Screened Portrait (Justin)

Seven years ago today, I went on a date with a young PhD student. He had black hair, grey eyes and a voice like smoke — I thought he was divine. We had lunch in the sun at a little place on the café strip in Leederville, Perth. Not that we ate anything … we were both too nervous, a state that lasted for the whole nine weeks and two days that we dated.

It wasn’t very long … you see, the PhD student was waiting for his final marks and planned to get a job on the other side of the country. And he didn’t want to take me as his girlfriend.

Instead, he wanted to take me as his wife.

We married six months to the day after that first, awkward date.

Were we crazy? Yes. Did we know what we were doing? Yes. I knew Justin was “the one” before he even asked me on that first date. And here we are all these years later.

You’ll be pleased to hear we’re not nervous around each other any more!

I'm not sure the above portrait is the best illustration for this romantic story. Justin looks less like a dream first date and more like a character from the sci-fi series V — the one where alien lizards disguise themselves as humans and take over the world!