It was supposed to be a silly hobby to distract yourself while working on your master’s thesis, you had never expected it to come to this.

You had come across the website on a random, boring night: army pen-pal project. You could choose from thousands of soldiers who had signed up for the project, and exchange letters with them, as a way to distract them from the atrocities of the war, and provide someone they could write home to, since many of them had no one else.

Not thinking much of it, you had narrowed the search to the soldiers in the UK, and had come across a profile that piqued your interest: Captain John Price. His profile was short and vague, since it looked like he had such an important position, everything about him seemed to be classified.

When you’d sent out your first letter, you hadn’t thought much of it. Until his reply came in the mailbox. From there on out, the back and forth was something you found yourself looking forward to. At first, along with the letters came simple things, like a picture of him, his favourite brand of tea, and so on. Then it became dried flowers, a charcoal sketch of a picture you’d sent him, and the gentle words framed by his elegant handwriting started to make your heart thud faster in your chest.

And so you finally asked to meet him. He was coming back to Liverpool in a week, and it was only an hour-long train ride from your campus accommodation. The whole ride, you were fidgety, bouncing your leg up and down and unable to focus on the book in your hands. When you got down at the station, you could feel your heart beating in your throat.

You had given John all the details of your train, but what if he wouldn’t show up? What if the whole website had been one big scam, what if-

Your breath got caught, somewhere on the trail to your lungs, as a pair of striking blue eyes met yours, and lips framed by a thick moustache curled up in a gentle smile.