I watched as Ryan opened the box, a wide smile on his pink lips as he saw what was inside. I thought back to one year ago and wondered whether he remembered it the same as I did. The day that would shape our lives from that day onwards.

‘Aria! I refuse to date her!’

‘Why!?’ My publicist asked me as I waited for my coffee, her voice was loud and demanding in my ear. The rustic coffee shop around me was bustling with people, who was I kidding, this was LA, everywhere was bustling with people, and this place was no different. Its wooden tables and high backed chairs were filled with people, sipping coffees and typing quickly on laptops or talking with their friends.

‘She got out of rehab, like, what? A week ago?’ I asked her and the silence before she replied answered me in itself.

‘She is perfect for your image Max!’ She tried to cover, but no way. I was not going to go to dinner with that woman, let alone date her, which is what Aria was trying to convince me to do. She would learn sooner or later that I wasn’t going to be a serial dater, breaking women’s hearts. I would go to functions with them, but not date them for my image.

‘Not happening Aria.’

‘Fine, I’ll find someone else,’ She huffed, obviously exasperated with my outrageous demands as a client. Note the sarcasm.

My name was called by the barista and I happily waltzed up to the counter, collecting my cappuccino.

‘Thank-you,’ I told Aria before hanging up.

I focussed my attention on putting my phone back into my pocket as I left the Café and was surprised when I ran into someone, my coffee spilling all over my hand and their shoes.

‘Awch,’ I shook the coffee off of my hand.

‘Crap, I am so sor-’ I started, but when I looked up and met the eyes of the person I had ran into I froze.

The eyes which met mine were the deepest blue I had ever seen and I was fixated on them. They belonged, I soon realised, to a handsome guy, his light skin suited perfectly with his brown hair which was almost light enough to be called blonde in the bright LA sun we were currently standing in.

‘Yeah, you better be sorry!’ The guy said, his plump pink lips moving fast, ‘These were my new Chuck Taylors.’

I looked down and the black and white shoes on his feet, just below his purple jeans, were covered in coffee. He was staring at them desperately, as if they would suddenly become clean if he put enough focus into it.

‘Can I buy you a coffee or something?’ I asked him for three reasons, one because I wanted an excuse to spend more time with the adorable guy, two because I just spilt my coffee all over him and I felt bad about that, and three because I had just dropped my coffee, and me without coffee is like unleashing a wild bear in a crowded park. There will be murders. And they will not be pretty.

‘Uh sure,’ He said and I smiled walking into the Café again, the man following behind me. We ordered but this time we were directed to a small table near the back of the Café, one of the few that wasn’t filled.

He sat down opposite me, ‘They were my favourite shoes,’ he pouted and I wished so badly to kiss those pouty lips. My brain tried to tell me that I didn’t even know the guy, who looked to be a year or two younger than me, but I didn’t listen to it.

‘Want me to buy you a new pair?’

‘Yes.’

I laughed at that. He was adorable.

‘OK, after this we can go to the mall.’

‘Are we on a date or something?’ he jokingly asked and I laughed.

I wish.

‘No.’

He looked a tad disappointed and I wondered whether he was actually interested in me.

‘What’s your name?’ I asked him.

‘Ryan Connors,' he told me. 'You?’

‘Max,’ I watched as recognition hit his face.

‘Wait, your Max Stark, aren’t you? The guy from that new movie,’ He sounded shocked and I braced myself for the star stuck shyness and/or freaking out.

Surprisingly it didn’t come.

‘Yeah, that’s me.’

‘That’s awesome dude,’ I had never seen someone react so calmly.

‘What do you do?’

‘I’m a singer, mostly alternative stuff,’ he said nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders as he said it.

‘That’s pretty cool, anything I’ve heard of?’

‘Uh, heard ‘Drugs and Dancing’?’

Of course I had heard it, it was a great song. I didn’t know the artist though, it was pretty awesome to see a face to match the singer I had heard many times.

‘Yeah, wasn’t that like 95 on the top 100 last month?’

‘Yep. Far from number one, but I’m on the list, that’s a feat in itself I guess.’

‘Good for you, you’re a great singer.’

‘Thanks,’ the guy blushed and I couldn’t help but become besotted by his adorable reaction.

‘One question though? If you’re a famous singer, why don’t you buy the shoes yourself?’

‘I wasn’t the one who ruined the shoes, now was I?’ he smirked and I laughed.

‘That is very true.’

