By the end of the weekend I was smitten (Picture: Lucy Pearson)
They say that opposites attract, and it’s certainly true with me and my boyfriend.
We’d both been living in Sydney for over half a decade, and met one blue-skied summer’s afternoon, almost two years ago, when I was walking home from a bar in Bondi.
I spotted him as he was about to walk past me on the street, and I fancied him straight away.
He had a head of thick, dark hair, his skin was olive-brown, and ribbons of skin were visible under his forearms that were swathed in tattoos.
But it was his brightly coloured shirt – covered in books – that caught my eye. As a fervent, obsessive reader, and bolstered by the Dutch courage of several birthday proseccos – I caught his eye and told him that I liked his shirt.
He was called Nico, and was from Italy, and we quickly swapped numbers.
As I watched him walk away from me, it was as though he had been placed in Bondi just for me.
We started texting a couple of hours later, but I was wary when Nico told me he was five years younger than me. And, while I hadn’t dated an Italian before, I was well aware that some of them were known for having a bit of a lothario reputation.
It was as though he had been placed in Bondi just for me (Picture: Lucy Pearson)
But when he asked me on a date the following weekend, I figured I had nothing to lose, and so I happily agreed.
I was pleasantly surprised on the Sunday morning, when he took me out for coffee. It soon turned into a long and boozy lunch, during which we bonded over our mutual love of prosecco, pizza, and our lives as expats in Australia.
But our common interests ended there.
Whereas I’d flown back to see my family twice a year, Nico hadn’t been back to Italy since leaving six years prior.
And while I have very much embraced the athleisure wear that Bondi is known for – and am rarely seen in anything except the same pair of flip flops and fading yoga pants – Nico has a passion for fashion, a wardrobe full of vintage shirts, and wouldn’t be caught dead in workout gear outside the gym.
On top of that, any hope I might have had of him being into reading quickly evaporated when he told me he hadn’t finished a book since school.
But I loved his easy charm, his warm demeanour, and the crinkles around his eyes when he smiled, and by the end of the weekend I was smitten. If anything, rather than it being a pain point, we found our lack of any real mutual interests amusing, and he felt like a breath of fresh air.
I arrived home to a bunch of flowers, thirty blown-up balloons and a bottle of prosecco (Picture: Lucy Pearson)
When I went away the following weekend with my best friend Ella, the beach town we flew to for a friend’s 30th birthday was ravaged by floods.
Our flight home was cancelled; the wi-fi was down, and it was proving near-on impossible to leave Byron’s water-locked streets.
And though by this time I’d only been on two dates with Nico, he checked in on me daily to see if there was anything he could do, and to make sure we were both OK.
He was a sharp contrast to the tapestry of the many nonplussed men any woman over 30 will have dated. I was bewitched by his forthrightness, compassionate and considerate side, which are some of the things I now love the most about him.
Eventually – after four days of floods and hours spent on hold to try and secure a flight back to Sydney – we were finally able to fly home.
I arrived home to a bunch of flowers, 30 blown-up balloons and a bottle of prosecco.
An extravagant gesture, sure, but it felt new, and longed-for – I knew then that he was someone I didn’t want to let go of.
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Platform is the home of Metro.co.uk’s first-person and opinion pieces, devoted to giving a platform to underheard and underrepresented voices in the media.
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Two months after meeting, he moved in with me, and while our relationship has not been without its problems, we’re now coming up to our two-year anniversary, and are happier than ever.
As far as joint interests and commonalities go, we’re different in every way.
And while we bicker over everything from who has the better washing up method to what constitutes a good Sunday-night film, my love for him deepens with each passing day.
He is my biggest champion and cheerleader, my best friend, and despite our differences, he gives me both everything I wanted and the things I never knew I needed from a relationship.
I’ve never met a kinder man, nor a more romantic one, and there’s no one who makes me laugh as much as Nico.
Our relationship has shown me the importance of being open to the unexpected, and of surrounding yourself with people who will challenge and stimulate you.
While on paper we shouldn’t work, I believe that fate brought us together, and sometimes, in the arms of this man, everything else falls away, except for him.
So, How Did It Go?
So, How Did It Go? is a weekly Metro.co.uk series that will make you cringe with second-hand embarrassment or ooze with jealousy as people share their worst and best date stories.
Want to spill the beans about your own awkward encounter or love story? Contact [email protected]
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I spotted him as he was about to walk past me on the street, and I fancied him straight away.