Olivia and Jake met in the smoking area of a club last year (Picture: Olivia Pollock)
In November 2023, Olivia Pollock went on a night out that would go on to change her life.
She’d been to an art gallery with a friend in London, and after dinner, they realised that they weren’t ready to go home yet.
They decided to head over to Soho House on Greek Street, where she gathered the courage to strike up a conversation with a ‘tall, dark and handsome’ man – 34-year-old Jake Abdinoor – in the smoking area.
‘We were already a few glasses deep, and very single and so a certain “f*** it” mentality came into my head when I saw this gorgeous man leaning against a pole,’ 27-year-old Olivia, who lives in London, tells Metro.co.uk.
‘He was very clearly not a smoker but still I decided to go up to him and ask for a lighter. We ended up chatting all night.’
When the lights came on at the end of the evening, Olivia realised that, having accidentally left her bag open, she’d dropped all of the contents of it onto the floor – including her headphones.
Secretly distraught but trying to ‘act cool,’ Jake insisted on helping her find them, even getting on his hands and knees to search.
The pair just moved in together (Picture: Olivia Pollock)
‘After a few false starts he managed to find BOTH Airpods,’ Olivia reflects.
‘Fair to say he was cemented in a semi-heroic status from then, and better yet, he actually called me back the next day to ask me on a date.’
The pair have been together ever since – and even recently moved in together.
‘When my lease at my previous house was up in April, he offered to put me up while I looked for my next flat,’ Olivia adds.
‘After one prospective flat fell through after another, he eventually suggested that we just find our own place. We found a perfect little garden flat and we’re unboxing all our stuff this week.’
Olivia also often feels ‘quite overwhelmed and overstimulated’ by loud spaces, so as a smoker, the smoking area, where her love story began, also serves as ‘a little refuge when the noise inside gets too much.’
‘It’s a great spot to meet people too and asking to borrow a lighter is a historically great way to get a conversation going with a stranger,’ she says.
Keir Starmer says it’s important to ‘take action’ (Picture: Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
But meet-cutes like this may soon become a thing of the past, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently confirmed that the government is considering tougher laws on outdoor smoking, telling the BBC: ‘We have got to take action’ to protect the NHS from preventable deaths from tobacco use.
Of course, he’s absolutely not wrong that smoking is bad for your health, and the less people who smoke, the better.
But an end to smoking outdoors will also end the need for a smoking area. That weird, hazy extension …read more
Source:: Metro
