The most amazing LDR short story (luck level 0)
In continuation of my complete guide to planning a surprise visit to surprise your partner, here is an LDR short story of a visit that didn’t go exactly as planned.
The story you’ll read here is worthy of an episode of Friends.
This is the kind of story you can imagine with friends on a Saturday night, having had a little too much to drink.
But don’t worry, what you’re about to discover really happened.
Nothing is wrong, I guarantee it.
The story begins in Europe, in early 2017.
But it’s only after 4 years thanks to a tweet liked more than a million times that this LDR short story became world famous.
This is the story of Salma and Finlay, a couple who decided to fly each other to make a surprise visit to the other, on the same day!
For an ever more fulfilling long distance relationship, you can read these articles:
LDR short story : the context
Salma and Finlay are a young couple.
They have been together for less than 3 months but every moment they spend together is magical. You know how much magic floods the couple in the beginning!
They live together in Edinburgh, Scotland, and at their young ages (21 and 23), they have never been apart for any length of time.
In January 2017, Salma decided to visit her family in Beirut, the lebanese capital.
This first « long » separation is difficult to live as much for one as for the other. It is on their own that they come up with the idea of organizing a surprise visit!
Staying in Scotland, Finlay develops a plan. He knows that Salma has a stopover in Paris, before joining the Scottish capital.
So he decides to take a flight to the French capital and surprise his girlfriend at the airport.
So that you understand better the distance between each capital, here is a map of Europe with the important cities of this LDR short story.
So he starts by telling his roommate about the plan he has elaborated, and decides to buy his return tickets Edinburgh-Paris after having discussed with his father (who confirmed him that his idea was excellent).
Finlay had planned ahead: he looked at the number of flights between Beirut and Paris to see when his girlfriend would be at the airport.
There were a tiny number of them.
It was enough to know which plane Salma had to take. He could quietly breathe and lie down on his sofa, his feet fanning.
In his head, everything was perfect!
They would meet at the airport, then they would go and enjoy a whole day hand in hand in Paris to come back the next day together in Edinburgh. More romantic, you die!
Yes, everything seemed perfect.
But if he knew what was waiting for him…
So what happened that by the time Finlay boarded his plane to Paris, Salma had barely arrived in the Scottish capital?
Well, his girlfriend had the same idea: to surprise him by coming back a day earlier. So she changed her flight to a new one the day before. That’s it. What was supposed to happen happened!
When they realized the situation
Once back in Edinburgh, Salma took her time before texting her boyfriend. She wanted to go home first, get some rest and take a well-deserved shower.
If you’ve ever taken connecting flights, you know what I mean. It’s exhausting!
And it’s safe to say that the shower was icy! It wasn’t until she texted Finlay’s roommate that she realized her boyfriend had made the same decision.
How would you have reacted in her place?
Like everyone else! You would have laughed, and that the joke was really nice.
You wouldn’t have believed it for a second! Salma had exactly the same reaction, as you can see on this screenshot.
So she sent a message to Finlay, but she will remain without answer for almost an hour. Just enough time for the idea to start taking up more and more space in her head:
What if it was true?
Fortunately, she took it well. As she explains in the interview they gave to CNN (which I used to tell this LDR short story), she felt upset but couldn’t deny the fact that the situation was laughable.
Imagine entertaining your cat with a laser. If while running and jumping around he smashes a cup on the floor, you would be upset, but only a little bit because you caused it.
It’s exactly the same here.
Finally, Finlay took advantage of the few hours in front of him to visit Paris (but alone!), and to see the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame de Paris, as this beautiful selfie shows us.
When you know the context behind this picture, you can only appreciate it!
I can guess the smile on your lips.
His friends jumped at the chance to tell him how what had happened to him was beyond comprehension, and that they almost died laughing when they heard about it!
They could have met in the Edinburgh airport
After pooling their itinerary, the couple realized that they had both been at the airport of the Scottish capital at the same time!
They even explain that it’s amazing they didn’t run into each other because it’s one of the smallest airports in Europe (for a capital city).
They themselves don’t explain how they managed to avoid each other, since they had to pass each other at one time or another.
What motivated them to act (and create this ldr short story)
You read it: 3 months of relationship is ridiculous to consider organizing such a surprise for the other!
So what pushed Salma and Finlay to organize the ultimate surprise, considered a dream for a huge number of couples in long distance relationship?
I have already more or less answered this question in the introduction. Even though their relationship was only a few months old, this was their first « real » physical separation, for more than a week.
They missed each other tremendously and wanted to shorten the time between them.
You know what anyone would have felt if they were in a long distance relationship.
Finlay explains that they had no desire to act romantically like a prince in a Disney movie; to reproduce a cliché too present in romantic comedies.
They wanted above all to surprise his girlfriend and to find each other as soon as possible.
They do not define themselves as an impulsive couple.
Their relationship is rather normal, despite this absolutely incredible LDR short story.
I would have loved to interview the couple! Most of the information is from the interview they gave to CNN, but I still have so many questions for them! I sent them a private message on their various social networks. I’m looking forward to their response.
It’s only 4 years later that this LDR short story will be known by everyone!
Thanks to Facebook’s Memory (a feature that reminds you what you published 1,2,3 years ago…), Salma came across this anecdote again, in January 2021.
She decides to post a little tweet first and foremost to amuse her friends.
Happy 4 year anniversary to when I flew to Edinburgh to surprise Finlay and he flew to Paris to surprise me and this is why we don’t do surprises anymore pic.twitter.com/ZBJ4jCNZ4i
— Salma Saade 🇵🇸 (@SalmaSaade) January 12, 2021
At no time she would have imagined that her tweet would make the buzz!
She must have had chills all over her body and gasped when she saw the numbers explode the counters:
- Over 1 million likes
- Over 150,000 retweets
- Hundreds of comparisons to Ross and Emily from Friends
- Hundreds of touching reactions: they say they received lovely messages from all over the world.
- On Reddit, this is the post with the most points of the subreddit « Never tell me the odds », having received more than 100,000 points.
- And most importantly, the original goal of amusing others worked wonderfully! This image posted in reaction really make me laugh
Are they still together today?
To be honest, I don’t know. But based on my guesses, I guess they are!
Here’s why:
- They were still together in March 2021, and had moved to London. There’s no indication on their public profile that their situation has changed.
- Salma pinned her tweet
I’m still waiting for a response! I will update this article if I can get in touch with them.
That would be absolutely awesome!
In the meantime, they are ironing out the story: after that, it’s impossible to separate!
That’s what they say.
Did you like this LDR short story?
You can read another one, a little longer: « How covid saved my LDR ».
This is simply our story, with Kyomi.
We tell you how I had to be rushed home because of the health crisis, and how the nightmare we went through turned into an incredible opportunity for our long-distance relationship.
And if, unlike Salma and Finlay, you want to plan a successful surprise visit, here’s my complete guide to making this once-in-a-lifetime dream come true.
Download my 26 LDR Challenges and Activities
One idea done every week
= 6 months of activities
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Hello !
We are Léo & Kyomi, a French-Peruvian couple in a long distance relationship since 2019. Welcome to this blog entirely dedicated to this way of life.
We decided to create
My Sweet LDR
to help people who want to live their relationship serenely and who don’t know how to do it.
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