Many love stories begin with a picture perfect meet cute. Two people bump into each other, sparks fly and everything unfolds from there. What you do not see are all the sliding doors moments and missed opportunities, that quietly shape two people into exactly who they need to be, so that, when the time is right, they fit together perfectly.

Little did anyone know that their story almost began in the 90s, when both families moved to the same area. They lived only half a mile apart with just the Hagley Road between them, but their paths did not cross there.

Sarah, her sister Emma and, if we are being honest, mostly their Dad delivered newspapers to Paul’s Mum and Dad’s house, but they did not connect there either.

They both worked in rival pubs in the early 2000s, down the road from each other and often drinking with friends in each other’s places of work, yet they did not meet there either.

From 2008 till 2012 some of Paul’s mates spent countless nights in The Flapper, while Sarah worked behind the bar and Paul stubbornly refused every invitation, wrongly thinking it was a heavy metal bar, so they still did not cross paths.

They each moved to London in the 2010s, with Sarah working and Paul living, in Camden, sharing the same pavements, and they still did not meet.

Then came 2023. After four decades of missed chances and almost moments, their tangled broken roads finally collided when they both downloaded Bumble at the same time. And at long last, they met.

Across every decade of their lives, Paul and Sarah had enough almost meet cutes to fill an entire film. It seems the universe was saving the real one for when they were truly ready. That is when their story finally began, and they cannot wait for everyone they love to be with them at the start of their happily ever after.