Falling in love with mentor

I was asked by my company if I would like to attend a course in Paris, the courses content of tele-marketing was pretty much irrelevant to me, for as soon as they had mentioned the location of the course my mind was made up, I was definitely going. I travelled with other colleagues who worked in the same building as me, but came from different sectors. Our journey was good, we travelled via Eurostar on the way there and planned to travel first class by plane on the way back.

On our arrival there was a taxi waiting to take us to the hotel. We were taken to a hotel which overlooked the Tuileres Gardens and the Eifel tower could be seen clearly in the distance from the hotel balcony and the hotels dining room. The hotel was in a real romantic setting, it was unfortunate that I was on a trip with work. 

The next morning we arrived at the tele-marketing conference, it was set out as eight large tables, our table was near the front where the mentor would be standing to speak in the conference. At 10am the mentor walked in, my stomach filled with butterflies and my heart was racing, the mentor was my first love, Paul. I had not seen him since I was 15 and at school. We had dated for 4 years before finally calling it a day and deciding that we were too young to be committed to each other for the rest of our lives. It broke my heart, and if he was honest his too.

 After the conference I headed back to my room.  A note was pushed under my door. It was a love poem from Paul. Now I really started to feel sick, he had obviously noticed me at the conference and found out which room I was in. I couldn’t go out to see if he was there, I was just stuck to the spot holding the love poem.

 I knew he would be at dinner that evening, I still didn’t know whether he was in a relationship or not, I was just hopeful that he wasn’t and the love poem (Liebesgedichte) was genuine. I dressed up for dinner and went downstairs, I saw my colleagues at one side of the restaurant and was just about to join them when the waiter directed me to another room. At the far end of this room was a balcony, a table for 2, a bottle of champagne and Paul.

I sat down, he told me he was single and that after we split up relationships with other women had never been the same, he kept comparing them all with me. I told him I had found exactly the same, although I had been engaged at one point since we split I had ended it, as it had not felt right.

After our meal we headed out to do some sight seeing of Paris and night. Although I was terrified of heights, Paul persuaded me to venture up the Eifel Tower. I was nervous at first but the time I got to the top and saw the view of Paris at night my fear had subsided.

It was then that Paul pulled out a ring and asked me to marry him, it felt like I was in a fairytale, I said yes. One month after returning home we married at Gretna Green in Scotland. The wedding (Hochzeit) was great, there was just me and Paul, the vicar and a couple of hikers who agreed to be witnesses. That was 10 years ago now and I have no regrets.