"Baby, wake up, we're here," you whisper while unbuckling your six year old from her car seat. Every October since she was born, you've brought Elliot to this same pumpkin patch. It was almost a two hour drive, but it was definitely worth it. This place has everything: pony rides, carnival games, a petting zoo, a corn maze and anything else you could want.

"Pumpkins?" she asks groggily, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"Yes, El, pumpkins. You ready?" She reaches her arms out to you and you lift her up out of her car seat, setting her down next to the car. You pull out her puffy coat and thread he arms through the sleeves, topping things off with her favorite orange beanie. Picking her up into your arms, you head towards the entrance as she starts to list everything she wants to do.

"First ponies then the corn then doughnuts then goats then-"

"Whoa, slow down, killer," you stop her. "We'll get to it all I promise, but you know we always have to do the corn maze first."

"Yeah, just like you and daddy did!" Ten years ago, your boyfriend took you to this exact pumpkin patch for the first time. The two of you would come back every year and you always had to start in the corn maze. He proposed to you when you were pregnant with Elliot, but he passed away in a car accident before she was born. You promised yourself that you would make sure she always knew about her dad. Going on your annual pumpkin patch trip is one of the ways you keep his memory alive for the both of you. "You ready for this?"

"Let's do this!" she shouts as you set her on the ground. The two of you make your way towards the back of the patch where the entrance to the corn maze is. She takes off a few feet ahead of you and you follow quickly behind.

"Hey, you know the rules. If you can't see me I can't see you, so no getting to far ahead, okay?

"Okay, okay, let's go!"

"We're going, we're going," you laugh, following her lead. The two of you wander around countless corners and hit a handful of dead ends, but that's half the fun. You follow her around a corner only to hit another dead end. "Uh oh, not another. I guess-" you stop your sentence short when you look down and notice your daughter is not in front of you anymore. You turn around thinking she might've snuck by you, but you backtrack around a few corners and there's still no sign of her.

"Elliot?" you call, starting to panic a bit. "Elliot! This isn't funny," you shout a bit louder looking into the stalks of corn, thinking she might be hiding. "Elliot Ann, if you are trying to scare me it's working so you can come out now!!" you yell.

A group of older kids run past you and you search desperately for your daughter, but she's nowhere to be found. Now you're really panicking and have no idea what to do. You've never lost her before, let alone lost her in a maze for fucks sake. Do you try to find the end and hope she's made her way out? She's six there's no way she'll find her way out of a god damn corn maze!

"Elliot!" you shout not knowing what else to do, tears coming to your eyes. You've never felt so helpless in your life. "Why me?" you ask the universe, looking up towards the sky and that's when you see it. A tiny orange beanie pops up right above the tops of the corn. "El!" The little beanie seems to turn to face in your direction. "Don't move, baby, I'm coming!"

You ignore the path completely and push your way through the corn stalks, making a bee line towards your daughter. You come out of the thick of it, running right into a wall. Turns out, it isn't a wall, but a thick flannel jacket.

"Shit, sorry," you say with your head down, trying to make your way around the stranger to find your daughter.

"Mommy!" you hear like angles calling from above. You follow the voice up and turns out it is a literal angel from above. Your daughter is sitting on the shoulders of a total stranger, but you honestly couldn't care less at the moment. All that mattered is you found her. The man reaches up and pulls your little girl up and off of his shoulders and places her into your arms. You hold her tight to your chest, squeezing her half to death.

"El, you scared me so bad, you know better than to wander like that."

"I know mommy, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. I didn't want to get lost," she says with a tear running down her face. She was obviously just as scared as you were.

"It's okay, kiddo. Accidents happen. It's okay now," you comfort her, wiping the tear from her cheek. She buries her face into your shoulder as she sniffles a bit more. You let out a breath that you didn't even realize you'd been holding in this whole time. Coming out of your little trance you finally take a second to look at the man who helped out your daughter. He's tall and slim, but his flannel jacket and hoodie make him seem bulkier. His curly brown hair is peeking out of the ends of his beanie and dark ray bans cover his eyes.

"Thank you so much for your help," you say finally acknowledging him. He nods with his hands buried in his pockets, giving you a smile.

