Nine feels fine

Adriano and I met 9 years ago today.

It was my friend AM's birthday celebration night, so a group of us went out in Brighton for a (very garlic-y!) pizza. We then went to the pub. Two girls in our group knew that their friend Adrian also happened to be in Brighton that night, so they contacted him and he made his way to the pub too.

When he arrived, we were all deep in conversation. To announce his presence, he pretended to be a barman and said "Are these glasses dead?" As I'd never clapped eyes on him before, I totally fell for it and helpfully passed him the glasses. Then the girls who knew him looked up and said "Oh hi Adrian!" and I felt like a complete wally.

I remember chatting to him and instantly loved his cheeky happy face. He was friendly and easy to be with. The previous month he had started work as a runner and was loving it. We talked about the music we liked and found a common admiration for Beth Orton.

When the time came for us to move on to a club, I found I didn't want to stop talking with him, and I encouraged him (strongly!) to come with us. He decided to come along, and as I remember it we danced with the rest of the group at times but we only really spoke to each other for the rest of the evening.

I was fed up with going out with blokes where we had fun for a while and then it all died a death, so I had decided I would rather be on my own than have all that again. But still it's highly embarrassing to remember that I (somewhat drunkenly) wasted no time in grilling him about his values and his attitude to relationships. All he wanted, he tells me now, was "a snog and phone number" but he was wise enough not to tell me that! Whatever, we had fun chatting and dancing, and flirting. At one point he grabbed my hand while we were dancing, and I remember thinking "I'm not imagining it! He likes me!"

When the club closed at 2am, I was drunk (and therefore brave) enough to suggest that we went for a walk on the beach. He accepted, and we sat talking for hours. I've not got much patience for smalltalk, and I remember him being very open about all sorts of things. The conversation flowed easily as I remember it. He told me later that he was freezing cold the whole time but wasn't about to admit it as I seemed fine. It's so strange that I wasn't too, as it was February by the sea and I'm usually the first to feel the cold.

Eventually we went our separate ways but not before swapping numbers and having a really lovely goodbye kiss. I found it so endearing that he said a few times "you will call won't you?" - so refreshing after all the stupid game-playing.

And the rest is history.

That's not to say we haven't had HUGE ups and downs, and times apart, and crisis points all over the place. But somehow we've made it through, and I still love him, and like him, and want him to be the most important one I share my life with. Finding that 9 years has passed since the day we met is an incredible thing to me.

Happy Anniversary, Adrian.