This is our love story – something so pure, real and beautiful.
For a long time, both of us had given up on finding true love. Grace’s face would turn green at the word “forever”, whilst I was questioning what love really is and if I would ever know how to love again. And then this happened, literally right under our noses, and suddenly every cliche that people have been preaching to us over the years is true.
I would scoff when people say, “You haven’t met the right one yet. When you know, you know. Don’t find love, it will seek you.” And I’m like, “Who IS The One really? When is it gonna happen? Why must it be so difficult and painful?” But here we are, having found each other and finally understanding that real love does exist.
So let’s start from the top – how did we meet? We actually had a brief encounter at her old workplace in 2014 when I was interviewing her colleague. I vaguely remember being introduced to her, but that was it and I had no impression of her after, only now when I think back about it. LOL! Then we properly met on 1 January 2018 at Angeline’s housewarming/New Year party. Somehow we hit it off from there and started hanging out after.
Here are some photos of us back in 2018 LOL!!
Over the next few years, we became very close – in part due to the close proximity of our homes so it was very convenient to hang out together. Throughout these years, we have seen each other at our lowest and ugliest, been there for each other. And because we never saw each other as a love prospect, we were very honest with one another as friends.
During this time, she was in a relationship and I was well, I was in a string of relationships. And it was only this year that we finally had this window where we were both single. She was single first, then me, and we were just hanging out like we usually do, when I started to feel different around her.
I started to get shy and nervous around her! Like, I couldn’t look her in the eye because I found her so cute and couldn’t maintain the eye contact. And I was like, “OMG WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?!” And then like how we are with other female friends, we would hug each other goodbye or put our arms around each other, but suddenly I felt my heart being all fuzzy when she did that and I was like OMG OMG.
One night, we were walking to the car after a foot massage and I hooked my arm with hers. My hand then fell and she caught it and interlocked fingers with me! OMG I swear my heart skipped a beat and I felt this heart rush. I was internally screaming, “She’s holding my hand?! Does this mean she is feeling something for me too?” But just as I thought that, she started swinging my hand in true kindergarten kids fashion and dashed my hopes.
After that night, I decided to have a talk with myself. Why am I feeling like this? Am I lonely? Am I horny? Do I just want company, attention, affection? I mean, I needed to determine what I was feeling and not risk ruining our friendship. This friendship means everything to me!
Finally I was honest with myself and I realised yes, I do have feelings for her. What do I do next then? I was worried that I would mess it up and then lose a friend.
One day she was over at my place and we were just lying on the couch in the dark and I suddenly had this urge to kiss her. I don’t know why or how, but I just really, really wanted to kiss her. At some points our faces were quite close to each other but I was trying to wait for a moment where the conversation dips and I could just lean in. But no she kept making fun of me about something and I got so fed up I said, “If you make fun of me one more time, I’m gonna kiss you.“
I meant it of course, but she didn’t take it seriously. And then she wanted to go home and in my heart I was like, no no no don’t leave I haven’t kissed you yet!! She was sitting on the edge of the couch and then she started making fun of me again, so I just pulled her in and kissed her on the lips.
She kissed back and I think that was the turning point between us.
After the kiss, we threw a lot of disclaimers at each other – “Our friendship comes first, we shouldn’t rush into anything, let’s just enjoy each other’s company first, let’s not have any obligations or pressures of a relationship, blah blah blah.” But over the next few days and weeks, who are we kidding really? We saw each other every day, texted each other throughout the day and we both knew there was something special between us.
One night we had a conversation about it and SHE asked the question, in the most unromantic way, “So how? Girlfriend or not girlfriend?” And that my friends, was how we became official. I know, I know, LOL.
From there, everything just progressed really smoothly. There was nothing awkward between us and everything has been great. We communicate a lot, there is a lot of trust and I think the important word here is safety – we feel safe with each other. Safe to be ourselves, safe to be vulnerable, safe to love with all our hearts.
I’ve never felt this way before about anyone and I guess this is how meeting the right person at the right time in the right place feels – everything will fall in place nicely. We have the comfort of an old couple and also the passion of new lovers – and it feels great.
She proposed on 8 April 2021 and we are officially engaged! I know it seems too fast, too soon and too short to you, but the truth is, only Grace and I know the depth of our friendship and how well we really know each other.
We are truly happy and we are also very grateful for all the positivity, love and encouragement from you guys. I know it’s gonna sound like every cliche you’ve heard out there, but you need to believe that true love does exist and that it happens when you least expect it.
Watch Our Love Story video to hear more about how I feel about my first non-heterosexual relationship, why I’m so open about it, how my parents reacted when I told them, why she proposed, what’s next and if we want to have kids!
