Rhiannon
“A real-life Mark Corrigan”
That was all his tinder bio said, and pretty much all I needed to think he’d be an alright guy to go for a pint with.
That was in spring, 2015. I was busy wrapping up my second year of uni in Cardiff so it took until June (neither of us can remember the specific date) before I got settled back into Leeds to meet for a drink.
I was uncharacteristically nervous about meeting him, I’m not sure why, I’m not usually shy - even on dates. I remember being stood at the top of the road where The White Swan is knowing that he was sat in there, waiting for me. I remember thinking “I could just not go?” but managed to talk myself out of my nerves and walked in...
It was only a brief pint as I was off to work that evening so as we left the pub, Fred insisted he walked me to the bus station to prolong the date for as long as possible. Just as my bus arrived, he snogged me, right there in front of everyone in the pissy bus station. When I got to work my friends asked me how the date went and all I remember saying was, “HE JUST WENT AND BLOODY SNOGGED ME”. I think it was the snog that sealed the deal. I respected how ballsy it was and as I got to know him more, I learnt how madly out of character it was for him to just go for it like that.
We met up the next day at Pieminister (yes, 2 dates in 2 days) and we’ve been together ever since.
We moved into our house a year later when I moved back to Leeds, rescued our enormous black cat Earl 6 months after that, and have filled the rest of our time since then shouting at the football, (although I’ve not fully adopted his beloved Nottingham Forest) BBQing, going to gigs, still eating pies, still drinking pints.
From the outside looking in, we’re pretty much opposites: I’m loud, obnoxious, and brash whereas he’s calm and collected, quiet and effortlessly cool, but we just clicked from the moment we met. He is the easiest person in the world to love and I’m forever grateful that I didn’t back out last minute on our first date and even more pleased that Fred had the guts to go for that first snog that had me hooked.
Fred
When I was thinking about what words to write that would sum up how I met Rhiannon in a genuine, funny, readable way I realised this would not be an easy task for me. Not because there is not much to talk about (there is), or that there isn’t genuine emotion (there's a shit load). It was mainly because I haven’t had to write more than a few bullet points since I was at school.
So, as is customary, I asked Rhiannon to help. She said I should just write it in a way I’m used to. So that’s what I’ve done. Somewhat depressingly, it appears all I’m really capable of is writing a short email and attaching a chart I made in excel:
Please see the attached chart showing love progression over time. If anyone has any queries or would like me to talk through, let me know.
Kind regards,
Fred
