Kirsty
I don't actually remember the first time I met Charlie, but I know it was around 1998. I was 16, working as a waitress in a fish & chip bar. Charlie's friend Ian is with my friend Haley (who also worked there) and so we would often end up out together in Morley or Leeds.
Fast forward a few years and we were in Aiya Napa. I was on a two week holiday and Charlie flew out for a long weekend to take advantage of the duty free income opportunities.
Charlie started working on the doors after that and looking back at the different venues over the years, it was pretty much all the places that I would go to. So we saw each other often and always had a proper good chat when we did.
We became Facebook friends when that all happened and then in 2017 Charlie began his dedicated campaign of trying to ask me out. The only problem was that I had no idea what he was doing! In 2019 I was out with my friend Liz in town, we went to Hedonist where Charlie was working. We had our usual catch up and Charlie bought us a round of drinks (I should have known then, shouldn't I!) Liz spotted straight away that there was a spark between us (plus Charlie had shared his attempts to get me on a date with Liz) but when she questioned me I just brushed it off by saying we'd known each other for years and that he was "just a friend.”
By the end of 2020 we were chatting quite a bit as my friend Rach wanted to do the National Three Peaks and I told her I knew just the man for the job. When lockdown struck again in 2021, we arranged to go for a walk along the canal/river in Leeds and then again at Stanley Ferry a few weeks later. It was after the second walk I realised that I actually really really fancied him. I always knew he was a good’un, but hadn't looked at him like ‘that’ before.
I'll forever be grateful that he didn't write it off after so many rejections from me. In the four years I (unknowingly) made him wait, I sorted out all of my ‘shit’ and when the time was right, jumped in feet first.
We had our first kiss on 6 March and I've been smitten ever since. Charlie is the daftest person I know, a total pain in the arse and the absolute love of my life.
Charlie
Kirsty was a friend of friend when we first met; 16 years old, bleach blonde hair and often smelt of fish & chips. I was more interested in the fish and chips at that time.
Kirsty often came over for a natter when I was working and was sometimes better at getting people out of bars than I was with her good debating skills. These are skills I admired!
After becoming Facebook friends, I noticed Kirsty was also ranty online and I quickly took an interest in veganism (although this isn't all she rants about).
I started to subtly ask her out, too subtly it would seem. Replies included "I'm working away in Slough", "I'm on a Tinder date in Donny" and "I'm away on holiday". This went on for four long years
Eventually we did meet up for a walk (probably because Kirsty was after a discount for leading the National Three Peaks) and a couple of weeks later she seduced/spiked me with a heavy gluten based meal.
Despite this attempted poisoning, I fell in love with Kirsty's big heart, stupid sense of humour and her "when you have more, build a bigger table not a bigger fence" philosophy.
Living with Kirsty is either a real life comedy or disaster movie, sometimes both at the same time. But we make it work because together we are greater than the sum of our individual parts.