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Coffee was one of Joshua's favourite things. He remembered when he was younger, the first time he tried it, he felt sick. He'd puked after finishing the mug his father had made him and hadn't tried it again until he was in university. The humble latte, Josh thought, was his closest friend these days. It kept him awake, kept him sharp, and kept him focused. He was only twenty-six, but he felt like he was much older. He supposed it was the stress, but the coffee kept him going.

He sat at the table at the back of the shop and knew her eyes were on him. Or rather, he knew she was eyeing his tattoo. He sipped his coffee and heard her carry on talking to the man she was with. He pretended he didn't care, or that he wasn't watching her every now and again.

He didn't know what he believed about soulmates, Fated People or whatever. He believed the other views he'd heard: a social construct, a hyperbole, a way for the government to keep track of its citizens... he'd heard it all. Especially with his education, he'd read up on various theories. He just didn't know what he believed.

Josh didn't believe in it for the first fifteen years of his life, and then he met Brianna. Long, curly, black hair, she always smelt like vanilla. He'd loved her from the age of fifteen when she moved to the same school. They both wanted to study sociology, she showed him what love and passion were. She told him so many times that she didn't care about her Knot Art, the tattoo they were both going to get when they turned eighteen. She even started taking up art so she could try and sabotage it if they weren't Fated.

The day they found their tattoos didn't match, and they weren't Fated, she tried to replicate the knot, but couldn't. They fought the Knot for two years and kept their relationship a secret. Until Jamie from America turned up when they were twenty. Joshua remembered the pain and agony as he watched her apologise and leave without a second look.

He believed in soulmates for five years, he believed in Brianna.

Then he didn't. Like a builder, she single-handedly sauntered into his life, built him up like a house on a cliff to be proud and true. Though neither of them could see it, their love was doomed to crumble from the very start. That's why he was a heap of rubble when she slammed like a tsunami against the rock that held him up and washed him away, along with his belief in soulmates.

It was six years ago, and now he wasn't sure again. All Joshua knew was his job, how his focus couldn't be on some made-up bull he didn't know was real. He remembered the clear pull Brianna had, but he'd read too many horror stories. He knew who his Fated Person was, of course, he did. He knew the moment he saw her, and her name matched. He'd felt an instant connection, the pull when his tattoo was close. But he knew it could never happen.

Then he caught the single, white camellia flower out of the corner of his eye.

He knew in one instant as Amelia worked away on her laptop to his right that it meant something.

He sipped his coffee again and smirked to himself. It meant something; it was a sign. He never really believed in signs and destiny and other-worldly things until recently, and he certainly couldn't deny this one.

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Joshua shook his head as he read the book later on that evening. He couldn't understand why this was Amelia's favourite book. He realised it went against everything she enjoyed in fiction. He wished he could joke about it with her, but as he put the bookmark in and put the book down on the table, he realised he couldn't.

He realised that the pulling feeling he'd had for a long time was creeping up again, curving around his mind, made him breathless and dizzy. Was she thinking about him?

It was times like that when Joshua actually started to believe in it all: Fated People, destiny, fate, true love. He wasn't sure what set the feeling off, but he'd read that people had it when their Fated Person was near, potentially when they were going against the very foundation of the Knots. He'd read one such thing about someone who cheated on their Fated Person; the victim felt a burning, dizzy sensation when their Fated Partner slept with someone else.

"Bull," Josh cursed. He smirked to himself and went to his fridge, pulled out a beer and opened it when his email pinged.

He stared at the email. Just a scam, as usual. He settled down at his laptop to start his work again. He couldn't slack or let people down.

He started working on the essay in front of him; he needed to mark it, he'd seen the note on the laptop when he got to it. But he wasn't qualified for this, he knew that. But he had to; he didn't know how long he had.

He realised he could phone in sick, but who knew? The last time this happened, he stayed there for a few days. The time before that was weeks. He was starting to have more control, he knew that, but until he had full control, he would just have to power through.

His laptop pinged and he saw her name.

