A Florida Of Difference
The tale of a holiday romance gone right.
I often tell people that Tom and I met in Florida. We didn’t, but we might as well have done. Florida was where we had our first meaningful conversations, where I got to know him, and where I discovered that my first impression of him could not have been more inaccurate. It was a trip I almost didn’t go on, and had I not, I am fairly certain we would not be together now.
Tom and I had actually met three times before, but for various reasons, I had paid him precisely zero attention. If, on any of those occasions, someone had told me that we would eventually end up together, I would have laughed in their face. We were such wildly different people-or so I thought-that the prospect of romance seemed beyond farfetched. Now, more than five years into our relationship, I am the first to admit that I was completely wrong about him.
We met through my best friend, Jodie. Just one of the many, many things I have to thank her for. Jodie and I were at school together; she and Tom were work colleagues who became good friends. The first time we crossed paths was during a night out for Jodie’s birthday back in March of 2014. She hadn’t expected him to show up. He was going through a rough patch and had many of what Jodie loosely termed “issues.” But show up he did, and what a pair we made. He was…