"No problem at all. I couldn't believe that such a cool little girl was here all alone!" he jokes, taking off his sunglasses and threading them into the collar of his hoodie.

Elliot laughs, picking her head up from her shoulder. "Matthew said he likes my beanie and he has one just like it at home!" It seems your kid has made a brand new friend.

"No way! Can you say thank you to Matthew for helping you?" you ask your daughter.

"Thank you, Matthew," she says, getting shy all over again. Looks like he's not just her new friend, but her new crush, too.

"I'm Y/N, by the way," you say, extending your free hand out towards him.

"Matthew, but you already knew that," he responds, giving your hand a shake.

"Are you here alone?" you ask, noticing it's just the three of you at this part of the maze. It's totally not creepy at all for a grown man to be at a pumpkin patch in the middle of a corn maze by himself.

"No, actually I'm here with my sister and nephew, but I let them go ahead when I ran into Elliot here," he explains.

"Well, thank you again, I really appreciate it. I don't know what I would've of done if I lost her for much longer."

"Mommy, can Matthew do the maze with us?" Elliot speaks up.

"Well, only Matthew can answer that question. Why don't you ask him yourself?" She turns in your arms to face him a bit better.

"Do you want to do the maze with us, Matthew?" You give him a soft smile and that parent face that says you can totally come up with an excuse if you want to. He recognizes the face and laughs.

"I would love to finish the maze with you, Elliot. You just have to promise to stay next to your mom, okay?" Elliot nods excitedly and squirms until you set her down on the ground. You immediately grab her hand not wanting to risk another incident. "Which way first?"

"This way!" Elliot says pulling you around a corner, all signs of fear and sadness completely forgotten. Matthew keeps up on the other side of her. The three of you weave your way through the maze as you and Matthew make some small talk. You find out that he only lives about ten minutes from your house and he works as an actor.

"An actor, really? What have you been in? Anything I might have seen?" you ask, a bit surprised you didn't recognize him.

"A handful of small movies, nothing too big. The tv show I work on takes up most of my time," he explains, adjusting the beanie on his head.

"No way, what show?"

"Uh, Criminal Minds."

"Oh, I think some of my friends watch that show! It's kind of gnarly isn't it?"

"Haha yeah, you could definitely say that. It's a bit gruesome for sure."

"Yeah, it's pretty much just cartoons at my house at this point."

"Tom and Jerry is my favorite!" Elliot chimes in.

"No way! Tom and Jerry is my favorite! I used to watch it when I was your age, too." Elliot lets go of your hand and grabs Matthew's. You smile at her as she rambles on about the cartoon with him, both of them fully engrossed in the conversation. Before you even know it, you've reached the end of the maze.

"We did it!" Elliot yells triumphant as you and Matthew cheer along with her. You notice she still hasn't let go of his hand and he doesn't seem to be trying to pull away. Your daughter seems to have taken a liking to this man and honestly you have too. He's cute and good with Elliot, what more could you ask for?

"How about we celebrate with some funnel cakes?" you ask facing Elliot. She nods vigorously and you laugh, expecting nothing less. "Matthew?" you look up at him and find yourself hoping he says yes.

"I'd love to," he smiles back, not missing a beat. A blush rises to your cheeks as the two of you just stand there smiling at each other like a couple of goons.

"Let's go!" Elliot butts in, breaking up the moment.

You, Elliot, and Matthew end up spending most of the afternoon together. Turns out, his sister and nephew left while you were still stuck in the maze after there was a bit of an accident with some spilt cider. You offered to give him a ride home and he accepted after a bit of prodding. You did owe him one after all.

The sun was beginning to set and your daughter was dozing off in your lap as the three of you were finishing up some hot apple cider. You and Matthew were sat next to each other on a bench with a couple pumpkins stacked up on the other side of him.

"I think it might be time to make our way home," you offer, taking the last few sips of your cider. Matthew nods, taking your empty cup from you and tossing it into a trashcan. "I'll take the kid if you grab the gourds?"

"On it," he agrees, piling the pumpkins into his arms as you situate Elliot onto your hip. She's completely out by the time you get to the car so you just buckle her into her car seat as Matthew places the pumpkins in next to her. You climb into the driver seat as Matthew gets into the passenger seat next to.

"Pretty wild that you live so close to us," you mention as you make your way out of the parking lot and towards the interstate.

