She stared at her phone in shock.

Ricky? He was Ricky? How Cliche can it get?

"Amy?" she heard on the phone.

"Alaric" She said "Where are you? Hilary and I have been waiting for you"

"Wait what?"

"I'll explain later, we are at the food court near the roller coaster. Come on fast. Meghan must be hungry"

"Not really" he said, looking as surprised as he felt "She ate a lot. We'll probably need you tonight, Doctor"

Amulya laughed shaking her head.

"Come fast, Romeo" she said cutting the call, smiling to herself.

"What's going on here?" Hilary asked, noticing Amulya's smile "Is that a smile i see?" she teased.

After the kids, Hilary never had time for her friends. She settled down pretty early, and none of her friends were willing to add two kids to their plans. Hilary felt good being able to tease someone like this. Even though she was almost ten years Amulya's senior.

"Long story actually" she told Hilary. "Alaric and I, we met before; on tinder.

"Drunken night and all, I don't even remember why I joined."

"So wait, you are Amy? The one he is writing the story about?"

"He is writing a story about me?" Amy was shocked. A guy she met on the internet was writing a story about her?

Before any of the both could speak, they heard Alaric's voice.

"I told you to stay there and not move around" He told Hilary with his eyes narrowed.

"You said you'd be back in a minute. You didn't come back fir fifteen minutes" Hilary told him in the same tone.

"Tristan was getting restless, he wanted to go on rides" Amulya added, making Alaric turn and look at her.

It was her, all along. He couldn't believe it. The girl he comforted over the phone was the same one he had ice cream with, a few hours later.

"Amy" he said, forgetting the previous conversation he was having with his sister.

"Rick" Amy said, making him smile. How could he not notice it before? Her accent was so different, they way she said the words they were different in a good way. He should have found out before.

A throat clearing brought them out from their thoughts. They both looked at Hilary, who was staring at them with an eye brow raised.

"You can do this after you get back home, you are neighbours after all" She said, smiling in the end "Now shall we leave? It's going to get dark"

"There is a lot of time before it gets dark" Alaric grumbled, standing up and picking up Tristan, who raised his arms, and moving in the general direction of the parking lot.

"Put him down Alaric. He'll get used to being carried around. You are spoiling him"

"I'll spoil him all I want" Amulya smiled at his reply, before quickly picking Meghan up, before the girl asks.

"Oh not you too" Hilary groaned playfully following them.

"Stay for dinner?" Devin asked Alaric and Amulya when they went to drop Hilary and the kids. Alaric looked at Amy, his eyebrows raised. He didn't mind eating at her sister's place. His brother-in-law was a great cook, and it would save him a take away. He was too lazy to cook that night. He'd probably have gone to bed without eating

"Sure, if Alaric doesn't mind" Amulya said smiling at the handsome man before her.

"Great" he said clapping his hands, getting the kids' attention. "Who is helping me set the table? They'll get extra dessert" he said, making the kids shout ous a series of 'Me's'

"Dev, they already ate a lot of ice cream" Hilary said

"Fine then tomorrow they'll get extra dessert" Saying that, he and the kids moved towards the kitchen.

The dinner went well. With Devin's sense of humour, there wasn't even a minute of silence. Amulya never had dinners this way. Her family dinners back home were different.

Its either all of them were watching TV or her parents were telling her how she has to be more like her brother. Or how she has to lose her weight, start eating less, or how she has to start learning to cook, and run a house.

Amulya's smile faltered, thinking about her childhood. But she didn't want her thoughts to spoil her day. So she pushed them away and started concentrating more on the man next to her.

Alaric was laughing at something his Brother-in-law said. His dark hair messy from the long day, his two day old beard, desperately in need of a shave; there was a dimple in his left cheek, and Amulya hasn't noticed that before. He was honestly so good looking, She dare say hot.

It's as if the time slowed down. She could only see the man she met a few days back. How good he was with his niece and nephew. How he didn't sleep, just to comfort someone he barely knew. She was smiling and she didn't know why. It was a strange feeling in her stomach. But she liked it, she warmly welcomed it.

Ricky suddenly looked to his left, caught Amulya staring. He raised his eyebrows once, as if asking her what's up. She shook her head, smiling wider at him. And he smiled back.

Hilary was looking at the guest, her face held a soft smile as she looked at the exchange between her brother and Amulya. They were in their own world, for a moment there. Hilary knew before anyone else, it was going to happen.

The two people sitting in front of her are starting to fall for each other.

And theirs is going to be a beautiful love story.

~*~

18.04.20