When Time Finds Us

Alex had never believed in fate, or punctuality. She was always five minutes late to everything, especially to the charming, old-fashioned coffee shop on Maple Street. One rainy Monday, as she dashed through the door, she collided with a tall, awkward man holding a pocket watch.

“Oh! Sorry,” she stammered.

He smiled, brushing rain from his brown curls. “No harm done. I’m James.”

Over coffee, they chatted about everything, music, history, bad dates. James was a little odd. He wore vintage clothes, spoke like he’d stepped out of a black-and-white movie, and his knowledge of the past was uncanny.

They met again the next day. And the next. The more time Alex spent with James, the more she noticed strange things. He never used a smartphone, paid with crisp old bills, and seemed confused by automatic doors.

Curious, Alex followed him one evening. She watched as he ducked into a narrow alley and, to her shock, he’d disappeared in a flash of blue light.

Alex’s curiosity gnawed at her.

The next morning, she arrived at the coffee shop early, determined to get answers. James was already there, nervously spinning his pocket watch.

She sat down, levelling her gaze. “James, I saw you vanish in an alley last night. Who, or what, are you?”

He took a deep breath. “I’m not extraterrestrial, if that’s what you’re thinking.” He managed a small, reassuring smile. “I’m human. Just… from another time.”

Alex’s eyebrows shot up. “From when?”

“1924,” James replied. “I was a university physicist, obsessed with the idea of time travel. I built a device, this pocket watch is the key. But something went wrong. Every time I try to return to my own era, I’m pulled back here. To you.”

Alex’s mind spun with questions. “But how does it work? There was a blue light… where do you go?”

James hesitated, opening the watch to reveal intricate gears and a softly glowing crystal. “It’s a temporal anchor. When I activate it, I travel along a loop, always landing at moments close to you, in this place. I think… I’m caught in a time warp tied to our connection.”

Alex’s scepticism faltered as she peered into the watch’s shimmering core. “So, you’re stuck here because of… me?”

James nodded. “It’s as if the universe is guiding me back. I’ve tried to leave, but I always return. I think, maybe, I’m not meant to run from … us.”

Alex considered this, heart pounding with awe and fear. “So, you’re not an alien, you’re a time traveller stuck by fate?”

He nodded, hope flickering in his eyes. “Unless you want me to go. I can try to break the loop.”

James noticed Alex’s wonder mingling with doubt and gently took her hand, the pocket watch glinting between them.

“Alex, have you ever felt like you’ve met someone before, even if you know you haven’t?” he asked softly.

She nodded, recalling fleeting moments of déjà vu, familiar faces in crowded streets, a stranger’s laugh that tugged at her heart for no reason.

James smiled. “That’s not just imagination. There are portals. Hidden thresholds in the universe where time bends and memories slip through. The past, present, and future overlap, just enough to merge. Sometimes, you meet a soul in one era, and you cross paths again in another. Most people don’t realise it, but they feel it. An unexplainable connection, a story half-remembered.”

Alex’s breath caught. “Are you saying we’ve met before? In another time?”

James’ eyes sparkled with both sadness and hope. “I believe so. Maybe in a Paris café in the 1920s, or on a rainy London street in the future. Each time, the universe gives us another chance, a new story, a new beginning. That’s why I keep returning here. My device doesn’t just travel through time, it seeks out those familiar souls.”

Alex touched the watch, feeling its faint pulse. “So, we’re caught in a loop of moments, searching for each other?”

He nodded. “Every story, every memory we can’t quite place… maybe they’re pieces of a puzzle from other lives, other times. Most people forget. But sometimes, something, or someone, makes you remember.”

Alex smiled, a tear shining in her eye. “Then let’s make this the time we remember, for good.”

James squeezed her hand.

It was a few weeks after James’s confession, the pull of the past grew stronger. One quiet evening, as rain tapped softly on the café windows, James looked at Alex with longing and regret.

“I have to try one last time to return to 1924,” he whispered. “I need to know if I can ever truly go home. But I’m afraid… afraid I’ll lose you in the process.”

Alex’s heart twisted, but she nodded bravely. “You have to try. But whatever happens, I want to be with you, before you go, even if it’s just for a moment.”

Back in her quiet apartment, James opened the pocket watch, the crystal within glowing brighter than ever. The air shimmered, and James’s form began to blur and fade, as if he were caught between worlds. Alex watched in awe and terror as he reached out, his hand barely visible.

