“So. This is your time machine.” I said into the bewildered silence.

Andy wrung his hands and stared at it. “I know it looks...”

“Like a cornflake box? Yeah.” I scoffed. “Is this a joke?” I asked, feeling my temper rise.

“No, no, I’ve worked hard on it! I can bring someone back from the past! Anyone!”

“... it’s a cornflake box! It’s not like it can bring back... I don’t know... SHAKESPEARE!”

I shout at him, feeling my temper explode.

“I work all day, while you sit here and ‘invent’! You don’t even do the dishes!”

Andy looks scared. I run my hands through my hair and take a breath. “Sorry. Long day. Going to take a shower.”

“Is there anything I can-“

“You can bring back someone for all I care. Just... leave me alone.” I stomp away.

The shower is warm and relaxing, and I bitterly regret shouting at Andy. He’s my best friend with wild dreams, involving a time machine. Hey, that rhymes!

Once the shower is done, I dress in my pyjamas and comb out my wet hair.

“Tho art lovely as thee brushes thy hair.” A mysterious voice says.

“Who the heck is that?” I ask, and almost shriek as a younger looking Shakespeare walks into the room.

“I am s’rry to disturb thee, I appeareth to beest dreaming of angels.” He says, eyes wide, “O wast in mine own gardens, th're wast a flasheth of blue. and anon I knoweth I has't kicked the bucket and hath met the most quite quaint goddess”

To my surprise he kneels in a dramatic fashion. “ I don’t knoweth thy tongue but I. knoweth I am in loveth. Beest mineth, marryeth me!” He declares.

“... annnnndddddyyyyyyy!” I shout.

He comes running. “What’s the-oh. Huh.”

“Huh?? I’ve got flipping Shakespeare proposing to me! What did you do!?” I exclaim.

“The time machine worked!” He declares.

Shakespeare looks confused. “What’s going on, mine own loveth?” He asks.

I bring up a Shakespeare translator on my phone.

“Thee has't been hath sent h're by a timeth machine?” I tell him.

He blinks in surprise, than smiles charmingly, “Nay matt'r, as longeth as I can kisseth thee, 'twill all beest w'rth t” he winks.

Andy chokes on a laugh.

“Shakespeare’s got the hots for you!” He giggles.

I type into the translator.

“That’s nice to sayeth, but i’m not int'rest'd” I tell him.

He just shakes his head.

“But I loveth thee! what is thy nameth so I can carryeth t in mine own heart?” He declares.

“My name is Juliet.”

He takes a breath... “the lady is the sun...”

For some unknown reason, I blush.

There followed months of courtship. He followed me everywhere I went, and made up poems which he told me with love shining in his eyes.

It was weird at first, but I got used to him plucking me a rose and saying that famous line, “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”

I got used to those eyes smiling at me, like I was an angel he couldn’t keep away from.

Hey, I had been single for some time, and William wasn’t too bad looking...

But one day Andy cornered me.

“He needs to go home, Juliet. He can’t stay here.”

I was smiling at a lily. “Whatever do you mean? He is happy here... with me.”

“He will die if he stays here. He needs to go back to his own timeline.”

He looks pale. “I’d give him a week, at most.”

“What? That makes no sense...” I said, dropping the lily at my feet.

“Listen. If he dies here, he will wake up in his timeline, and you will be a fantasy, a dream in his head.”

“No...”

“He needs to go now, if he wants to remember you.”

I found Shakespeare tending to his roses.

“If 't be true thee stayeth, mine own loveth, thee shall f'rget me” I told him, fighting tears.

He embraced me. “How couldst i f'rget such a heavenly visage”

So he stayed, no matter how much I tried to make him leave.

He got ill, fast.

“I am unwell mine own ladybird. I shall square t f'r thee”

I kissed him as he shut his eyes for good.

“I can’t live without him.” I said as he vanished in a blue flash.

Andy tried to stop me, but I got a knife from the kitchen, and held it in shaking hands.

“Goodbye, Andy.” I whispered.