My British RomCom Story

2020 Ruined my Mary-Kate & Ashley movie moment. I’ll explain how in a moment.

First, you need some background information. In 2012, I went on a cruise to Alaska with my family, back when cruises were still a thing. I’d never been to Alaska and being the worldly person I am that is totally knowledgeable about weather patterns, I mainly packed sundresses. To Alaska. Very stupid decision. As you can imagine, I spent most of my cruise time indoors. Which...was actually not very difficult once I stepped foot into their gym. 

At this gym was one of the most gorgeous men I had ever met. We’ll call him Henry. Henry was 6’5, British, and had the ability to wink. My three weaknesses. Naturally, I spent a lot of my time in the gym just to be around him. To paint you a better picture of just how embarrassing I was, I’d go to that gym about three times a day just to *maybe* talk to him. It got so bad, in fact, that one of the days, I even woke up at 6am for a pilates class he was teaching.

And let me be clear. I hated working out. Especially on vacation. My idea of a good workout was my daily walk from the parking lot to my local Starbucks.

Yet there I was, on the treadmill...every damn day in Alaska. Mostly because I didn’t have a single workout routine that I could even pretend to do. You know what I did know? How to turn on a treadmill and walk. 

It was clear that I was completely infatuated. I can’t explain it. Maybe it was because I’d never met a brit outside of a Mary-Kate and Ashley movie? Perhaps he was just incredibly charming? Couldn’t tell you. Anyway, we flirted for the entirety of my trip. Nothing happened, though. Just your good ole innocent flirting and eye f*cking.

I didn’t want it to end, but my last day had finally arrived and it was time to say goodbye. I remember our goodbye quite vividly. I was sitting on the bench inside the gym and he was squatting next to me, drawing a tic-tac-toe game on my leg. 

This is when I made my move. I said something along the lines of, “but what if I have more wellness questions after my trip?” (LOL, I know.) To which he responded, “I’m really not allowed to do this but…” and gave me his facebook info.

I was ecstatic. So ecstatic, I’m pretty sure I used the cruise computers an hour later to search him up. But just as quickly as that crush formed, it blew up the moment I got to his page and saw her. His girlfriend. He had a girlfriend. A beautiful blonde blue-eyed model girlfriend. 

I was devastated. And listen, at 26, I am completely aware how ridiculous this devastation was. But I keep it real on this blog. I was totally heartbroken, despite the fact a relationship with this guy would’ve never worked in a million years for a million different reasons.

We stayed in touch a tad over the next few years, but nothing more than some small talk.

Until… summer of 2019. 

In July of 2019, I was at my studio in LA, working away, when I took a second to check facebook and randomly saw a post from Henry. A post from Henry saying he was in Los Angeles, California. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

I immediately shot him a facebook message asking if he was really here. It had been years since we’d seen each other. At this point, from what I could tell, we were both single and I was (slightly) less embarrassing.

He messaged me back and we decided to meet up that night. I was so excited. It had been 7 years since I’d last seen him, I had been single for about 6 months at this point, and I was ready to feel something again. He told me he was with a mate, who was a girl, but just a childhood friend. 

I decided to have them meet me at my good luck bar. This quiet hotel bar in West Hollywood. Oh, how I miss that bar. If you know, you know. Anyways, I met them around 8 o’clock and yes, he looked just as good as I remembered. We spent the next hour catching up and laughing, until I was pitched the idea of going to another bar with them. To my surprise, I said yes. We made it to the next bar, drank some more, and the confessions began. 

Henry admitted to me how he too had a big crush on me on the cruise. We laughed over the fact I was pretty much always in that gym flirting with him and made light of the whole situation. It was nice. So nice, that once again to my surprise, I did something completely out of character, and kissed him in the middle of a crowded rooftop bar. 

I don’t know if I kissed him for me, or my 18 year old self. But either way, it was nice and gave me those butterflies that I had so craved. The night wrapped up around 2am and we went our separate ways. I figured that would be that, until he reached out about 20 minutes after I left, saying he wanted to see me again the following day.

We ended up spending the entire weekend together. We went to cute dinners, an outdoor movie theatre, and I showed him all around LA. 

But just a few days later, it was time for him to go back home. This time however, there was no dramatic goodbye. I was not heartbroken. I loved that weekend for what it was, appreciated the full circle moment I was able to get, and that was that. Well.. kind of.

Funny thing is, the story wouldn’t be totally over if 2020 didn’t play out the way it did. I was actually supposed to go to Europe with my family this past summer and he was going to meet us in Spain, put us up at his family’s house, and take me out on his boat for a romantic sunset cruise. Just like the good old days. So, yes. That would’ve been my Mary-Kate & Ashley movie moment. But no such luck, thanks to COVID-19. So womp womp, that’s where my british romcom unfortunately ends. 

Moral of the story is, you never know if and how someone will come back into your life.

Xo, 

Renee