Featuring Hugo and Livvy

June 12, 1995

10 years earlier

"I see you."

"What? Are you at my house?"

"No, you idiot," said Livvy into the payphone, "I'm at the theatre."

"Wait, Liv," there was a pause, "You mean on the poster?" Hugo's excitement was evident. She could hear it through the phone.

"Yes! Oh, hold on," she fished for a quarter from her pocket and inserted it into the slot. "Okay, yes. You're on there! I'm on my way home from work and I saw."

"Seriously?" His voice cracked. She smiled.

"Yes, Hugo! Come see!"

"I'll be there in five! Wait up for me." The receiver clicked. She placed the payphone back on its stand.

Once more, she stood in front of the poster in front of the movie theater, a sense of pride washing over her at the sight of it. She would never admit this to Hugo, though. He'd never stop goading her over it.

My Lady was the title, and Hugo had told her it was an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. It was a local production, starring two actors from their city and was set to release in two weeks. The poster was kind of tacky, she did have to admit, but none of this she cared about.

She did care about the fact that it was Hugo's first role in a proper movie, something he'd been dreaming about since they were children. He told her that he played as a security guard at the Montagues' and had a solid fifteen seconds of screen time along with a line: Romeo is gone, and has been since dawn. She knew the line word by word because he only made her practice with him about a hundred times, in varying intensities.

Not only that, but he was on the poster, too. Albeit, he couldn't have been more than five centimeters long and two centimeters wide on the poster that was actually quite large, and his image was behind everyone else's, but still. Still! He was on there, and so was his name on the list of actors. Hero Park. She still thought the stage name was ridiculous, but whatever.

"LIVVY!" That was him, yelling from across the street. She watched as he crossed the street and got to her, panting. He seemed to have actually RAN all the way from his house to meet her after the call, without even caring to change.

Her heart beat faster at the sight of him. She willed it to quiet down.

"Hello to you too."

"No way..." His voice faded away as he caught sight of the poster. Arms outstretched and eyes wide, he came closer and touched it as if he couldn't believe it was true. "It's really me."

"It's really you," she whispered back.

"It's me!"

"It's you!"

"IT'S ME!"

"IT'S YOU!"

"IT IS ME!"

"Can you kids keep it down?!" The annoyed ticketer at the booth exclaimed. His name was Gerard or Garret or Gilbert and he'd been working there since the dawn of time. Probably.

"Sorry," Olivia said sheepishly to him. To Hugo she said, "The screaming can't be good for Gerard or Garret or Gilbert's ageing ears."

"You're right," he said back, "Let's go."

"Let's."

As they walked away, they could hear the ticketer yell, "How many times do I need to tell you, my name is GEORGE!"

Their laughter rang until even those sitting inside the theatre could hear it.

There weren't many places to loiter in their town at that time, but out of the limited amount of places that were available, their favorite was a low cost, hole in the wall cafe called Tia's. And so that was where Hugo and Olivia went that day, as they did most days.