The first time Charlotte and Jack met – as her first shift at a clothes shop ended and his began – they talked for about 15 minutes and Charlotte went home with a giddy feeling. “I was like: ‘Mum, there’s this guy at work and he’s so cute and he seems really nice,’” she says. “I was thinking about him all week, because we were going to be on the same shift the following Saturday, and I was so excited. When I got there I said: ‘Hi, how’s it going?’ And he said: ‘I’m Jack, nice to meet you.’ I was so crushed.”
Jack laughs. “I don’t remember us meeting. But that second time we met, I was very taken with Charlotte.” They chatted throughout their shift. “It was long hours,” he says. “We talked about everything from where we went to school to what type of food we liked. The manager pulled me to one side and said I needed to stop talking to Charlotte because I was distracting her from her work.” And did he? “No.”
It was November 2011. Jack had finished university that summer and was working in the shop, and Charlotte, still at sixth form, had taken a Saturday job there for the Christmas period. After working that shift together, they exchanged numbers and agreed to go out on a date. “Then he added me on Facebook,” says Charlotte. “I took one look at your profile picture and I thought: ‘What have I agreed to go on a date with?’ Because it was so cringe – you had one leg cocked and your collar up, leaning against the door frame.” Jack laughs. “I obviously thought it was a good one.”
They went out anyway, to the cinema, where they watched a terrible film. “It gave us lots to talk about,” says Jack. On their second date, they took a picnic to a local stately home and walked up to the folly (it would be the location where, five years later, Jack would propose to Charlotte). “I think we were official quite quickly,” says Charlotte.
What did she like about him? “I thought he was quite cheeky. Jack is the sort of person who will go up to anyone and talk to them and instantly make them feel really comfortable. He’s just very cheerful.” Jack says: “She was very attractive but very down to earth, quirky, a bit of a bookworm.”
Charlotte went to university in Liverpool after finishing school, and the relationship survived the distance and time apart between visits. “I came back from university …” says Charlotte. “I remember the date,” says Jack. Charlotte says: “I had a year when I lived with my mum and dad, and you lived with your mum and dad.”
They got engaged in March 2016, and moved in together in August that year. “We never lived together until we bought a house together,” says Jack.
Why does it work? “I think we balance each other out in a lot of things,” says Charlotte. “Our values are quite similar. However, our likes and personalities are quite different.” Whereas Jack is practical and methodical, Charlotte says she is “the complete opposite. I’m quite chaotic and maybe don’t think about things in the most straightforward way. Which is good, because sometimes you do something and I think: ‘I never would have thought of that, but it makes life so much easier.’ We both make each other think of things differently.” Jack says: “It’s good to be with someone who surprises you. Our approaches are quite different but I like to think we share a lot of goals.”
They married in July 2017 and their son, Arthur, was born last year. They also have a dog and an allotment. “We knew that at some point the thing we would like was to live somewhere rural and have a family and quite a simple life,” says Charlotte, and they have made it happen.
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