It was a cold, breezy autumn day. Liam hadn’t necessarily expected to meet anyone. Well, he was always subconsciously expecting it. To meet that person, fall in love, and on the story goes.

But he wouldn’t have expected that day to be the day.

Liam Amaryllis had grown up watching his mom’s old rom-com DVDs because the TV service in his small town of Kyles Ridge was shit, and it had gave him the false sense that true love really existed.

He was a bumbling idiot, really.

The only reason you were out of the house that day was because your aunt, who you were visiting in her new house for the first time, had asked you to pick up some milk from the store. The only reason Liam was was because his sister, Celeste, had ordered him out of the record store she worked at because he accidentally almost dropped one.

To him, it was fate. To you, it was Tuesday. Since technically, you were on holidays and Kyles Ridge really was a nice place in red and orange, you’d decided to hang by the lake before going back to Aunt Rachel’s. And that just so happened to be Liam’s favourite spot in town.

Meant to be? No. Coincidence? Probably.

Liam was feeling a bit miffed after being politely scolded by his sister and he needed to relax. So he got to his regular place by the lake and the changing leaves, rumpling his perpetually messy hair, until he found his spot was already occupied. By a girl. An extremely pretty girl, judging by the back of her head. But a girl in his spot.

At first, he was annoyed. Then, wasn’t this how all rom-coms started?. So he smoothly sat down next to you before you could even look up at the sound of his faded New Balances crunching over the dead leaves.

“What’s up?” Liam started, giving you a nonchalant glance and good God you were also pretty from the front. “I’ve never seen you before. You’re not from here, right?”

He was such a hopeless romantic, it was almost cute. Almost cute, more pitiful.