Life has a funny way of introducing us to love. And one Zoë Folbigg’s story is a testament to this fact.
Zoë used to take a train to work every morning. She had seen the regulars on the route and remembered their faces. It was all a routine till one day, when she saw a handsome man on the train, who wasn’t one of the regulars. He managed to spark off Zoë’s interest immediately. He was reading a book and didn’t take his face out of it for even a minute during the whole commute.
Being a jeans-wearing girl who found her walking comfort in a good pair of Converse shoes, Zoë decided to put in more effort into dressing up so the stranger would notice her.
They would somehow end up on the same train but the man was always busy reading something. It’s not like Zoë would mind because he was always reading something she had already read. She knew it was love at first sight. That’s just how right it felt.
In fact, she even discussed him with her work friends who nicknamed him ‘Train Man’.
They would ask her about him regularly. The main enquiry would always be: did he finally look up? Zoë always replied with a ‘No’. Then, one of them suggested that Zoë drop her ticket in front of him and strike a conversation the moment he picks up the ticket to return it to her.
She did exactly that and waited for it to be all magic.
However, the man was busy reading for a good hour and barely noticed Zoë’s ticket. An hour passed by and he finally did end up picking the ticket. He gave it to her but instead of striking a conversation, all that the nervous much-in-love woman could say was, thank you.
She did date other men during that year but always to realise that they just didn’t give her the kind of feeling the ‘Tran Man’ did. She didn’t quite know what to do or how to go about it as time just passed by.
Soon enough, her birthday rolled around and she believed that ‘Everyone should do something a little bit frivolous on their birthday.’ She wrote a letter, handed it over to him and walked away so she didn’t have to see him read it.
The contents of the letter basically included a short introduction of herself and a question she had been dying to ask: Will you go out for a drink? She did mention that if the answer was a ‘no’, she would leave him alone.
She anticipated a reply the whole day and his mail arrived at 5:30 PM. The subject line said: The guy on the train.
She was on top of the world and could not even contain her excitement. She was nervous about opening the mail because it would be a make or break thing for her.
She finally opened up the mail to see the answer:
Thank you, that was a lovely thing to do, I never would have had the guts to do something like that. But unfortunately I have a girlfriend and I don’t think she’d like it if we went out for a drink. Happy birthday. Hope you have a nice day.
She was heartbroken but went back to being a silent train passenger. She stopped thinking about it and wanted to move on with her life.
But eight months later, she found another mail by him in her mailbox. In it, he said he had been single for a few months and would like to take her out for drinks. She agreed and on the date, what stunned her was the fact that it wasn’t awkward at all. They had so many things to talk about and such an intimate connection.
Within 3 months, they had moved in together and were madly in love with each other.
Three years later, on a vacation, they were on a train and he asked her a question: Will you marry me?
Cut to today, she has 2 lovely kids with Mark and has turned her love story into a book that will give us much hope.