This story has been in my documents for the longest time, so I am happy to finally share this story with you!

I was 14 years old when I first noticed them. I remember that I was busy with my first romance novel at the time. Billy Miller was the most popular boy in my grade and I thought that I was in love with him. Just like the heroine was in love with her hero, William Carmichael- a wealthy heir to his father's hotel empire with a secret… He is also a spy for the CIA. Billy was my William. Mom forced me to help out at the ice rink that day for not doing the dishes the day before, but honestly who has time to do the dishes when there is a marvelous story just waiting to be read. I didn't love working at the rink but I was used to it. Mom and dad opened the rink before I was even born. Dad was my favourite person in the world… but then he died. I was five years old and I would never forget the day the police came to my house. Mom just had a bad feeling that day. A feeling only one who has true love could experience. When the police came she dropped the glass of milk she was bringing me when they knocked on the door. I can sometimes still hear her animal-like screams when my mind is free from any other noise. It was an armed robbery at the bank. He was a hero that day- saved a pregnant lady's life. To this day when I think of my dad he is standing in the kitchen doing the dishes. It wasn't a chore to him, he used to put on his favourite record and dance while he cleaned the kitchen. He was old-school that way. He said that there was just something about it, the sound of the needle dropping, the crackle, the way you can almost hear the music starting before it is really there. He would playfully pull me closer with a dishcloth. We would dance until mom comes downstairs with a smile on her face ready to give me a bath. He would grab her and twirl around the kitchen table until they reach the sink, then he would dip her and place a soft kiss on her lips. Mom doesn't smile anymore, she turned into a stern workaholic who didn't have the patience for her daughter's theatrical tendencies. So books were my escape. My book was way more interesting than work, so I found a quiet place next to the ice and pulled out my book.

The lady shouting at the shaggy blonde man to 'come back' caught my attention. When he finally reached her things turned awkward pretty fast. Then she said the most wonderful thing I had ever heard in my fourteen years in this world. Something about them being bold apart but safe together. At first, I felt bad for the guy, in my experience, which was not a lot at the time, he was about to get dumped, but then she said that they should be bold TOGETHER. I couldn't believe it, I was actually witnessing the beginning of their story. I knew that is what I wanted someday- someone to be bold with. That day my obsession grew. I would think of them quite often. I would write stories about them in my journal every time I got the chance. I overheard their names. Kensi and Deeks. I'm not sure what kind of name Deeks is, but hey, who am I to judge with a name like Calliope. Everyone calls me Callie. I didn't like my name when I was little but then one day my dad told me what it meant 'the muse of epic poetry.' "Not just poetry, pumpkin… EPIC poetry." He mused

It was now a year later and Christmas time again. I was a year older, a year wiser and I thought that I now knew the difference between a crush and true love. After all, I write about love every single day. I was over Billy. He kissed one of my friends and then he had the nerve to ask me to go bowling with him. I turned that boy down and didn't look back. It didn't hurt as much as I thought it would. I couldn't believe my luck when Kensi and Deeks strolled in. Of course, they would want to spend their anniversary where it all started. They were just as in love as one year ago. They kissed and held hands. I was in my awkward stage at this time. With braces and pimples, so I could just dream about a boy looking at me in that way. Their arrival just fuelled my obsession. I would look at them and jot down everything I observed. I probably sound like a crazy stalker at this point, but I assure you I'm just a romantic at heart. I couldn't overhear their conversation but I had pretty good perceptive skills for fifteen. I looked over at the sound of my mother's voice calling me. When I turned my head back there he was, on one knee with a little box in his right hand. Kensi's face lit up. I could see that she will say yes. I could see that at that moment he was making her the happiest girl in the world. It was if someone had just asked me to marry them. That is how happy I was.

As the year progressed something changed. I grew into my ears, my braces came off and I got contacts. Suddenly boys took notice of me. It was the year I turned sixteen. I joined the cheerleading squad and had my own love stories to navigate. Yes, you heard me, stories. Plural. So Kensi and Deeks kind of slipped to the back of my mind. Once in a while, I would still think of them. I was at the mall one day doing some Christmas shopping. I was tired and hungry so I was just walking around aimlessly until my friends finish their shopping. I plopped down on a bench in front of a jewelry store. There he was his shaggy hair as blonde as ever. He was holding the phone between his shoulder and his ear. I was so close I could hear every word he said. He was practically standing right in front of me. "Yes, you can deliver it to the beach on Blue Rock Street. The ceremony starts at three so you have to be ready by one." He was quiet, listening to the person on the other end's response. "No Donna, I said one, two is cutting it pretty close and I don't want Kensi to worry about anything on Saturday, I want my bride well rested."

