OUR STORY

We met on the UK's premier dating app - SpareRoom.

Back in 2021, Tom's housemate Lara moved to London, and he was left paying the rent alone. So he set up an account in the hopes of finding a new housemate.

Meanwhile, Zoë had just broken up with her ex, who she had moved to Bristol with two years before. She needed somewhere to live and decided to check out SpareRoom to see what was available.

60 Chessel Street wasn't the nicest house available, but Zoë was running out of options. She sent a message and arranged a viewing.

Two weeks after her relationship had ended, Zoë found herself sitting on a couch with a confident, charismatic, friendly man. There was chemistry. We both felt it.

Zoë mentioned that she wanted to make friends and meet people in Bristol, as the lockdowns had meant she hadn't been able to get out much since moving to the city.  Tom had already been in Bristol for 6 years and had lots of friends from uni, so offered to introduce her to some cool people.

After about 30 minutes of chatting, Zoë left. Back at the bus stop, she sent a message to her best friend, Catherine. "I can't take the room. I'm pretty sure I fancy the housemate."

About two weeks later, Zoë sent another message. "Hey, sorry I didn't get back to you about the room. I have another place sorted now. Once I'm settled in, do you fancy getting a drink?" 

Tom's gut told him this was a date, but he also knew that Zoë was looking for friends. 

We met again at The Spotted Cow on North Street in Bedminster on a sunny evening in June. The pub was casual enough for us to get to know each other better, but just fancy enough to impress. After exchanging some brief pleasantries, Tom took the plunge.

"Is this a date?"

"It's not a date... but I'm not averse to it going further." Glad we cleared that up.

Over the next few hours, we chatted about everything. Tom was warm and charming, asking lots of questions. Zoë won him over with her ambition and sense of humour (plus she was wearing a killer dress). 

That evening we went back to the house where we had met, this time under very different circumstances... and the rest is history.