May 20, 2025, 9:30am
According to the powers that be (er, apparently according to Dan Wickett of the Emerging Writers Network), May is Short Story Month. To celebrate, for the third year in a row, the Literary Hub staff will be recommending a single short story, free* to read online, every (work) day of the month. Why not read along with us? Today, we recommend:
Aimee Bender, “Off”
“Off” has everything I love in a short story: a spiky voice, a stupid plan, a limited scope (it takes place at a single party) and a nagging edge of surrealism despite being literally realist. (“Candy-coated realism” is my favorite description for this.) Admittedly, the voice—delightfully judgmental, possibly deluded, completely entertaining—is somewhat more common now than it was when I first read and fell in love with this story in 2004; but Bender walks a deft little tightrope with her Unlikeable Female Character: she brings her vulnerability so close to the surface that it’s impossible not to be invested in her (again, stupid) plan. It’s all fun and games until it’s emotionally resonant! It’s all sexy outfits and dead dogs until you’re getting fished out of a closet! The result is sort of like eating a ridiculous confection and then finding a full meal in the middle. But then Bender has long been a kind of literary Willy Wonka…
The story begins:
At the party I make a goal and it is to kiss three men: one with black hair, one with red hair, the third blond. Not necessarily in that order. I’m alone at the party and I have my drink in a mug because by the time I got here, at the ideal moment of lateness, the host had used all her bluish glasses with fluted stems that she bought from the local home-supply store that all others within a ten-block radius had bought too because at some inexplicable point in time, everybody woke up with identical taste. I see two matching sweaters and four similar handbags. It’s enough to make you want to buy ugly except other people are having that reaction too and I spot three identically ugly pairs of shoes. There’s just nowhere to hide. I know the host here from high-school time and she likes to invite me to things because for one, she feels sorry for me and for two, she finds me entertaining and blushes when I cuss. It’s how we flirt.
*If you hit a paywall, we recommend trying with a different/private/incognito browser (but listen, you didn’t hear it from us).