The call ended. Suddenly I remembered why was so infatuated by them. I thought I outgrew it but I was like an adult whose favourite cartoons were showing on TV after 10 years. They were getting married on Blue Rock beach. On that moment my Saturday plans changed. I was just going to drive by with my bike. I just want to see her dress and their faces and everything. Just so I can see how their story turns out. Just a reminder that I am not a stalker, just an obsessed teenage girl. It is no different than every other girl in the country obsessing over some boy band. By this time they had taken many forms in my head. That month I read the romance novel, she was a struggling winemaker's daughter who just inherited her father's debt, and he was the strapping you winemaker who saved her vineyard. Then I read the suspense novel, he was the detective who tried to save the girl from the crazy stalker and finally in my feminist phase, she was the lawyer and him her paralegal, working on cases until late at night, fighting for the freedom of a wrongfully accused man. So really I just need to see how their story turns out so I can have rest for my soul.

I looked at my watch; mom should be back any minute now and then I can go to the beach. I was planning on clocking out at three so I can skip the awkward part of the wedding where the bride is late and the groom thinks that she's not going to show, even though he his 99% sure she will. The 1% is eating away at him. Two thirty rolled by and mom was still not back. 'Come on Cal, mom promised that she will be back by now she will be here any moment'. I helped a little kid with her skis and then a bunch of screaming 12-year-olds burst through the door. The O'Reilly boy' birthday party was starting. Which meant one thing, it was three o'clock. Mom promised that she will be here by then. I did what was expected of me. I took pictures; I helped them fit their shoes; I helped the inexperienced skaters. It was a quarter to six when mom finally strolled in. Her face was as stern as always, and her hair in a bun with no hair out of place. She looked tired, but I was so mad. I walked up to her. "Mom, where were you?" My mother looked at me like I was insane "I ran some errands" she said with her usual tone. That seemed to fuel my anger. "I've never asked for a day off, I asked you for one afternoon and you just couldn't bother to remember, Mom, do you even realise that I have no life because of this place?" She stepped back as if the words physically hurt her, then her face turned angry. "That is not true, you have cheerleading every afternoon. I see you around here with your friends all the time, do not put this on me, I did my best when your father died." There was no shame left in me, everything I was holding in just burst out of me. "Exactly my point Mom, you see me around HERE all the time," my voice turned sad "and you may have lost your husband but I lost my dad… and my mom." I turned around and stormed out of the rink.

My tears were still streaming and I probably had mascara smeared across my face as was peddling hard to Blue Rock beach, but I didn't care. As I turned the corner to the beach, I saw them. The entire beach was made up of fairy lights. The sun was just about to set and the sky was a pink colour. They were dancing, I wasn't close enough to hear the music but it must've been a fast and rhythmic song because they were laughing and he was swinging her around in his arms so fast. She could not stop laughing. I think she was experiencing what I used to experience when my dad spun me around, that uncontrollable laughter, the one that comes from your stomach. The best one of all. I watched them and their friends dance in the fairy lights as the sun finally set to make room for the moon and the stars. That was my cue. I was not part of their lives; I will always be the girl looking in from the outside.

When I finally made it home, everything was dark. Mom will not be home for another few hours, the rink closes late on Saturdays. I climbed the stairs up to my room and wrote in my Kensi and Deeks journal. That was the last night I ever did. Their story was now complete, is this not where all great love stories end? 'And they lived happily ever after'.

But that is not where my story ended. That night was a turning point for many things in my life. That night mom came home and I had to face the music, but so had she. She told me that there was a great sadness living inside her and that however she tried she could not get rid of. She decided to start seeing a therapist and things just went up from there. She started wearing makeup again and letting her hair down every once in a while. Since then I had a pretty normal life. I graduated high school and wrote a few pieces that got published in the process. When it was time for me to start university Mom's therapist told her that it was time to let go of the past. So she sold 50% of the rink to Murray, one of dad's best friends. That meant she will only have to work half of the time and actually have time for herself. I write full time now, my second novel is just about done and I already have a pretty good plotline for the next one. Not to brag but my weekly column in the local paper is also pretty popular too. I am turning 25 in a few weeks and my life is pretty much on track.

I was helping mom move a few boxes at the rink when I saw them for the last time. They came in with two little girls, one with curly blonde hair just like her dad's and the other with straight brown hair. Probably the cutest kids I have ever seen, I am not being biased at all. The kids ran to the ski counter with Kensi in tow. Deeks pulled out his phone to capture this moment forever. He still looks as smitten with her as he did 10 years ago. I smiled and looked at the doorway when a handsome man walked in. "Hi Honey" he waved at me. Yes, you read right, I finally found my William Carmichael, or should I say my Deeks. So in this case, curiosity did not kill the cat, the cat fell in love!

If you enjoyed reading the story as much as I had writing it, please review and feel free to read some my other stories about our favourite couple, a long walk down the aisle and presumed dead. Xx