How it all began.....

In the winter of 1995, my first marriage was long over. I had been working fulltime and basically lived the life of a single mum even though my husband resided in my unit. I started to bank money in an account he had no idea of, I needed for the day that I knew I had the strength to leave and make the break. One day I woke up and realised that today was the day. Monday the 3rd of July, I asked him to leave our loveless marriage, it had been probably 6 months since we were last intimate and I simply had no feeling for the man that had put me through about 5 years of hell. On the Tuesday I packed all his stuff, on Thursday I filed for Divorce (we had separated 14mths before but stupidly I had gone back, it wasn't the right time and I didn't have the strength or courage to face the world on my own.) On Saturday, my night in shining armour asked me out and so my new life began.

The weeks leading up to the 8th July had been filled with long looks as I stood in line at the foodcourt Maccas waiting to order my breakfast. Every morning I would catch the train, literally straight from the shower and order my plain english muffin and my small OJ. He would stand behind the production bin, make eye contact and never look away. There was a connection and it was then that I believed in love at first sight. Sometimes it was embarrassing, his crew would yell out for all to hear, "Paul, she is here again, are we allowed to serve her or will you?" Which he never did, he just stood there wrapping muffins and staring! It was hilarious.

Finally I caught him off guard, one morning, I was there earlier than normal, we had a staff meeting and I went down for breakfast. He served me, low and behold, the man in the managers uniform, had a voice! I could tell he was nervous, I was a hairdresser, hell I could talk underwater and noone ever bothered me. Anyway, I had to wait for my muffin and he asked if I had plans for the night. I shrugged and said that if I could get this lot (meaning my fellow workers around me) motivated, we would be going out. I mean remember, afterall, I had something to celebrate, my new life! Once I said that he gave me my muffin and said have a nice day. WTF????

Fast forward to lunchtime, I normally got Japanese, it was the healthiest thing in that food court, I had been going to gym at least 4 times a week and had a personal trainer there. I weighed 52 kilos and was the fittest I had ever been in my life. I was only 21 and had a beautiful 2 year old boy and I was proud of the fact that I had no obvious signs of ever having had a baby! (Different story now, let me tell you! ROFL!) I decided that I simply had to have a burger from McD's so really took him off guard when I lined up again with the lunch rush.

I sat at a table not far from there and ate with another hairdresser, she left and I still had about 10 mins to go, so waved down the security guard that I had become friends with and chatted to him for a little while, I didn't realise at the time that Paul was on his way over to where I was but quickly made a U turn before he got there! With about 2 mins left, I farewelled the other guy and was just getting my stuff together when he came over.

Now out of all the tables in the food court that he could have wiped over, he came to mine and started wiping it, still not saying anything! I just turned around and said, "No rest for the wicked hey?" to which he replied with, "Can I ask you a question?"
Of course you can, well what would you say if I asked you out? Ummm yeah. Oh cool, I will come and see you as soon as I finish work, around 1:30 and we can work something out. Then he was gone! LOL!

He knew where I worked, I had often seen hem peering in but never coming inside. So when I got back up to work, I suddenly felt all jittery, fixed my hair and makeup, much to the girls amusement, afterall I pretty much saw him every morning straight out of the shower!

1:30 came and went, I was working till 4 and I just figured he had changed his mind. I felt a little disheartened but thought Oh well. About 2:30 he came racing in saying he got stuck at work and he was sorry, he was madly peering at my chest, which I thought was odd but later found out he didn't even know my name and was trying to see my name badge! haha! We made plans for the night and he was going to pick me up at 7.

About 20 mins later, I received a beautiful long stemmed rose in an amazing box, it was beautifully presented and wasn't just your average long stemmed rose in a cylinder, if you know what I mean? Anyway, the card said..... "Thank you, you have made my day. xx"


Little did I know that 10 years later, on my wedding day during my speech, I would say "Thank you, you have made my life".





Oh and excuse the quality, they were the only photos on my computer and by the way, I was 27 weeks pregnant with Lachlan.