The Time Traveller's Tale

The first time Liam Beckett saw Clare Harper, she was a smudge of colour in a black-and-white photograph. She was laughing, a soft pearl of a smile playing on her lips, her eyes shimmering with a secret amusement that seemed to dance just out of the camera's reach. It was a fleeting glance, a moment captured in time, but it was enough to make his heart stumble.

"Who was this girl with the silky hair and the mischievous twinkle in her eye?"

He had found the photo in a dusty antique shop, tucked away between yellowed pages of forgotten letters and brittle newspaper clippings. The more he stared at her, the more real she seemed to become. And then, one night, she was standing in front of him.
How could this happen?