Come Forth, my Knight in Shining Armour
“It’s normal to miss someone when you’re alone and lonely. But missing someone when you’re busy having fun, that’s true affection”
If you’ve read my previous posts found here, you will know that my partner in crime AKA “the almost husband”, lives and works abroad. We have been doing this for just over a year now. The length of time that he is away has gradually increased, the current rotation will see us apart for a minimum of four months.
The above statement is very true for me; there are moments when I’ll be doing something and will randomly stop and think, “Damn I wish you were here for us to do this together”. I miss our time together, I miss just knowing that he’s around. The mornings when we sit outside, just the two of us, allbeit on our phones (modern day life), but it’s 
a comfortable silence that we’ve both come to enjoy, just being…
Now, most women laugh when I tell them this, they always say, “You’re so lucky, I would love it if my husband worked abroad” It’s the ideal marriage situation they say, no cleaning up, cooking up, nagging about the clothing left on the bedroom floor, fighting for the duvet during the chilly months or remembering to put the toilet seat down at 2 am on said chilly mornings!
But our partnership isn’t like most, we’ve been living and working in each other’s space for so many years. We have a sense of comfort in it actually. We enjoy it.
My article is dedicated to my knight in shining Armour. He has survived all my many interesting and colorful roads, the valleys and all the mountain 
top experiences, he’s been there.
The almost husband and I met some ten years ago… I remember the day like it was yesterday. I’m sure if I tried a little harder I could tell you what we were both wearing!
It’s a charming little story, so grab a cuppa get comfy and prepare for things to get a little soppy.
At the time we both worked in higher education.
Some great minds have walked the passages of these old institutions, the lecture venues are invisibly stained with blood, sweat and tears and the lawns littered with shattered dreams, broken hearts and the triumph of the
human spirit. So really what this all boils down to is, that sometimes the environment can be very “stuffy” and mad professor moments are a daily experience.
I had recently been seconded to a permanent position from another department. So I was that awkward person who knew no one! My boss at the time decided it would be a great idea to take me around the floor introducing me to everyone. Never dreaming that this little “introduce the new girl” would change the course of my life forever. In one of the offices we walked into, I came face to face with a man….a very good looking man!! Cool as a cucumber he introduced himself with a smile that 
literally took my breath away. And oh that smile….. To this day, it still makes my heart beat a little faster. I, on the other hand was the color of a red hot chili and I had been rendered speechless. The next part is going to sound a little like something from the movie; ‘When Harry met Sally’. But for me it was love at first sight. I would spend the next week desperately trying to find an excuse to speak to said good looking man! How on earth, I thought, was I going to control my natural skin color and not be left with a mouthful of teeth? My opportunity came one afternoon while strolling down the passage, as one does on a Friday afternoon; I suddenly heard this really loud music (unusual for our stuffy environment). On getting closer, I realized the music was coming from handsome man’s office. I stood there for a while thinking. I could casually walk in and say, “Hey there, gee I also love this band/song” or “So great to hear other people listen to music on this floor….” Nothing was coming to me, but I knew I had to use this opportunity. To this day, I have no idea how I worked up the courage, but I walked in and with a dead straight face and said, “This is an academic environment and how dare you be playing music so loud!” We both looked at each other and packed up laughing. The ice had been broken…..
Now you can imagine how painful the week-end was, all I could think about was this handsome man. Monday FINALLY came….The next week saw us spending our break times starting to get to know one another.
Now, Valentine’s Day just happened to fall on Wednesday of the following week. Not that I expected anything dramatic to happen; we had, after all, only just met. Evenings after work were spent chatting up a storm. Well, 
Wednesday rolled around, and he was MIA the entire day, I waited for him after work but he never turned up. I was disappointed, I really looked forward to our evening chats. The next morning I found him chirpy as ever in his office. Home time finally rolled in and we did our usual chatting, I remember those times as exciting, fun and butterflies were an everyday occurrence. While sitting on the lawns chatting, he presented me with a metal red rose and said, “I don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day (hence the MIA the day before) and I’m not a fan of real roses”. I was officially the happiest woman on earth at that moment. Even writing this part of the story gives me goose bumps; and we have kept that tradition to this day; we always celebrate Valentine’s Day the day after and a metal rose is always 
exchanged. This year was the first time we were apart for this little tradition. But even though he was half way round the world, with the help of our girls, he ensured that I got my metal rose and a very special surprise gift delivered to my office on the 15th of February; our Valentine’s day.
And that dear reader is how I met my real life Knight in shining Armour….
The series continues in a fortnight.
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