Amelia Nichols. The email was simple: 'Hi Joshua, just wanted to make sure this was okay in terms of word count. I've gone thirty-five words over. Is there still a ten per cent leeway? Thanks, Amelia.'

He quickly emailed back to say it was fine, but all he could imagine was the way she'd eyed him in the coffee shop earlier. The camellia flower that sat in the middle of her table.

Joshua recalled a story he'd read a few months before about how a Fated Person tried to make a truce with their partner: they wouldn't get married, be together, or have children because she was in love with someone else. It went against the very foundation of the Knot and the Fated People law. They pretended they'd never met, despite living not twenty miles away from each other their whole lives.

Though they'd agreed on it, Joshua had done a little digging and found out that the government found out and forced the two Fated People into matrimony. They'd remained childless, however, last he could find.

He wondered how often that was the exception to the rule, however. Someone could end up with a Fated Person halfway across the world, and never ever meet them. That wouldn't be against the law. But if you found your Fated Person and refused the coupling outright? Most countries would be up in arms, and at worst, you could be forced up the aisle against your will. Joshua knew some countries would put you in prison if you refuted it, changed your tattoo, refused to have the Knot Ceremony when you turned eighteen.

He also knew it was a big law with a lot of loopholes.

Which was why he chose to ignore the various times his body reacted when he was thinking about her.

Joshua walked into the same coffee shop the next day, picked up a latte and sat at the back of the shop. He had work to do, and the shop was his comfort. It reminded him of home, of familiarity, of her.

He set himself up on the table: laptop, coffee, book, notes. It hurt his head. Well, everything hurt his head these days, and he knew it wasn't going to stop anytime soon. He just needed to get on with it.

That was when she walked in: Amelia. She had her hair in two plaits down the side of her head, her smile was wide as she walked up to the counter and the guy took her order.

Joshua tore his eyes from her for a moment to drink his coffee and stare at his laptop. He was trying to work out who the man was to her, why she was always with him. She would smile at him, laugh with him...

It slid into place when the guy with the brown hair handed her a cup and kissed her lips. He was Amelia's Fated One. He knew she had hers, or had met hers, he just didn't know they were together.

It made no sense to Joshua. These were the moments that he wasn't sure about the whole thing again, and why it was a thing.

Amelia was there with her Fated One. But he knew things were different. It could be different. He only had to change a few things to make it so. No one would know, after all.

But it still made no sense.

He looked up at the same moment she glanced across the shop. Their eyes met ever so quickly – brown eyes to brown eyes – he knew everything about her from the colour of her eyes to the way she smiled when she had white marshmallows on her hot chocolate. He distinctly remembered one time when she sat there picking out the pink marshmallows because they weren't the right colour.

He smiled.

Fuck, he scorned himself.

She smiled back and made her way over to his table.

"Hi, Amelia," he greeted coolly.

"Joshua, hi. I... uh, I wondered if you could help. I know you're not in tutorial hours, but I just had a few questions about the assignment," she said. He could hear the awkwardness in her voice. He pretended not to notice it.

He sipped his coffee before he nodded. "Of course, it's fine. I can only help so much, though." If only she knew why.

She pulled up in the chair opposite him and produced her laptop.

He felt his heartbeat drum erratically, he tried to steady his hands as they shook by the cool metal of his laptop. She pulled out a piece of paper with her questions on and she handed them to him using her left wrist.

He spotted it; her Knot.

He'd seen it before, of course, he had because every adult in the world has one, so it wouldn't be possible to hide them. She'd worn short-sleeved tops before; he'd caught sight of it. But he was eyeing it up close.

His breath hitched. He felt dizzy.

That baby blue card he'd been given eight years ago was resting in his wallet, but he didn't need to pull it out to know what it said. He'd studied it for so long, wondering. He'd known for ages, though.

He stared at the knot on her wrist as he took the paper, and she retracted her arm from view.

He didn't need to see it again because he knew the contours and structure of it. He knew the ins and outs of that knot on her wrist. He'd seen it before; he'd studied it enough.

Amelia Nichols was his Fated Person. 

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