Actually Romantic

My boyfriend and I met last year at work while I was in the middle of my divorce and not looking for a relationship. I’d volunteered to join the emergency response team he leads because I wanted to support the communities we work in, and I remember immediately noticing how easily he got my sense of humour, and also thinking he was really cute, but not thinking much more of it at the time. A couple of months later, we were both nominated as future leaders at work as part of an event. I took a chance and started talking to him, remembering what our first conversation was like, but still not sure if he was single, and then that same weekend he appeared on my Hinge profile. We matched later that night, and we’ve spoken every day since.

Part of the reason my marriage ended was because, although there had once been love there, we weren’t compatible. My ex-husband once told me he didn’t think he could give me the love I deserved, and at the time I found that incredibly hard to understand. Being with my boyfriend has completely changed my understanding of what love should feel like. I don’t have to ask to feel loved, safe or seen, he just naturally makes me feel that way. He understands me, makes an effort to know me deeply, and also simply loves me for who I am.

Over the past year, we’ve gone from strength to strength, and even my cat absolutely adores him. Friends and family keep telling me that I seem happier, more confident and more myself than they’d ever seen me, and I genuinely think that’s because we bring out the best in each other.

I tried to tell myself for years that I wasn’t a romantic but I really do believe in love and my boyfriend and helped me to believe in forever again.