On the morning of Thursday, 19th April 2018, I was walking down Bellevue Road on my way to work from my little Bellevue Hill Bachelorette Pad, when I gave my dear friend, Leah Cuttle, a call for a long overdue catch up. During our conversation, it was raised that I had recently become single and Leah got all excited all of a sudden. She said she was heading out but asked if we could talk again that night at around 6:00pm. She couldn’t wait. At 5:00pm, she called me and said she had to confess something. She had met a certain gentleman while on a work holiday with her husband in Uluru and had maybe, potentially, sort of, told him that she had a friend who would be perfect for him… me. She asked if it would be ok to give him my number, but would only do so on one condition… We weren’t allowed to know anything about each other beforehand, except for our first names. I agreed to the terms. 

That night I received a missed call from an unknown number. Completely forgetting about my conversation just hours earlier, I returned the call, unaware of who would answer… It was Tomas. He immediately came across as friendly, charming, articulate, sweet and (please don’t tell him I said this one)… funny. We talked about Leah and briefly chatted about our days, before agreeing to meet for lunch at Blackbird Café, Darling Harbour, on Saturday at 1:00pm. 

After a little embarrassing moment of catching the World’s shortest UBER ride to the venue (please don’t ask questions), I arrived at the venue. I was a little nervous and had a brief chat with Leah on the phone, before arriving at the restaurant. Tom had mentioned that he had booked a table under his name to avoid any awkward situations, so I asked the waiter for his table and was directed to an empty table. As I sat there, I noted a single gentleman sitting by himself across the balcony and wondered if he perhaps was the allusive ‘Tomas’. Just in case, I sent a text message to Tom (partly to keep me looking busy whilst I sat there like a loner) to let him know that I as a little early but sitting at a table in a red, off-the-shoulder top (that I had bought specially for the occasion). Within seconds of sending the message, I noticed a shadow looming over my phone screen and heard a voice say “I think you’re sitting at the wrong table” in a cheeky voice. I looked up and it was the single, ash coloured haired, man I had seen earlier. 

After relocating to his table, we joked about the seating malfunction and learnt all about each other. After pasta, salmon, wine and a lot of laughs, he lured me to the next venue (Cargo Bar, Darling Harbour) with talk of an exciting story involving goat wrangling (clearly Leah had let spill of my love of all things country). After copious glasses of wine (and sneaky messages and photo to Leah), we realised it was 10:00pm (9 hours since we had met) and it was time to leave. He walked me up the hill to Town Hall Train Station (holding me close to avoid my drunken ass walking into oncoming traffic) and guided me to my train platform (number 5). It’s all a little bit of blur to me from here, but I do recall the train pulling in and, just as I was about to say goodbye, he pulled me close and stole a sneaky kiss. I was surprised, stunned and drunk, but I knew I was glad he did. We said goodbye and I walked toward the opening train doors but couldn’t help but to run back for one last kiss before running to the train as the doors were closing. 

I was absolutely on cloud 9 the whole way home (and may have been cursing the amount of alcohol I had consumed, considering I as heading to a wine festival the next day), and within weeks, I knew we were onto something pretty special. Within 3 months of our first date, we were moving in together and creating a home and a future.

Stay tuned for the next instalment… “The Proposal”

Clöe x