They say that things happen when you least expect them to.

If you go out looking for that special something and you’re lucky enough, you might find it.

But if you’re like the rest of us normal slightly unlucky people, you probably never will.

Sorry, that sounds a little pessimistic, which I definitely don’t want it to come across as but I’m just trying to paint a picture here for you.

Sometimes when we look we find; other times not so much.

So those times when we actually do stop searching for that special thing to fill our lives… BAM, that’s when it happens, that’s when it find us…more or less.

Has this happened to you?

Not yet?

Just give it some time. I’d always heard people say that’s how things happen but I thought blah blah blah, sure whatever you say *eye roll*.

The crazy story of how we met

You see I’d pretty much just gotten out of a serious relationship with my live in boyfriend of almost 3 years.

I was totally ready for the single life, not in the I’m free to date around and meet new people sense, but more in the I’m going to work on me, focus on me, and spend some time living it up with my friends sense.

I just wanted to do me.

So when my birthday rolled around in June, I decided I wanted to spend it on a beach with a drink( or 4) in my hands, and in a warm tropical country.

I found some friends who were down to go and after a bit of planning, we decided on Cuba, and off we went!

Hola Cubaaaa!      

We arrived at Club Kawama resort pretty late. We checked in at the front desk, went to our very average and slightly disappointing room, which we later had to change because one of the beds were broken.

Womp.

Then hit the one and only bar that was open late.

We were looking for our turn up crew, which sadly we realized we probably wouldn’t find at this resort. It was a pretty tame night and there weren’t a lot of people out.

There was a soccer game going on at the bar, so there were a couple of guys nursing their drinks watching the game.

One of them came over to our table, a guy from Germany whose name I totally can’t remember, and we all had some friendly conversation.

After a while, one of the other guys sauntered over to chat with the group.

This guy, named Yann, was from France.

We were kind of happy because it gave us a chance to practice our French as it was severely rusty from lack of use since high school.

I think guy number one didn’t like that guy number two came over because all the attention was no longer on him and so after he finished his drink in a less than entusiastic mood, he left and went to his room.

The rest of us however continued on through to the early hours of the morning.

Yann and I went up to the bar for some more drinks and we attempted some broken conversation as his English was terrible and my French seriously needed some work.

We went back and joined the other girls and finished off our drinks.

I vaguely remember us all making some sort of tower or pyramid out of all the empty cups.

I know you know the kind I’m talking about, I think we’ve all made this at some point in our lives.

Now I don’t know whose idea it was but we decided to hop into the pool for a late night swim, which obviously isn’t allowed.

So after being asked to leave the pool, we headed over to the ocean when some of the security guards offered to watch over us if we wanted to head in.

They were probably used to quiet boring nights and wanted to have a little fun for a change.

They were pretty young too.

That’s how the 4 of us, including the 2 guards, ended up in the ocean. Needless to say, we had found our turn up crew. A small one, but one one that was lots of fun and a tad bit on the wild side.

Now I’m a little particular (by a little, I mean a lot) about going into any body of water when I can’t see where I’m stepping.

I don’t like seaweed touching me and I don’t like stepping on unknown objects.

I know it’s weird but it’s something that’s plagued me my whole life and my friends love to make fun of me about it but I’ve come to terms with it.

I just get super squirmy when weird textured things touch me.

So that uneasy feeling was amplified ten times as it was super dark on the beach and you couldn’t see anything in the water.

So while everyone else was far out, I stayed very close to the shore, or at least I tried to.

Yann volunteered to piggyback me out to where everyone else was while making fun of me at the same time.

I guess the alcohol gave me a bit of courage because out I went on Yann’s back to join the others.

First inklings setting in 

Up until this point I hadn’t thought anything of Yann, I was totally over my ex but starting anything up with anyone was the absolute last thing on my mind, especially not on vacation.

Aaaand yep, you guessed it, that’s when it happened.

I hadn’t seen it when we were at the bar but I realized he’d been trying to flirt with me a little.

He began whispering sweet nothings in my ear. “Tu es tres belle”, Tu es trop jolie”, you know, sweet, make you melt a little, French stuff.

I was like ha, yeah right buddy, I know how these things go, and I’m just not that kinda girl.

Well, over the course of the week, the 4 of us pretty much ended up hanging out every day, usually later at night as Yann spent the days going on day trips around Cuba with his two friends that he came with.

They usually turned in early, tired from the days’ activities, while he was the night owl staying out till 1 or 2 am with the rest of us.

Catching feelings

Yann and I spent a lot of time together that week, both with the group and solo. We went for swims and for walks around the resort or my what turned out to be my favorite night when we sat on one of the beach chairs under the stars talking and getting to know each other a little better.

I thought well damn, I’ve gone and screwed myself a little here.

While I hadn’t noticed him before, I was now fully aware of him.

Now here’s how these things go: Boy meets girl on vacation, boy says sweet things to girl and says he likes her. Maybe things happen, maybe they don’t, but a lot of time is spent together. Then vacation ends and girl never hears from boy again.

 I knew this would be my fate.

As it turned out we were both leaving the same day, him in the afternoon, us later on at night.

We all decided to go to the market in the morning as it was only a short walk away.

Together we browsed around and purchased little knick knacks to bring home, and decided to take a carriage ride back which was really nice.

After, we all exchanged numbers, emails and Facebook info, Yann said he would keep in touch (me still thinking, ”yeah right”) and off he went back to France thousands of miles away.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little sad after he left, but you know, that’s how these things go.

How does the story end

Upon returning home, I went to add him to Facebook surprised to see that he’d beaten me to it and he’d also added me on Whatsapp as well.

Turns out my story wouldn’t end as I originally thought it would.

Yann and I spoke pretty much all day long every day for the next couple of months before we decided I would visit him in France at the end of August.

That was over a year and a half ago now.

Since then I’ve been to visit him 3 times in Europe and he’s come to visit me twice in Canada and I don’t think we’re planning on slowing down anytime soon.

Who would’ve thunk it!

Me going on vacation in Cuba and meeting a guy from a totally different continent, kicking it off and forming a pretty awesome relationship.

And believe me, it is super hard communicating with a language barrier and a huge 6 hour gap between us, but somehow it works.

It’s funny the things life throws at you when you least expect it.

Huh, I guess those people were right after all!

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The best adventures were never planned as they turned out to be…The best things in life happen unexpectedly and some of the best stories begin with “and all of a sudden…”

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