A girl at the table next to us left, leaving behind her magazine. One the page it was turned to was a photo of the guy in front of me with Claudia Grey, a woman I had worked with once before. She was always drunk or high, a horror to work with that girl was. I had no idea why a hot guy like Ryan Connors would ever date this chick. Maybe he liked her? Maybe it was for the publicity? He wasn’t that well known, and she defiantly was.

I reached over and picked it up, turning it around to show the guy sitting across from me.

‘Is this you?’

‘Yep.’

‘You’re dating Claudia Grey?’ I didn’t mean to, but I spat her name out like poison. She had that effect on me.

‘Yep, but between you and me, it won’t last long,’ he whispered across the table and I felt a jolt of hope in my stomach, maybe he didn’t like her after all?

‘Why?’

‘It’s just for Publicity.’

‘And you allowed to go telling people that?’ I asked, knowing full well that Aria would skin me alive if she knew that I had told someone something like that.

‘Well, you’re in the same business, figured that I could trust you not to leak it.’

‘Lesson number one, trust no-one with your secrets in Hollywood.’

‘Trying to tell me something?’ he laughed.

‘I won’t spill to the media, but someone else would have.’

‘I’ll take that under advisement,’ he said and I hoped that he would. Someone who spills secrets in this city doesn’t fair well with the media, the vultures that they are.

‘Isn’t that you?’ he pointed to another article, where I was shopping, some blonde bimbo named Stacey on my arm. She had only lasted two days before she bored me so much that I felt like slapping Aria in the face for letting that chick anywhere near me.

‘Yep.’

The coffees finally came and I slowly sipped mine, flipping through the boring pages of the magazine.

‘So hot, I could just lick him.’

‘Lick who?’ I lifted my head to ask him.

His blue eyes widened and he looked flustered, ‘Uh, I said that out loud?!’

‘Yeah..’

‘Whoops,’ he lifted his drink to his lips to prevent himself from saying anymore and I smiled at the guy.

Was he talking about me?

I looked back to the magazine but I felt eyes on me.

‘Are you staring at me?’ I asked him, but the panicked look on his face made me want to kiss it right off.

‘Nope, surely not, uh, there was a bee on your face. Yes, a bee.’

‘And you thought that staring at it would be just as effective as swatting it away?’

‘Well, you know bees, they love those staring competitions, so I decided to beat it at its own game, and I obviously won, because you were not stung. So, where’s my ‘thank-you very much Ryan, you sexy man, for saving me from that big bad ugly bee’ huh?’

‘Sexy man?’

Those eyes widened again and his hand flew to his mouth. ‘I’m just going to stop talking now,’ his voice was muffled by his hand.

‘Well, thank-you Ryan, you sexy man for saving me’ I said flirtatiously, and made sure that he wouldn’t think I was teasing him and it had the desired effect on the embarrassed boy.

His hand slowly dropped from his mouth. A few seconds later he spoke.

‘Sorry, I’m a bit weird,’ he said, giving me a half smile.

‘Don’t be sorry, I like it,’ I told him honestly, sipping at my coffee and I didn’t miss the surprise and happiness my comment brought to the man’s face.

Ryan Connors. It’s been ten minutes, and you’ve already stolen my heart.

Ryan pulled a pair of black and white Chuck Taylors out of the box and gawked at them, a giant smile playing on his lips.

‘I never did get around to buying you a replacement for the pair I ruined,’ I reminded him.

Ryan put the shoes back in the box and in a few seconds I was lying down on the bed, my boyfriend above of me.

‘I remember, instead we went back to my place for some fun’ he said, winking at the word fun.

He made it sound like a cheap hook up! I wanted to remind him that the shops were all shut by the time we left that Café.

‘Hey, Hey, we talked in that Café for hours before that.’

‘Details, details,’ he hushed me, still smiling.

He leant down to kiss me, pausing just before our lips touched.

‘Happy Anniversary Max.’

He gave me a sweet kiss but I pulled away after a few seconds.

‘Where’s my present?’ I pouted, throwing some of my acting skill into it as I watched the panic spread over his face.

I knew this boy, and I was certain that he had completely forgotten to get me anything, not that I cared, I just wanted to tease him a bit.

‘It’s at home, I didn’t forget geeze, why would you think that I would have forgotten? Don’t look at me like that! It’s at home Max.’

‘Sure it is.’

‘It is!’ he insisted and I had to take the shovel off of him, considering the large hole he seemed to be about to dig himself into.

I rolled us over so that I was on top and kissed those pink lips of his.

I looked into his eyes to see those same deep pools of blue I fell in love with and I knew that even if he didn’t want to come out as a couple with me anytime soon, it was alright, as long as I got to stare into those eyes and kiss those lips.