"Yeah I'll be honest with you, Y/N, this was not what I was expecting my day to go like."

"Oh, same here. I wasn't planning on losing my child and having a panic attack in the middle of a corn maze. Thank you again, I really owe you one."

"Really, it was nothing. The ride home is payment enough."

"How about I buy you a burger, then we can call it even? I'm starving."

"That sounds stellar."

"Perfect, I know a great drive through right off the freeway. It's coming up in a few miles." You make your way down the exit and turn into a little family owned fast food joint. You stop here every so often when you find yourself in this neck of the woods, mostly because their onion rings are to die for.

"What's it gonna be?" you ask, turning to Matthew as you pull up to the drive through.

"I feel like you know what's best, so I'll let you take the lead."

"You, sir, are in for a treat. Are you more of a vanilla or chocolate milkshake kind of guy?"

"Chocolate for sure."

"Correct answer!" You place your order for a couple burgers and milkshakes and a shit ton of onion rings. You add on some chicken nuggets for Elliot knowing that she'll probably wake up hungry.

You pull up to the window and pay, giving the cashier a "thank you" as you grab your food. Just like you anticipated, Elliot wakes up right as you're pulling back onto the freeway.

"Hey kiddo, you hungry? We got you some nuggets," you say as Matthew pulls them out of the bag and passes them back to her. He grabs a burger and peels back the paper wrapping halfway so you can eat it while driving. The car goes quiet as the three of you dig in.

"Mommy, did you get me a milkshake?" Elliot asks.

"I'm not insane, bub. It's late and you've already had so much sugar today. I want to go to bed at some point tonight and you'd be bouncing off the walls if I got you a shake." Elliot groans, but she knows better than to push it.

Things are quiet again as you and Matthew are finishing off the onion rings. You're so focused on the road and the onion rings that you almost didn't notice Matthew sneakily hand his shake to Elliot in the backseat. The gesture is so cute and sweet you just choose to ignore it. Elliot totally blows her cover by bursting into excited giggles. Matthew can't help but chuckle along with her, the two of them thick as thieves. You shoot him a grin and he gives you a wink. You can't help but roll your eyes and join in with the laughter.

Before you even know it, you're pulling off the freeway and heading towards your neighborhood. Matthew gives you directions to his house and you pull into his driveway in a matter of minutes.

"Here ya are," you announce, putting the car in park and turning the engine off.

"Thank you, I really appreciate it," he thanks you for the thousandth time.

"Thanks for finding my kid."

"Yeah thanks for finding me, Matthew!" Elliot adds, making you and Matthew chuckle.

"Anytime, Elliot. I had lots of fun hanging out with you guys today," he says turning to face her in the backseat. "But I am going to need this back." He pulls the now-empty milkshake cup out of her little hands. "You finished my shake," he whines, faking annoyance.

"It's okay, Matthew. Mommy will get you a new shake next time you come play with me," she rationalizes. Matthew smiles at you, raising his eyebrows in amusement.

"I know it's been a pretty weird day, but I would love to hang out with the two of you again. Maybe Elliot would want to have a playdate with my nephew sometime?" he offers.

"That sounds like a great idea to me. Here," you say as you unlock your phone and hand it to him. "Put your number in." Matthew does as he's told and enters his info into your phone. He drop calls himself so he has your number now, too.

"Awesome," he says handing the phone back as he slides out of the passenger seat. He opens the door to the backseat and pulls out his pumpkin. "Bye, Elliot. I'll see you later, kiddo."

"Bye Matthew," she responds, seeming to be drifting back off to sleep.

Matthew shuts the back door and pops his head through the passenger seat window. "I'll give you a call?" he asks you tentatively.

"Please do," you answer, becoming a bit shy all of the sudden.

"Sweet. Drive home safe," he says pulling back and standing up straight.

"Will do. Goodnight, Matthew."

"Goodnight, Y/N," he waves as he walks up his driveway and up to his front door. He looks back at you with one last smile as he unlocks the door and heads into his house.

You shift into reverse about to back down the drive when your phone pings with a text. You look at the screen showing a message that reads Coffee this week? You smile as you notice that the text is from none other than your new contact: Matthew CornMaze Gubler.