The moment I knew: I found their pyjamas under my pillow and felt butterflies

Gemma and Nic in Sydney, Australia. ‘I miss home, of course, but we’ve built a better life here than either of us could have imagined,’ Gemma writes Photograph: Gemma Foster-Wisdom

I wasn’t in the best state of mind when I met Nic. It was December 2020, I was 27 and living on my own in south-west London after coming out of a three-year relationship with a man who was nice but wasn’t right for me.

My type was basically men who were taller than me (I’m 6 foot). I’d been on a few dates with a lovely man who worked as a debt collector but I wasn’t feeling it. One night I thought to myself, I can’t date men any more. I’d always been interested in dating people other than men so I thought, why don’t I try now, and changed my Hinge settings to women. All expectations of what I wanted went out of the window. I just started swiping.