It would usually be safe to assume that our love story started when we worked together at The Royal York Hotel. It was 2010 and a shy, quiet Kayle started his first job. Tori had already been there a bit longer than me and was currently studying an Event management degree at Sheffield Hallam University and so only worked occasionally when she was back in York. Despite working in the same small area, we never really spoke apart from the occasional "Hi" and "bye".

Fast Forward a couple of years later and Tori had just finished University and was back in York. She had just moved in to a flat with her best friend Pippa, and text to see if I wanted to come over and catch up.

Tori's text read... "Why don't you come over and we can watch a film". I'm not quite sure as to whether the phrase Netflix and Chill had been invented yet but it was clearly very bold looking back especially when we had only exchanged a couple of texts previously.

Luckily, I took Tori up on her offer and arranged and evening for me to head over and see her. We spent the evening watching Magic Mike and talking about our previous times together at The Royal York. The comment of "Jake spoke to me more than you did" is still held against me even to this day.

We eventually went on our first date to Jamie's in York although I'm not sure we considered it a date. Looking back it was a bit odd, as Tori recounted a recent date she had been on and listed everything he'd done wrong (No pressure then).

After Jamie's we went for some more drinks at Evil Eye before jumping in a taxi and heading to drop Tori off home. Whilst there had been many opportunities, I left it until she was getting out of the taxi to kiss her - Not the best time really for which she always took pleasure in reminding me about.

Unfortunately, after a couple of years together, we broke up in late 2015 but something often told both of us that it wasn't the end.

We continued to text and call over the years and would occasionally bump into each other at the gym and workout together. Whilst Tori often joked about me taking her on a date, we always laughed it off and I told her to keep trying.

There are moments in life when you have an epiphany and mine came when I was leaving work one day and speaking with Tori on the phone. I realised that she was the only person I wanted to speak with at the end of every workday and that is still true today. People often ask "how do you know, he/she is the one?" for me, this came when I was holding Tori's hair back whilst she was over the toilet being sick after her staff Christmas party. 4 weeks later on boxing day, I told her I loved her and she was the only person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

As we rolled into 2020, I had basically moved into her flat in January. We had already discussed settling down in the past and I think we knew this time it was forever, therefore reserving a house 2 months later and 1 week before lockdown didn't seem like a bad idea. We probably enjoyed lockdowns far too much and I seriously couldn't get bored of spending time with Tori, she really is my best friend.

2022 saw something magical happen and we fell pregnant with our first baby. George Arthur Sercombe made an appearance on the 01/12/2022 much to the dismay of Tori - "How dare he be late and be a December baby" - poor George was already getting his first telling off during labour and hadn't even been born yet. Words cannot describe watching the woman you love give birth to your son and I will forever be grateful for that. Watching her be a mum over the last couple of years has given me some of the best memories I could ever ask for and makes me so excited to finally say "I Do".