Read Bestselling Author Lily King’s New Short Story About a Woman’s Messy Love Life

“Timeline” is the perfect romantic drama.

By Lily King

Author Lorrie Moore once said, “A short story is a love affair, a novel is a marriage.” With Sunday Shorts, OprahMag.com invites you to join our own love affair with short fiction by reading original stories from some of our favorite writers.

With her last two novels — the award-winning Euphoria and last year’s bestseller Writers and Lovers — Lily King has proved adept at examining, in seemingly effortless prose, the kinds of wild romantic dramas creative people sometimes find themselves in.

Here, in her short story “Timeline,” King follows a waitress and aspiring writer as she relocates to her brother’s apartment in Burlington, Vermont following an ill-fated fling with a married man. Shortly before her friend’s wedding, she meets a new beau, a pal of her bro’s, but her old flame is still burning not too far behind her. Read the short story at O: The Oprah Magazine.