That's what mates are for!
Thursday 5th February 2009
I was constantly on the go. Working, cleaning, cooking, rowing club… I never had a moment to myself. And that's exactly how I liked it. Because it meant I didn't have time to think about the fact I was single.
I had been ever since splitting up with my boyfriend, Steve, eight months earlier. But while I could fool most people with my hectic life, my mate, Clare Dunn, 31, could see right through me.
'It's about time we found your Mr Right,' she said, at my flat in Daventry, Northamptonshire, one evening.
'I'm happy being single,' I insisted.
'No you're not,' she replied. 'You'd love to meet a nice bloke.'
She just wouldn't take no for an answer and even mentioned signing me up to some online dating site. But although she was really insistent, I didn't give it another thought, until she came round again the following month.
'Let's see if any nice men have sent you a message,' she said, grabbing her laptop and powering it up.
'You mean you've signed me up?' I gasped.
'Yes,' she nodded happily.
Next thing I knew, Clare was drooling over the screen.
'He can't be that nice,' I said, elbowing her out of the way.
My voice trailed off as I looked at the picture of a tall, blue-eyed bloke.
'Not bad,' I admitted, looking to see where this bloke, called Jon, lived. 'Shame he lives in Redditch.'
Redditch in Worcestershire was at least an hour-and-a-half's drive from where I lived.
'Romance knows no boundaries,' Clare said, as she tapped away on the keyboard.
'What are you doing?' I frowned.
'Sent it!' she laughed.
'What?' I asked, confused.
'I replied to his email,' she smiled. 'As you.'
'For goodness sake,' I groaned, grabbing the laptop and typing as fast as I could to try to undo what she'd just done.
That message wasn't from me, I wrote. It was my friend, Clare, pretending to be me.
My stomach churned for a few seconds, until Jon replied.
That's hilarious, he wrote.
I don't know about hilarious, but it broke the ice and, soon, we were emailing all the time.
We had loads in common. We were both sporty, liked going out for meals and had the same dry sense of humour. We agreed to meet up a month later, at the Heart of England pub in Weedon, Northamptonshire. I was a bag of nerves as I spotted him sitting at a table
near the bar. But in that split second, I just knew. He was The One. Sounds crazy, I know.
After all, apart from a load of emails and a few phone calls, I didn't know him from Adam.
But something told me he was my Mr Right. We talked about Jon's mountain biking, and my rowing, and before we knew it, the night had sped by. When I got home, I got straight
on the phone to Clare.
'He's The One,' I babbled excitedly.
'I knew it,' she gasped. 'Don't worry, I'll be guest of honour at your wedding.'
'Stop it,' I said. 'He might hate me.'
As it turned out, he can't have disliked me that much…We carried on seeing each other, and, a year later, we were having a picnic in the grounds of Blenheim Palace, in Oxfordshire, when Jon stepped off the picnic blanket and stumbled onto his knees.
'Are you OK?' I asked.
He nodded and looked up at me.
'Marry me?' he asked.
'Of course I will,' I cried, giving him a kiss, then grabbing my mobile.
And no prizes for guessing who was on the other end.
'Brilliant!' Clare said. 'I love a good wedding.'
I rolled my eyes and burst out laughing. If it hadn't been for her pretending to be me, I'd never have met Jon. So it went without saying that she was there, on 11 April last year, when I walked down the aisle of St Helen's church in Waddington, Lancashire.
Dressed in my strapless ivory dress and with my sister, Elizabeth Taylor, 34, and Jon's sister, Alison Bell, 45, as my bridesmaids, it was perfect. And the icing on the cake came when we went to Eve's Hall in Clitheroe for the reception and Jon did his speech.
'If Clare hadn't emailed me, we wouldn't be here this evening,' he said. 'So let's all raise our glasses.'
'To Clare!' everyone cheered.
She'd nagged me, pretended to be me, and emailed a total stranger on a website. But it was all worth it. Thanks to her, I've met the man of my dreams. And better still, I've finally got time to put my feet up.
Clare says: 'Sam's a brilliant mate. I wrote in my ad that she deserved someone special and that's what she found with Jon. I'm delighted for both of them.'