Without a second thought, she reached for him, her fingers brushing against his. In that instant, a surge of energy crackled between them. Blue light wrapped around their hands, and the world tilted.

The apartment melted away. Sounds and colours twisted, memories flickered. Candlelit ballrooms, rainy nights on cobblestone streets, sunlit mornings in strange cities. Alex saw herself and James, again and again, in different clothes, different eras, but always together.

They landed with a jolt in a bustling 1924 street, gaslights flickering, jazz music drifting from open doors. People rushed past, oblivious to the couple standing, stunned, in the middle of it all.

James stared at Alex, astonished. “You came with me. You crossed the portal.”

Alex smiled, breathless but exhilarated. “I guess the universe really does want us to be together. Maybe it’s not about the time or the place, it’s all about us.”

James grinned, hope lighting up his face for the first time in years.

The thrill of 1924 was intoxicating. Alex and James wandered through the city’s golden glow, drank sweet coffee in smoky jazz clubs, and danced in ballrooms where laughter never seemed to end. For a while, the past felt like a dream come true. A world where their love could bloom in the open.

But Alex couldn’t shake a growing sense of unease.

One afternoon, as they strolled along the Seine, she glanced at the pocket watch, its crystal was dimmer, the hands spinning more slowly. “James, is it safe? Can we go back to my time?”

James frowned, concern shadowing his features. “The device… it’s never brought two people across before. The energy it took…maybe it’s nearly spent. I don’t know if there’s enough power for another jump.”

Alex felt a chill. “So, are you saying we could be… stuck here?”

He took her hands, determination in his eyes. “If you want to try, we’ll try. I’ll never stop searching for a way home with you.”

They hurried back to their modest room and James carefully wound the watch, its gears grinding with effort. Alex whispered, “No matter what happens, I want to be with you.”

James nodded. He activated the watch. The world shimmered, the familiar blue light sparking around them …nothing happened. The crystal flickered, then dimmed to grey.

They waited, hearts pounding. The future never returned.

Tears pricked Alex’s eyes. “We can’t go back…”

James wrapped his arms around her, gently wiping her tears. “Maybe this is our chance to start something new. We’ll find a way, if it exists.”

Days turned to weeks, and life in 1924 slowly became theirs. But every so often, Alex caught a glimmer of blue in the corner of her eye or heard a far-off sound from her own world. She never lost hope.

Together, she and James scoured libraries, met inventors, and searched for another portal believing, as only lovers can, that time would bend for them again.

One warm night, as jazz drifted through their open window, Alex whispered, “If we ever make it back to my time… let’s try to find that coffee shop where we first met.”

As winter turned to spring, with the rain pattering on the window, James rushed in. He clutched a yellowed letter. “Alex, look at this! In the archives, I found a note… signed by you.”

Alex’s heart leapt. She unfolded the letter, her own handwriting staring back, dated from the year 2025….

"If you find this, it means we made it. Time is a circle. Trust your memories. Go to the café on Maple Street, June 12, 2025, at 10:05 a.m. … Alex."

James’s hands shook as he turned the pocket watch over. Inside, the crystal sparked faintly, pulsing with a new energy.

Without hesitation they headed for the café on Maple Street. James set the watch and together they clasped hands. The blue light flared brighter than ever, the shop fracturing into a swirl of memories…dizzying, beautiful, familiar.

Instantly, Alex blinked. She was sitting in the modern coffee shop on Maple Street, sunlight streaming through the windows. The clock read 10:05 a.m. She looked up, and there was James, just as she remembered him, holding a pocket watch.

He smiled, as if no time had passed at all. “Do you ever feel like you’ve already lived this day?”

Alex laughed, tears in her eyes. “Maybe time’s just giving us another beginning.”

* * *

Years later, Alex and James sat together in their favourite spot at the café, fingers entwined, laughter mingling with the aroma of fresh coffee. The pocket watch rested on the table between them, its crystal now a soft, steady glow.

Sometimes, a stranger would walk in, glance their way, and pause as if remembering something forgotten. Alex and James would exchange a secret smile, knowing that in another time, another story was unfolding.

They never spoke of portals or time warps to anyone else. Instead, they cherished the ordinary days. Morning coffees, walks in the rain, the simple joy of being together. Each moment was a miracle, a reminder that love could cross any distance, even the boundaries of time itself.

And every June 12th, at 10:05 a.m., they’d sit in the Maple Street café, quietly celebrating the moment the universe gave them a second chance.

No matter how many years pass, we are reminded, every great love story is, indeed, timeless

THE END