How we met: ‘I sensed she wasn’t keen on me. I can come

Frances and Laine, both 39, met while working at a primary school in New Jersey in 2009. They did not immediately hit it off

When Laine moved to New Jersey a few years after leaving college, she was looking for a new experience. “I’m from Nashville, but I had friends on the east coast,” she says. In 2009, she found a job as a school administrative assistant. “I’d just started dating my husband and was living with friends. It was a really fun time for me.”

Frances was working at the school as a teacher, but Laine didn’t warm to her at first. “She seemed more organised and grownup than me. We’re both strong-willed, and we butted heads,” she says. “She asked me for things that I felt were too demanding, although in hindsight I was being a bit lazy.”