How long have you been carrying this story

around? So this is a bit of a story, too.

I first... had like the snippet of an idea when I was in college.

It was either my freshman or sophomore year and I'd just written a paper on capital punishment.

I think it was a composition course.

Like I mentioned, I studied business, but all my elective courses were writing classes.

So I was taking a creative writing class and my professor asked us to write a short story with no prompt.

You can feel it when

But, yes, Theo James.

But, i think i mean between i was just thinking of a lot of it is i've always been a voracious reader always been super like connected to books unable to put them down like just breathing them in and i love seeing the types of characters that really make readers tick and i think like also part of that that i feel really lucky about is how much into the bookstagram book talk community i am so like i was reviewing books like before I published mine I met so many amazing readers and through being in community with people you really see like the types of characters that resonate with people and I wanted to write the kind of book that I would want to read and in turn like the people around me who share similar tastes would want to read and I think so it was a combination of like I would say I'm, like, pretty scientific in a way when I write.

Like, there's different parts of it.

But I just went through so many books trying to figure out what made me really root for a romance, what made me really root for a character.

Like, is there, like, this, like, specific thing? Yeah.

So I can't, like, point to, like, one aha moment, but I always knew I wanted it to be, like, enemies to lovers vibes.

I always knew I wanted it to be, like, the complete opposite.

spoiler section.