Marwa Houma, 34, from Croydon
Digging into my lunch at a French brasserie in Southwood, I saw a man strolling over, dressed in chef’s whites. ‘Hi there,’ he said. ‘How are you this afternoon?’
‘Good, thank you!’ I replied, distracted by his handsome face and big muscles.
‘I’m the chef here,’ he explained. ‘I hope you’re enjoying your lunch, I just wondered if you had any plans for dinner?’
Is he asking me out? I thought.
I was 27 at the time and could tell he must have been at least 10 years older than me.
But I loved his outright confidence.
‘I don’t have any plans… ’ I replied. ‘I think I’ll actually be skipping dinner this evening and going to the gym instead.’
Our conversation quickly turned to our mutual love of swimming – it turned out we used the same pool!
‘I can’t believe I haven’t seen you before,’ I said.
