This story starts on a rainy dark in February, when my housemate Esther and I had been invited on an impromptu night out in e London.

The two friends we went with indulged in a few as well many pre-cab vodka squashes, and promptly got thrown out of a club by the bouncer. They stumbled off into the nighttime together, leaving Esther and I lonely and a little deflated at a night cut short.

We headed home, drank months-old boxed white vino, knocked about of the article of furniture over, ate kebabs and somewhen crashed on the sofa to picket something dreadful on Tv.

Before I knew it, we woke upwardly the next morning in bed together having had sex. Now, begetting in mind that Esther is my best friend of three years and housemate of 2, this was all pretty juicy.

Then add together in the fact that I identified every bit an openly loud and proud gay man, and it ramps things upward a few notches.

The morning time afterwards the night earlier could accept been a mess of bad-mannered hugs, defoliation and acrid vodka jiff, but it turned out to be blissfully elementary: I knew straight away I was in love with this girl, and had been for a long time.

We first met at work a few years prior, and it'due south safe to say we didn't exactly click right away. She thought I was pretty but a niggling too sassy, plus her English language was still developing, so she struggled to continue up with my mumbley, vowel-dropping Essex accent.

Once we'd warmed up to each other, we started hanging out more, eating together, going to the pub together, and soon enough we moved in together with a common friend. There had always been an 'free energy' between us – merely that night changed things.

I saw in such baking clarity how special she made me experience every single day, and if I could feel similar that for the rest of my life, I'd constitute truthful love. Everything just clicked into place.

Sam Wilkinson and Esther

Esther and I decided within 2 weeks to make a proper get of things (Picture: Sam Wilkinson)

Esther awoke, remained her lovely, chill self well-nigh the whole thing, and naturally we had sex again (yous know, merely to cheque it wasn't all a dream).

It all felt very natural, which is down to Esther's sensitivity and understanding of my situation.

While information technology took a few days to mull over what exactly was happening, I couldn't deny that I was existence torn apart inside in the best way possible: butterflies, bank check, sweaty palms, check, unable to concentrate, check.

I promptly dumped the guy I was seeing, opting for absolute honesty, which made for one hell of an awkward pint.

Esther and I decided within two weeks to make a proper go of things.

I wreaked havoc telling friends and family what had happened, leaving a trail of shocked and screwed faces bestrewn across the Zoom-iverse. My parents were surprised, merely supportive and loving as always. Most of my friends asked questions about the 'ins and outs', which was no surprise.

In fourth dimension the obvious questions about my sexuality came in, which I didn't quite know how to answer at start. The only thing I knew was I loved Esther, and that was that. In that location was absolutely no denying how I felt, and so the existential exercise of labelling myself as this or that took a back seat.

One time we'd been together a few months and muddling through lockdown nicely, we gave a little more oxygen to the sexuality chat. Esther assured me that my same-sex attraction hadn't all been a phase, and there was absolutely no reason to label myself as annihilation.

Sam Wilkinson

I had been different from the other boys at schoolhouse (Picture: Sam Wilkinson)

She is a fervent romantic, so she encouraged me to mind to my heart instead of my head at such an early juncture. She couldn't have been more supportive, and equally e'er, fabricated me feel completely at ease.

Though for me, there was still one nagging question that just wouldn't budge: why hadn't I seen Esther in a romantic light before? Was information technology considering nosotros were such expert friends? Was it right place, right time? Or did I deny my feelings for her because of a deeper reticence to engage with my sexuality?

I'd originally come up out to family unit and friends when I was 18 and going off to university. It's a massive platitude, but leaving home gave me the space to open up and encompass my sexuality for the first time. I decided I liked men, and that was that. It just fabricated sense.

I had been different from the other boys at school, I could only sustain friendships with girls, I was army camp, nerdy, broken-hearted and I avoided sports like the plague. I must be gay, I reasoned, in a blackness and white, sign-on-the-dotted-line determination.

I went on to accept a scattering of on and off relationships with men over the next few years, some good, some bad, some dreadful, the usual.

Once I'd graduated and moved to London, I started to become a little jaded with the lack of closeness I felt towards any of them – and like near people dating in their early 20s, I questioned my own capacity to dearest or be loved.

This was the crux of the issue. I was still looking at love within the constraints of the binary option I'd made to label myself as unequivocally gay.

By 21, I'd begun to privately question those constraints but I tried to ignore those thoughts and stick to my guns, and then much and then I was willing to give a mildly attractive person with a shi**y personality and a penis the green light, but someone who filled my days and nights with unending joy, who just so happened to have a vulva, never fifty-fifty showed up on my radar.

Sam Wilkinson with Esther

It took iii years of friendship with Esther to pull down those barriers (Picture: Sam Wilkinson)

Had I been willing to unpick the threads of my ain sexuality a little earlier, I would accept understood that I'yard pansexual. I'd given little time to agreement the rich LGBTQ+ tapestry of terms, and the idea of pansexuality somehow escaped me.

Pansexuality is sexual, romantic or emotional attraction towards people regardless of their sex or gender identity.

I thought I was ending my feelings of loneliness and adriftness by coming out every bit gay, that I was finally finding my place in the world. In reality, I merely hoiked myself over a contend, landing somewhere different merely yet penned in.

It took 3 years of friendship with Esther to pull down those barriers, and I'm eternally grateful for the circumstances that led to me falling in love with her and widening the parameters of my sexuality.

Esther and I accept merely celebrated our vii month anniversary together, and I know nosotros'll be jubilant many, many more than. Once coronavirus has calmed down a tad, we plan on seeing some more than of the earth together likewise, starting with her hometown of Paris.

I never idea falling in love with someone would teach me to dearest myself correct back, and now, totally at ease, I tin can embrace and be proud of the potted journeying that led me to her.

Last week in Dearest, Or Something Similar Information technology: My girlfriend has kept me a clandestine from her parents for 6 years

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Love, Or Something Like It is a regular series for Metro.co.uk, covering everything from mating and dating to lust and loss, to find out what love is and how to find it in the nowadays day. If you lot have a love story to share, email rosy.edwards@metro.co.uk

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