You’ve got to be rather brash to chat somebody up at the airport while standing at Arrivals waiting for someone to arrive. But at least I admit it and I also like to believe that I wear it well.

Having regained my long lost freedom, so to speak, and after many years of my first marriage which had just come to an end, I did tend to try and catch up on lost time.

She was pretty, had big bedroom eyes and seemed to have that ‘yes I’m available’ look all about her. So I dived in headfirst without as much as a moment’s hesitation. And before you could say ‘just landed’ I myself also landed a date. Well to be totally honest it was more of an interview than a date. She was Russian and looking for a job and I too was in a hurry to occupy her and give her plenty to do…

Her only drawback was her English, which was as poor as my notion of embarrassment and shame. That most fateful of days soon arrived, when she was due to come to my office for the supposed interview, which I was deviously planning to divert into more of a romantic encounter than a professional one, to be exact. But before you hastily and shallowly judge my intentions, I was later told that she too would have gladly settled for either, or ideally for both. Life is always a barter of sorts and as the saying goes, it takes two to tango.

She was more than aware of her linguistic limitations, purely from an English language point of view, I strongly assumed… So she brought along assistance in the form of her friend and improvised interpreter.

This was still in the days of secretaries. So my personal one, as secretaries were something you literally owned at the time, popped her head into my office and informed discreetly “She’s here. But there’s two of them”. “Hmm ok, let them in”.

“Hello Olga come in how are you?”. “Aloa Alex. This is friend Masha to help speayk English”.

My heart stopped.

Yes Alex Bonello was finally lost for words.

It doesn’t happen often. In fact it never usually happens. But accompanying her was the most beautiful, elegant, gorgeous and sensual creature I had, and still have, ever laid my eyes on.

She was rather distant and aloof. I tried catching her eyes on several occasions and to search deep within her soul. But she never allowed it. She was there for a purpose and refused to deviate from it.

Olga? Who’s Olga? There was only Masha there, who later informed me that she preferred to be called Maria. I was on automatic pilot. I wasn’t thinking. Everything seemed to be in tunnel vision. How often after all do you get to be blessed by the presence of a real goddess, right in your own office.

I offered her coffee or water but she refused. I offered her a more comfortable seat but she declined. I offered her a smile but she passed on that too.

Her tall and slender body adorned my office. Her delicate skin lit up gracefully in contrast to her golden hair. Her stunning facial features mesmerized me and her large almond oriental eyes held my heart in a tight grip.

But how could I ever penetrate even her attention for starters. She was detached and visibly not at all receptive to any of my advances.

What certainly did not help, as Maria later claimed, were the various phone calls which rudely interrupted our meeting, all of which were of a very personal nature and again related to my regained freedom. So as my posture changed and my voice became somewhat seductive and I slightly slid down into my chair during these telephone conversations, what very little esteem she might have had for me quickly flew out of the window.

This is an angel of unparalleled beauty and yes of Russian origin. So you can all image what even walking down the street was like for her with Maltese men every few centimetres drooling all over her. She had already been in Malta for over a year and had already learned to grow a very thick skin. And for her I was yet another clown trying to impress her with my telephone antics.

This was a desperate single mother with two very young children who escaped from Russia on her own to seek a better life for her family. She was alone and vulnerable, yet clever enough not to fall prey to users and abusers, or ever to deviate from her honest ways. She was fighting against cruel stereotypes and against terrible odds of truly succeeding and as may be expected in such circumstances she proceeded very carefully.

So needless to say, less than nothing happened. We followed up the meeting with a couple of phone calls, but the message was a loud and clear NO. Even Olga understandably disappeared, as nobody likes to be second in line.

I simply had to settle for a ‘you can’t win them all attitude’ and meanwhile had more than enough to keep me occupied. Until many months later as a work reception at the now non-existent Fekruna Restaurant, I glimpse this marvelous creature in the distance.

There she was standing proud and tall. Her enchanting figure obscuring everyone else. Her bewitching face extinguishing all the others. For me only she was there. Everyone else just vanished out of sight.

I bravely walked towards her. Her eyes caught mine and I saw a glimpse of acknowledgement. I brought out my deepest and suavest humour. I took it nice and easy and tried everything from all possible angles. I made her smile and focused my entire attention on her and nobody else. Until finally with alcohol on both of our sides, I started to open her up. So we laughed and we joked and things also became rather gregarious and finally even daring. I asked her if she had a boyfriend and upon her negative reply I asked her what she did for sex!

This was the acid test of sorts and to my great relief it made her really laugh.

So YES my extreme audacity finally got me that first date!

I took her to Savini Restaurant in Qawra, which like Fekruna Restaurant no longer exists. This was then one of my locals where I had a standing order of sorts and the staff were kept constantly amazed at my many conquests. I naturally went through all the motions. Charm and poised refinement and gentlemanly gallantry just oozed out of my ever pore. But more importantly than that I made her feel at ease and I also started opening up to her and showed her that there was a real person behind the facade.

Her sharp intuition told her that I was more than a macho creep. That I too had feelings and compassion. That she had to give people a chance if she was ever going to succeed in her quest for happiness.

We parted that night with a simple awkward kiss. It made no sense for me to put any pressure. I was traveling to France the day after to see my sons and she had told me that during my absence she would be celebrating her birthday. So I secretly managed to obtain her exact address and on the day of her birthday she received from me an enormous bouquet of red roses.

When I called her upon my return she was a different person. Warm and open and affectionate. We instantly decided to meet the day after and went for dinner to Le Chateau Restaurant at the Selmun Palace, which like the Fekruna and Savini Restaurants no longer exists.

There was a different spark to this encounter. She was bubbly, close and intimate. There was excitement and anticipation in the air. Those roses were an excellent investment, as amply demonstrated when we returned to her place on the Strand, in a block of apartments that no longer exists.

But what are buildings and concrete structures when you share endless love with someone. Nearly twenty years have passed since then and we can both undeniably say that we love each other ever more.

Maria my wife has been blessed not only with astounding physical beauty, but with the kindest and most generous of hearts. There is absolutely no improvement I could even imagine wishing upon her. For she is as perfect as any human could ever be.

She loves me with so much devotion. She loves my own children like her own. She looked after and cared for my parents in their final years like nobody else. She has an inside beauty which I have never encountered.

This is my wife whom I am besotted by, whom I am proud of and who deserves only the best.

I love you Maria.