As we locked eyes in arrivals, I felt a spark of electricity between us.
I was so excited, after flying over 9,000 miles from Brisbane to Toronto, for our first date.
Until now, Jamie and I had only spoken online. And after two months of talking through a screen, he was finally in front of me.
Jamie was the same tall, dark, and handsome Clark Kent doppelgänger I’d known online, with a mischievous smile softening his otherwise solemn expression.
From our very first hug, I felt safe and comfortable with him. It was as if I’d known him all my life.
It all started in November 2018. At the time, my online business was booming and I decided to go nomadic, travel, and have fun being single. My first stop? Australia!
A few weeks before I left for Australia from my home country Bulgaria, I got tagged in a random Facebook post by one of my customers.
The thread was all about MBTI personality types and my customer was asking me what’s the most compatible type for her to date.
In the comments, Jamie asked what types were most suitable for him and I happened to be one of these types. That same day, he added me as a Facebook friend.
On first impressions, I thought he was cute and my type, but I didn’t think much of it because I enjoyed being single.
Plus he was in Canada, about to go to London and then Bali, and I was ready to go to Australia and then keep travelling.
But then Jamie messaged me, and very quickly I realised we had chemistry.
‘Where in the world are you in right now? Also hai,’ his first message said, which led to a four-hour conversation about how I grew up in Bulgaria and him in Canada.
Soon we started chatting regularly on Facebook, then had video calls. At first, it was platonic, we had a shared interest in travel and business, but then it became romantic.
I found him smart, thoughtful, and emotionally mature – plus he was also an entrepreneur, and we understood each other.
Before meeting Jamie I’d been single for eight months. I’d tried online dating and it was all very disappointing.
I was tired of conventional dating advice – which all it did was create surface-level connections that never went serious – and all the rules such as: ‘Don’t text all day, play hard to get,’ and ‘Don’t show you like them too soon,’ felt like icky game-play to me.
With Jamie, it was different from the very first moment. We talked all day every day via Messenger.
Neither of us was playing hard to get or holding back on compliments. He would stay in constant communication, even when he was busy.
We spent the days wrapped in laughter and playful banter, and we were falling for each other.
At this point, I felt more deeply understood than ever before, making me wonder at times if it was too good to be true.
On Christmas Eve 2018, Jamie booked a flight to Australia to meet me in person on January 23.
But five days before he was set to fly, he got an unfortunate call that his aunt passed away, so had to forfeit his flight to Australia.
He was so heartbroken and I remember him saying: ‘I wish you could be here.’
So, I jokingly threw about the idea of flying to Canada, and he said: ‘You would fly to Canada for me? I can’t believe you would do that for me. I would love that so much.’
I booked a 22-hour-long one-way journey to arrive in Canada, right after the funeral.
I only told one friend that I was going. I wanted to spare myself the embarrassment in case it ended up being a total disaster.
On the flight, I remember feeling so nervous, worrying something would go wrong.
So, of course, on arrival in Canada, I got grilled at the border for an hour and they almost didn’t let me through.
‘What do you mean you’re coming to see a man you’ve never met?’ an officer said.
My palms were sweating so much. ‘OK, OK, he’s my boyfriend we met online,’ I blurted out. It was the first time I’d ever called him my boyfriend – not that we’d had that talk at all. The officer winked at me and let me through.
That was terrifying but, finally, I was able to meet Jamie for the first time. It was so magical – even better than we imagined.
When we hugged, holding each other for what it felt like forever, I had a sense of relief knowing it was all real and that it wasn’t too good to be true.
He was exactly what I imagined him to be – warm, funny, and a true gentleman.
After our first night together he asked me to be his girlfriend and I ended up meeting his family a few days after that.
We spent a few days in Toronto together then I went to the US for work and Jamie decided to come with me.
My role as CEO of a social media marketing firm, Viral Marketing Stars, gives me the freedom to work from anywhere in the world.
Luckily, Jamie’s work is flexible too, so we set off a few days later with one-way tickets.
We went to conferences in Las Vegas, Arizona, Colombia and we kind of merged our lives.
Our relationship was effortless on all levels. We just fit very well together and knew from day one we wanted to be together for the long haul.
Five years later, we’ve not been apart for longer than 24 hours.
And on January 21, 2022, we got engaged.
Jamie secretly met with a jeweller to create a custom ring for me and had this huge proposal plan, but due to the lockdowns at the time, he proposed to me at home.
We are proof that love isn’t always logical. Sometimes you have to take crazy risks, break some rules and ignore the noise of what everyone else is doing to get what you want.
Be authentic and go for it. My relationship with Jamie proves true love knows no bounds.
As told to Michelle Morgan Davies
Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk.
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