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Will and<br />
Rhiannon on<br />
holiday in<br />
Spain, 2013<br />
‘I don’t think I’ll ever find what we had’<br />
Rhiannon Chapman, 22, is a bartender from St Albans<br />
AS TOLD TO JOSIE COPSON. PHOTOGRAPHS ANTONIO PETRONZIO. HAIR AND MAKE-UP EMILY JANE WILLIAMS. STYLING SAIREY STEMP.<br />
RHIANNON WEARS: TOP, ASOS. TROUSERS, URBAN OUTFITTERS, BOOTS, RIVER ISLAND. WILL WEARS: JACKET, RIVER ISLAND. T-SHIRT, ACNE<br />
STUDIOS. TROUSERS AMERICAN APPAREL. TRAINERS, DUNE. RHIANNON AND WILL ATE AT MAXWELL’S, COVENT GARDEN (MAXWELLS.CO.<strong>UK</strong>)<br />
I was 17 when a friend introduced me to Will<br />
in a club. He was covered in tattoos (which<br />
I mercilessly teased him about, in an attempt<br />
to look cool) and I had a massive crush on him<br />
straight away. We swapped numbers that night. Luckily<br />
he still liked me, and we started dating soon after.<br />
He was four years older and a gentleman, not like boys<br />
I knew my age. He’d buy me flowers and lovely dinners, but<br />
we never put a label on our relationship. After six months,<br />
frustrated, I blurted out,“Why haven’t you asked me to be<br />
your girlfriend yet?” and just like that, we were together.<br />
After two and a half years, we both went to Leeds<br />
University and stayed in the same halls. I wanted to embrace<br />
student life and go out drinking, but he was over that<br />
lifestyle. We started to argue, and by Christmas we’d broken<br />
up. We had to live with each other for a further year and a<br />
half, and things got more complicated when I started seeing<br />
our housemate. Will then brought a girl back to the house.<br />
It was so dysfunctional and we really hurt one another.<br />
Nearly three years on, I still cry to my mum because I don’t<br />
think I’ll ever find what I had with Will with anyone else.<br />
Seeing each other again was so exciting. I had butterflies.<br />
We talked about things we’d never discussed. It was nice to<br />
see him being more vulnerable. We chatted about how we<br />
both haven’t put ourselves out<br />
there since our relationship.<br />
We were saying the same<br />
things – it was weird. I was<br />
sad when we said goodbye.<br />
I wish he was more of an<br />
arsehole – it would make<br />
everything so much easier.<br />
Would you see him again?<br />
“I definitely want to spend<br />
more time with him. He was<br />
ill recently and had no one to<br />
look after him. I wanted to be<br />
the one to feed him soup.<br />
I love him unconditionally.”<br />
150 · COSMOPOLITAN
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