Like all good love stories, this one began in a barn.
Teenage delusions based on questionable 90s rom-coms had led me to believe this was a good idea.
In my head, he liked me back and had been fantasizing about our wedding for years.
Photo: Alamy
At midnight, he was kissing her.
I was dancing with a bunch of dads and, shortly afterwards, vomiting in a bush.
New Years Eve is a night of promise.
Obviously, its the end of the year, which brings about an inevitable amount of self-reflection.
If youre single, you might even have been sleeping in your childhood bedroom.
In other words, its a period completely detached from reality.
Hence why we all arrive at December 31 feeling a little strange.
Or maybe thats just me.
Every year, Ive doggedly pursued a transcendentally romantic New Years Eve to no avail.
I arrived at 2 a.m., drunk.
The third man never answered his phone, so I went home.
Even when Ive been in a relationship, New Years Eve has been tricky.
The pressure to have the perfect evening loomed large for the four years my ex and I were together.
Experts tracethe midnight kiss traditionback to Ancient Rome, as well as English and German folklore.
Yes, Im talking about the final scene ofWhen Harry Met Sally, the cult 1989 Nora Ephron film.
Straight women have never been the same since.
Im not the only one clinging onto this fantasy, by the way.
I saw it happen to someone else once, another chimed in.
Some of my worst kisses have been on that night, replied a third.
Some New Years Eve stories sound like theyve been scripted by a rom-com mastermind.
I started looking around the room and then this guy grabbed me, saying, I know you!
I replied: Okay, thats good.
Do you wanna kiss me?
After the kiss, the guy asked her out; theyve now been together for two years.
One year in particular stands out.
Clearly, an Ephron-worthy New Years Eve story is possible in real life.
And while it hasnt happened to me yet, who knows what could happen when we ring in 2025?
The cynic in me says to let the delusion go and focus on spending time with my friends.
But the hopeful 15-year-old girl in the blue eyeshadow?
Well, shes a little harder to convince.
Names have been changed.
