Love on the rebound

Love on the rebound isn’t supposed to last, but DD and I just celebrated our sixth anniversary this week.

When we met, he was only a few weeks out of a nasty relationship break-up and my marriage had ended just six months beforehand, but somehow we made it through.

And it often feels like the honeymoon period hasn’t ended … probably because we don’t live together!

The anniversary of our first meeting is October 12. After connecting on RSVP, we agreed to have a drink at a suburban pub halfway between our houses. He joked that I’d recognise him by his GHB T-shirt and the carving knife he was carrying. I think it’s a mark of our shared sense of humour that I thought it was hilarious rather than scary. Oh, and it wasn’t a totally random remark – we’d been discussing the dangers of meeting strangers in bars.

A few weeks later, I wrote a slightly misleading post about how I was preparing to go on my first RSVP date, then followed it with another one about a week later that confessed:

Remember me fretting about going on my first RSVP date and wondering whether I should mention the blog?

Well, my sister was a little perturbed when she read that post. She messaged me saying: “Is that an old blog?”

Because she knew I’d already been on the first date …

Erm, I may have massaged the truth slightly.

I am a former gossip mag editor after all …

You see, it was my second date. And that blog post was actually a bit of a recap of what happened on the first.

So it was kinda weird getting everyone’s advice on what not to do when I’d already done it.

People said things like: “For god’s sake don’t mention the blog, not yet. And don’t talk about your ex. I reckon it’s ok to indicate you have children (in passing don’t bang on about them) frankly children would be less scary to a bloke than the blog I think.”

And: “Well this is exciting news! Don’t mention the blog. And just remember… he’s probably just as nervous. You relax and let him impress you. Good luck x”

And: “Yep, agreed, don’t mention the blog!”

And: “John says he wouldn’t mention the blog, although if you do…and he responds with a creepy “I know”…run!”

Erm, too late guys – I mentioned the blog.

In fact, I told him I was “kinda infamous.”

I know, I know. But it’s true. I’ve had a rather colourful few years.

Despite my numerous verbal transgressions over two ciders, he asked about another date as we parted.

I replied: “I think you should Google me first.”

Those words actually passed my lips.

Then I got in the car and thought Why the bloody hell did I say that?

I should have waited until the second date (at least) to lay my cards on the table. But it was done. It couldn’t be undone.

He texted later that night to say he was OK with my infamy. Well, he wrote something vaguely along those lines.

I can’t scroll back and check his exact words because there have been around three million texts between us since.

Our first proper date didn’t happen until a few weeks after those initial ciders because life got in the way. He had a 10-day business trip to the US, I got a Mirena inserted to try and fix my dodgy lady plumbing, Optus had to erect a few more towers to handle our rapid-fire, constant texting …

On October 28, 2014, DD asked me to take down my RSVP profile, and the rest, as they say, is history.

We had an anniversary lunch yesterday at our favourite Malaysian restaurant and agreed we were very lucky to have found each other in this crazy world.

Actually, I’ve massaged the truth again. We only remembered it was our anniversary halfway through lunch.

Anyways … Happy anniversary to us!

Song of the day: Simple Minds “Glittering Prize”