And now to add a South African flavour

Ned was from South Africa, he and his family moved to Australia and became citizens here when the levels of violence in South Africa got too alarming. He had met his wife as a mid teen, and been with her ever after. Until they weren't anymore. And just 6 months later, he met me. We met on a dating site and went out for dinner after exchanging some texts and emails. Dinner went well and a few dates later we spent the night together. For the next year we spent many weekends away together, and we had a pretty awesome sex life, but not a lot in common personally, I guess. We got along well though, we respected one another and he was gentle with me, which I loved. Then he tried to break up with me but kept coming back and trying again. He said it was too soon to be too serious and I wanted more than he did. He actually said he was breaking up with me because I was too sexy. SERIOUSLY. That's what he said. I AM NOT EVEN KIDDING. Because such an active and relatively adventurous sex life was new to him (don't get me wrong there were no swings or chandeliers), he couldn't handle it. Eventually he began seeing someone else, and I found out - accidentally. And that was that. Another few months of on and off do we don't we before we severed the ties for good, and I was alone again.

Captain America

Soon after splitting from James, I met Captain America and I became quite smitten, quite quickly. Eventually, that was returned, despite the long distance apart. Australia to the United States isn't a jaunt of a trip, but over the course of our two year or so relationship, I made it twice. The first trip was like something from a movie. Ten days of intimate connection, crazy wild brilliant sex and laughter. I felt like I never had before. I was in love. Truly. Getting on the plane to come home almost killed me, if it hadn't been for my kids I would not have come back. Sadly, and unsurprisingly, distance took it's toll on us and cracks appeared in our relationship. He struggled as a single dad and I struggled as a single mum. He had some major issues, I was trying to fix it all. We eventually saw one another again 14 months after the first trip. How we lasted that long is anyones guess. Skype is a pretty cool thing I guess. The second trip was not the same. It was harder, the connection was not the same, the sex was still great, but the rift had formed too deep. When I said goodbye this time, I was fairly sure that I wouldn't see him again. We struggled on for another 6 months, before calling it quits. Even then we lamented it for a further few months, but eventually, we let it go. Even though I knew it had to be, it hurt when just a few months later he was moved in and engaged to someone new. I think I thought we were more special than he did. It was special while it lasted, and I learned a lot from it, but that sort of distance can never survive.