dress. None of this was her, and she should have known Zach wasn’t right for her as soon as she’d felt obligated to dress this way.

She picked up the phone to text Sabrina, but then remembered that her friend planned to take her longtime girlfriend rock climbing and propose to her at the top of a cliff as the clock struck midnight. Robyn didn’t want to interrupt such an important and precarious evening.

Standing still in the kitchen, Robyn stared at her phone’s lock screen as if it might somehow supply a solution for everything she was feeling.

As she watched, a text notification rolled onto the screen from a number she didn’t recognize. Hey Robyn, you don’t know me – I’m Sabrina’s friend Max. She’s busy tonight but she said you hate fireworks too and maybe you’d have some tips for me. Came home from Bagram last summer and tonight… kind of sucks.

A moment later, a text came through from Sabrina. "Hey – about to belay Jasmine and hopefully also put a ring on her finger. But you might hear from Max Guzman – he’s a nice guy, friend since college, but going through some stuff you