Love Life: He Cooks, Cleans and Pays All Our Bills

Demola* (29) and Sarah* (28) were matched by a mutual friend in November 2025.

On this week’s Love Life, they talk about falling in love after just two meetings, taking the ‘unpopular’ decision to move in together less than three months later, and how Sarah’s fear of depending on a man almost destroyed the healthiest relationship she’d ever known.

If you want to share your own Love Life story, fill out this form.

Sarah: November 2025. A mutual friend matched us after I shared on WhatsApp that my mum was pressuring me to get married. She reached out and said, “I actually know someone if you’re serious. He’s a lawyer and a really nice guy.”

I told her I was interested, as long as he wasn’t a player, and she assured me he wasn’t. When Demola texted me, the first thing I noticed was his profile picture. It was a line from a poem. I’m a poet, and I immediately became curious. I actually thought he was trying to impress me, so instead of replying to his greeting, I asked about the poem.

Demola: It was a quote from Interstellar: “Do not go gentle into that good night…” I’d had it on my profile picture for years because it means a lot to me.

Sarah: He talked about the poem, and I realised he wasn’t trying to impress me at all. The backstory was fascinating, which impressed me.

Demola: But yes, my earliest memory also starts with our mutual friend. At that point, I was laser-focused on myself. Then, out of nowhere, our friend tells me she knows someone I’d like. I kept saying I didn’t want wahala because I was perfectly happy being single. But she convinced me to send Sarah a message and even shared her Instagram.

I did a little stalking first. She looked exactly like my type. I liked her job and how she carried herself in her videos. I kept trying to convince myself not to text, but before I knew it, I’d landed in her DMs and was explaining my profile picture.

Sarah: We kept talking because I found him interesting. I was in the middle of organising my first book launch, so I wasn’t always available. But whenever we spoke properly, we’d spend hours talking about our work, values, faith, and the lives we wanted.

One thing that stood out was how emotionally open he was. He sent these ridiculously long voice notes and never avoided difficult conversations. Even when I’d disappear for days, he’d simply check in without making me feel guilty.

Demola: I’ll say we both knew what it was from the jump. By the second day, we’d already agreed we weren’t interested in wasting each other’s time. I came in with very strong, “I’m here to woo you” energy, and that honesty helped us move quickly.

Sarah: Somewhere in the middle of all that, I invited him to my book launch and asked him to bring cake.

Sarah: First of all, he showed up carrying two cakes. I always joke that the moment I saw him struggling through the door with both cakes, I thought, “Ah. I don catch am.” It was incredibly sweet.

Demola: She barely had time for me because she was running the event, but I knew I had to be there. She was leaving for Nigeria almost immediately, and I felt that if we didn’t meet before she travelled, we’d lose whatever momentum we’d built. 

Sarah already had this “I enjoy my own company” energy. She sometimes took forever to reply to messages. Imagine adding another continent to the equation.

Sarah: Even though I remember the cake moment, I don’t think the first meeting at my book launch registered. I was super busy and nervous, and we barely had time to talk. 

The meeting that really mattered happened the next day.

Sarah: It was at Heathrow Airport the day after my book launch. I was flying back to Nigeria and planned to stay for about three months. Demola didn’t want me to leave without seeing me again, so he waited for me at the airport.

It was such a hectic day. I spent almost four hours travelling from the West Midlands to London with two huge suitcases and was already irritated by all the travel-day wahala. We kept texting, and I kept asking him to go home because I wouldn’t get to the airport until 7 p.m. My flight wasn’t until 10 p.m., but I felt he’d be waiting for nothing. When I finally arrived, we grabbed coffee and talked for about an hour before I boarded my flight.

Sarah: We just went on reestablishing things we already knew about each other. I told him about writing and publishing my book, what I planned to do in Nigeria, and he told me about work and his December plans. I just really enjoyed talking to him. I laughed a lot, and a lot. I suddenly didn’t want to catch my flight. 

Demola: I think she really fell for me at the airport.

Demola: In a way, yes. As I mentioned earlier, even from just texting, I had a strong feeling that Sarah was my person. I knew the potential for something beautiful was there. Meeting her at the book launch confirmed it. But I also knew that if she flew to Nigeria without us spending proper time together, we’d probably lose the momentum. I didn’t want that; I wanted her that much. And I was right, that second meeting changed everything.

Sarah: The wooing became intense. Two days after I arrived, he sent me flowers. A week later, he sent me cake, and it wasn’t even my birthday. We talked from morning till night. Everywhere I went, my face was buried in my phone. Everyone around me asked what kind of lawyer had this much free time.

The more we talked, the deeper things became. We still hadn’t put a label, but I already loved how we saw the world. He didn’t have the typical “women should be submissive” mindset. We agreed on religion, society, politics, and almost everything.

Demola: I’d say she became much more enthusiastic, too. Before long, we were already talking about love and what a future together could look like.

Sarah: I should note that at this point, I was talking to another guy who also lives in the UK.  He was in Nigeria for Detty December, and I had plans with him.

Sarah: Yes. We’d made plans for him to show me around Lagos. But the closer the trip got, the more uneasy I felt. 

So I asked Demola. 

I said to him very frankly, “I plan to go to Lagos for a week to spend time with this other guy that I’m talking to. Would you be okay with that?”

Demola: I didn’t even know there was another guy until she mentioned it. Normally, I’d have said, “Do whatever you want.” That’s usually how I am. But this time, I couldn’t.

I told her not to go because I really liked her. I even promised that if she waited, I’d take her to Lagos myself the following year and we’d do everything she planned to do with the other guy.

Sarah: That was exactly what I needed to hear. If he had said I should do whatever, it would have ended things for me. I hate nonchalance. The funny thing is, I’d already decided I didn’t want to go. I just wanted to know if he cared enough to fight for me.

Demola: I think it was her way of asking me to show that I was serious.

Demola: I think it was her way of asking me to show that I was serious.

Sarah: We were already acting like a couple, but I wanted him to actually ask.

Demola: I ended up asking twice — first over a conversation that ended up in her asking when I would ask her. I wanted to do it in person, but Sarah wasn’t having it, so I asked anyway.

Then later, after she’d returned to the UK, I cooked dinner and attempted to write “Be my girlfriend” on a plate with chocolate syrup. It looked terrible.

Sarah: I didn’t think it was pathetic at all. I actually loved it. My Instagram followers thought it was sweet. We became official in December 2025.

Sarah: Things moved very quickly. I’d originally planned to stay in Nigeria for three months because I’d sublet my UK apartment. But the more we talked, the more we started discussing my returning earlier. When I mentioned I wouldn’t have anywhere to stay, he simply suggested that I move in with him.

It sounded completely crazy. We’d only met twice and had known each other for less than two months. Still, something about him made me feel safe enough to take the leap. Against all good advice from family and friends, I bit the bullet and returned to the UK.