I never believed in love at first sight. Or at least, I didn’t think it would happen to me. Love, to me, had always seemed like something that built slowly—over shared conversations, inside jokes, and quiet moments of understanding. But then I met James.
It wasn’t anything grand or dramatic. No cinematic moment where time slowed down. It was just an ordinary autumn afternoon. I was sitting alone in my favorite park, sipping coffee and reading a book, when he sat down on the bench next to me. I didn’t pay much attention at first—until he spoke.
“You look really invested in that book. Is it worth the read?”
I glanced up, expecting just another passing comment from a stranger, but his smile was warm, his eyes curious. I hesitated for a second before responding, “Depends. Do you like stories that make you question everything?”
That was the beginning.
James and I kept running into each other after that—at the same café, at the bookstore down the street, once even at the grocery store while both reaching for the same carton of milk. Eventually, he asked if I believed in fate. I laughed and told him that I believed in coincidences, not fate. He just smiled and said, “Then I guess I’ll have to keep running into you until you change your mind.”
Our love wasn’t a whirlwind romance. It was slow, steady, and full of the little things. Like how he always ordered an extra sugar packet for me when we grabbed coffee, even though I never asked. How he’d send me pictures of stray dogs he found on his morning runs because he knew they made me smile. How he never let me walk on the outer side of the sidewalk, as if shielding me from the world.
One evening, as we sat on his apartment balcony, watching the city lights flicker below us, he turned to me and said, “You once told me you didn’t believe in fate. Do you still feel the same?”
I looked at him, at the way his presence had become my comfort, my home. And for the first time, I wasn’t so sure.
Maybe love isn’t about fate or coincidence. Maybe it’s about choosing someone every single day, in all the small ways that matter. And if that’s true, then I’ll choose James—today, tomorrow, and always.
