First published 2024
One wrong keystroke on February 14 sends a message to a complete stranger. Instead of an awkward apology and a quick goodbye, something else happens. The two decide to keep writing. They set up rules to keep things comfortable: no photographs, no real names, nothing that cuts too close to real life. Every Valentine's Day, they show up in each other's inboxes, and that is enough. For a while, it is enough. But years of annual emails have a way of adding up. The rules start to bend. Details slip through. The conversation gets warmer, then more honest, then something harder to name. Both of them begin to feel the weight of a question they have been careful not to ask out loud: what would happen if they actually met? Christina Lauren, the New York Times bestselling duo behind The Unhoneymooners, wrote this short story for The Improbable Meet-Cute anthology, a collection of romantic stories about love arriving from unexpected directions. It is designed to be read in a single sitting. The whole thing starts with one typo.
Genres: fiction, short-stories, romance, contemporary, contemporary-romance
Vibes: bittersweet, intimate, romantic, tender, thought-provoking
Tropes: forced-proximity, friends-to-lovers, second-chance-romance, slow-burn
Period: Valentine's Day
100 pages · Kindle Edition · Amazon Original Stories