My bad trip – I met a handsome Scot with a crossword and thought it was true love. I was wrong

‘A few hours later, having pashed near the bins outside a supermarket, I stumbled towards my tube station certain I had met the love of my life.’ Photograph: LeoPatrizi/Getty Images

I didn’t travel until my late 20s, which meant I was also a latecomer to what many 18-year-olds discover in the hazy morning light on Kuta beach or stumbling out of Berlin’s Berghain: nothing fans the fires of romance like a ticking clock. The knowledge that your plane leaves in 24 hours can take a vaguely promising flirtation and turn it into the love for the ages.

In 2013, 31 and living in Los Angeles for work, I travelled to London for a short course at Central Saint Martins. While celebrating our “graduation”, a handsome Scot bailed me up outside a pub and insisted I help him solve a cryptic crossword. My friends looked on with dismay as my eyes turned to cartoon love hearts.