An Edinburgh woman has told of her ‘unexpected’ whirlwind romance that started on a work trip to New York - with a notification from a dating app.
Lindz McLeod was travelling from the capital to New York City to attend a writers’ conference, having recently decided her love life was taking a back seat. Speaking to CNN, she said: “It was really interesting to uproot myself and go to a new continent entirely on my own, I was really looking forward to it, I saw this as a new adventure.”
Lindz, who was 33 at the time, said she had seen a string of ‘disappointing’ dates at home in Scotland. She recalled: “Maybe now is the time to really focus on me, and not worry about anything like that.
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“Of course, the universe had other plans.”
Lindz’s friends had told her spending a week alone in the Big Apple sounded like the perfect time for romance, but she didn’t believe it. After landing at the airport, her phone pinged with a notification - she had a match on Bumble.
While she’d sworn off dating, she didn’t delete the apps and her profile automatically switched from Edinburgh to New York when the plane touched down. She flicked through the profile that she’d matched with, a New York City-based woman called Z, aged 30.
Lindz said: “She was very pretty. You expect the bio to have some information in it - and all it said was, ‘Write me a poem.’”
As a writer, she took on the challenge. She continued: “I got a bit drunk with some of my new colleagues and I thought ‘Yeah, I will write you a poem. It’ll be great. It’ll be the best poem you’ve ever received on Bumble.”
Also speaking to CNN, Z said: “I read her poem and felt a brilliant spark. It was very exciting.”
The two immediately started messaging back and forth on the app, and decided to meet in a bar in Chelsea the day before Lindz was due to leave. “I have to say, photographs did not do Z justice,” says Lindz. “So I was expecting someone quite pretty. And then she walked in, and she was model gorgeous. And I was not prepared for that.
“Our first date was the best first date I had ever had or heard of. It was just instant connection, we were chatting away, like we’d known each other for ages.”
At one point, Lindz took her jacket off, revealing a tattoo on her forearm.
“It’s my favourite lines from a Robert Frost poem, but it’s written in Jane Austen’s handwriting,” she explained to Z. “I have Whitman on my back,” said Z, referring to American poet Walt Whitman.
For Lindz, knowing she and Z had both had literary tattoos only reinforced the feeling that this was a meeting of minds.
“I thought to myself, ‘Oh my god, am I in love?’”
Lindz was flying to Denver, Colorado, the next day to see a friend and invited Z. She didn’t answer straight away, but emailed a few days later to ask if the offer still stood.
“We drove around the mountains all weekend, and we hung out and we had fun – we baked and we watched movies and stuff,” recalls Lindz. “We were never more than about a foot away from each other at all times, we were holding hands. It was as if we were dating already.”
When she was in the airport to head back to Edinburgh, Lindz got an email which read: “I had a really great time. I don’t want this to end. What do you think about maybe seeing where this goes?”
They stayed in touch though video calls for weeks. At the time, Lindz was busy completing a masters degree in creative writing, while Z was studying for her final psychiatry board exams.
“There were times when we would get on video with each other, and then just sit in silence for six hours studying, and not even speak, but just be there,” says Lindz.
“When you’re not there in person, you can’t just rely on making out constantly or something. You have to get to know the person, and there was a real hunger there to know each other in a proper deep way.”
Two months later, Z travelled to Edinburgh. A few months after that, Lindz returned to New York.
This long distance became tougher with the onset of the pandemic. In 2020, the couple spent seven months apart when borders shut.
“We would stay on video overnight, so she could see me fall asleep, and I could wake up to her,” says Lindz.
Inspired by Lindz, Z decided to pursue a masters in creative writing. She applied to and was accepted at a program at the University of Edinburgh.
She moved to Scotland, and moved in with Lindz. Three years later, marriage was on the cards.
Z had just returned from visiting family in the US. While she was there, she’d discovered a beloved childhood snow globe in the garage, damaged. She was upset, the snow globe had meant a lot to her growing up.
Then Lindz spent hours searching on eBay, hoping to find a perfect match. She gave it to her on Christmas day, along with a proposal.
Fast forward to today, and Lindz and Z remain happily living in Edinburgh. A wedding is on the cards, but it won’t happen anytime soon.
For now, the couple are concentrating their efforts on renovating their home and pushing forward with their writing careers. They’re both published writers, and Lindz is now studying for a PhD in creative writing, and also works as a freelance editor.
Lindz said: “It felt unreal, surreal. Because it was just wonderful. You don’t expect something like that to happen. You don’t expect it to last, you expect a little limerence, not for it to develop into love.”
“I don’t know, if I was watching that as a movie, I would think it was a little unbelievable.”
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