Love actually

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, four couples share their rom-com worthy first encounters – or “meet-cutes” as Athey’re known in the trade – with Saskia Tillers

JILL OGAI, 26, SOLOIST AT THE AUSTRALIAN BALLET, AND JOSH MILLAR, 28, ACADEMIC

“I gave him my number on the bus and he texted me a year and a half later”

The first thing Jill noticed about Josh was his shoes. Standing behind him on the bus, she found herself wondering if this man’s face was as good as his outfit. “When he finally turned around I went, ‘Oh, he’s the love of my life!’” Jill says with a laugh. Josh on the other hand, was oblivious to Jill’s interest, until a week later when they hopped off the bus and she thrust an origami crane with her phone number written on it into his hands. While Josh was in a relationship at the time, the encounter stuck in his mind. “It was a big thing for me,” he says. “I’d never been given a number, so I was taken aback!” He politely texted to say he was flattered, but not single, and then, crucially, saved her number.

A year and a half later, when Josh’s relationship ended, he remembered the girl with the crane. “I still had Jill’s number, so I guess I was keeping it on purpose.” He sent her a message asking if she still caught the same bus, and the rest is history. “From the first date, it was instant attraction. We were very close, very quickly,” says Josh. Adds Jill, “There was a moment, early on. We were walking through the botanic gardens and I looked at him and thought, ‘I really want to see you grow old.’”

After their first date, Jill invited Josh to watch her dance in a dress rehearsal of Giselle. Along he went, by himself, and even though he’d never been to the ballet, Josh quickly became a front row regular.