This week Hayley talks about her experience with a perfect stranger…

Okay, I’ve just had one of those ‘did that actually just happen?’ moments.

Spontaneity seems to be interrupting my life in all kinds of ways lately: some weird, some wonderful, some like a scene out of “Love Actually.”

Picture this:

Trudging, eyes down, collar up, in pouring rain, with your groceries, home.

Last thing you have on your mind is romance, right? Yeah, me too. That’s why when all of a sudden, I found myself with an umbrella over my head and an introduction, I was a) very surprised and b) feeling a light all aglow in my chest.

He was so easy and confident about it all it was hard to say no. Where was I walking? Could he walk with me there? Did I want to go somewhere and maybe talk for a while? By the time we had made it to my flat he’d managed to get my name, what I did for a living, compliment me (without being creepy) and get me interested, and it was in…what, say, five minutes? Groceries very quickly deposited on my kitchen bench, we ended up in a coffee house, talking for hours. The kind of confidence that lets you approach someone in the street is the same kind of confidence that allows you to talk to someone straight up about who you are and what you want from life.

When, three hours on I was still enthralled by this amazing back and forth I was having with practical stranger, it really hit home how much more important conversation is for a date than anything else. Does it matter whether he takes you to a candle lit dinner and picks up the hefty check if you’re ready to fall off your seat in boredom in the first half hour? Every once in awhile something out of the blue reminds you that there aren’t any rules to life. It was so easy to just enjoy the moment because I never for one second started to wonder about the rules or where this was going and when we parted (number safely handed over) I promised myself to absolutely NOT obsess over whether I’d ever hear from him again…

Because I’ve decided that if that guy can handle a little bit of improvisation: then so can I.

I may not be quite up to running up to a tall, dark and handsome stranger (umbrella in hand) just yet… but I can at least say ‘YES’ to an impromptu coffee when they ask me.