Every lesbian love story is beautiful, but ours is my favourite.
It wasn’t too long after meeting Natalie, that I gifted her a frame engraved with those words. I had no doubt in my mind that she was the one, and every time we’d meet, we were sure to let each other know how serious we were about one another.
You see, it was love at first sight. A term that I accept is probably hard to understand unless you’ve experienced it yourself. I remember rolling my eyes at the thought. How could you possibly love somebody you don’t even know? Queue Natalie…
…and the start of our romantic lesbian love story…
Let’s start at the beginning. The night I lay scrolling mindlessly through lesbian dating app profiles.
It had been a tough six months. The worst of my life, in fact. The loss of my beloved Grandmother and the breakdown of a toxic relationship had stripped me of the person I once knew.
Little did I know at the time, it was like a snake shedding its skin. I had to encounter loss and suffering in order to grow.
One New Message: You’re Beautiful.
That was it — just two simple words from the mysterious girl with lilac hair and piercings. I pondered way longer than is probably acceptable at that photo while figuring out what to reply to such a generic message.
Resisting the urge to respond right away, I clicked through to read her full profile. That’s odd, I thought. Our personal write-ups – you know that section where you have to write a bit about yourself – they were almost identical.
I can’t remember exactly what I replied, but it was probably something embarrassing along the lines of ‘that’s rich coming from you‘. God, I thought I was so smooth.
I’m pretty sure we saved our first conversations from the dating app somewhere. We’ll have to dig them out to give you all a good laugh.
Anyway, I digress, but that’s how we first found each other.
a
“HER is one of the world’s biggest dating apps for LGBTQ+ women and queer folks.
Created for queer people by queer people, HER is a safe and inclusive space where you can connect with queer women, find LGBTQ+ events near you, catch up on all the latest news and content, and maybe even find your person.
Download the app today to join millions of LGBTQ+ women“
a
For the first time in what felt like a long time, I was genuinely excited to be speaking to this girl. She was funny, beautiful, and seemed pretty interested in me as well.
The conversation flowed so naturally that I hadn’t even considered the bombshell that was to follow. “I can’t believe you live so far away.”
Not a Fairy Tale Lesbian Love Story After All…
… “Where are you from?” I replied. Surely she couldn’t live that far away. “The Isle of Man.”
As it turned out, Natalie lived on a tiny island in the middle of the Irish sea. It would mean taking a flight from London to get there.
That’s OK, I thought. I barely even know this girl. It will be easy not to get attached.
Except it wasn’t easy. There was just something about her. And she felt the same. In any case, the app matched us despite the distance between us. Maybe this was meant to be?
After that, we spoke almost every day. Long-winded messages about everything from work to family and life in general.
We both tried to avoid raising the subject of meeting one another as we didn’t want there to be any pressure. But there was no doubt it was the elephant in our virtual room.
It had been around 4 or 5 weeks since we’d first started talking when Natalie announced she’d be coming to England. She was to be in Liverpool for work and asked if I’d drive up to meet her.
It would mean a 4-hour drive up from London. Not to mention a 4-hour drive back should things not work out. However, I didn’t hesitate to say yes.
Either way, I had to know if the feelings I felt were real. Or had I fallen for somebody who I’d concocted in my imagination?
It just so happened, the weekend we were due to meet coincided with Valentines Day. Was it fate that we would meet on the 14th of February? Or were we tempting fate?
There were so many questions and uncertainties. But one thing was for sure. I couldn’t wait to finally meet her in person.
Soon enough, the day arrived. And it wasn’t long into my journey that I ran into my first traffic jam of the day.
This traffic jam was one of many. What should have been no longer than a 4-hour journey, ended up taking me almost 8-hours.
Naturally, Natalie thought she had been stood up. Whereas I was questioning whether the universe was trying to tell me something!
When I finally did arrive, our first encounter was, how can I put this, awkward.
I got lost and Natalie had to drive out to meet me. So our first exchange was an awkward wave as I followed her back to where she was staying.
Feeling flustered and clammy, I was feeling far from attractive by this point. But I was here now, and I just had to roll with it.
We both got out of our cars and approached one another for the very first time. It has to be said; it was probably the most intense moment of my life.
I was nervous and weak at the knees, yet at the same time, I felt calm. It was like something clicked into place. I believe that something inside me knew that I’d found ‘home’.
It’s safe to say there was no reason for me to return to London that night. I ended up staying the entire weekend, and the mysterious girl with lilac hair and piercings was the most enchanting person I’d ever met.
We barely slept all weekend. We drank, listened to music, and poured our hearts out about anything and everything. It was perfect.
A Long Distance Lesbian Relationship
Of course, our bubble eventually had to be burst. Natalie had to fly back to the Isle of Man, and I had to return to my job in London.
Would we see each other again? Could we make a long-distance lesbian relationship work?
Again, we avoided putting any pressure on one another to commit to anything. But my heart broke harder than I care to admit as I left the apartment we shared that weekend.
I even sprayed the aftershave I wore on Natalie’s pillow, in the hope she’d remember me for just that little bit longer.
That night, we spoke for hours on the phone. We’d only just left each other, but we missed one another like crazy. By the end of the phone call, we’d made a plan that I would fly to the Isle of Man the very next weekend.
Natalie flat-shared, so it meant meeting her friends, but we both knew this wasn’t just a fling. People say it’s typical of lesbians to move quickly in relationships and perhaps that’s true. But for us, we knew what we had was the real deal.
After another perfect weekend on the Isle of Man, we had sealed the deal. I left as Natalie’s girlfriend, and from that day on, we didn’t go one weekend without seeing each other.
Natalie would fly to me in London, or vice versa. It wasn’t easy, but we both put all of our efforts into making it work.
Our relationship continued to flourish, fuelled by adventurous dates, shared morals & outlooks on life, and most importantly, abundant love & trust. We were the lesbian couple goals that I’d always dreamt about.
After six months, we decided it was time to move in with one another. A dream to travel was one we both shared. So the idea was for Natalie to move to London, so we could both start saving for our trip.
In many ways, we were ‘spoilt’ in London. We both had good jobs with a healthy income, great friends, a lovely home, and we were comfortable.
But comfortable is a dangerous place to be, so after too many excuses and even more doubts, we booked the one-way flight that would change our lives forever.
Lesbian Travel Couple
Of course, our lesbian love story doesn’t end there. Our travel story began on the 2nd of October 2017. We quit our jobs, sold most of our belongings, and with only our backpacks boarded that flight from London to Bangkok.
At that point, we were oblivious to the roller-coaster adventure that lay ahead of us. We had plans to travel for a year or so, or until our money ran out. Yet here we are, living the life we always dreamed about. All because we took a risk.
So I guess the moral of our lesbian love story is this: Take that risk, board that flight. Chase that boy or girl. What’s the worst that could happen?
As for the rest of our lesbian love story… It’s just getting started.
Thank you for reading! We hope you enjoyed reading about our lesbian love story.
If you have any questions for us whether it be about travel or anything else, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
You can reach out to us in the comment section below or through our contact us page.
If you want to be kept updated on what we’re up to and have access to exclusive content, subscribe to our newsletter. And don’t forget to follow us on Instagram where we share further travel & lifestyle content.
All our love,
Charlotte & Natalie x