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When Brandon and his boyfriend moved to London from Wales in April 2021, there wasn’t much going on. With the city under lockdown, he took a job in a Covid lab at Gatwick Airport. “I was processing PCR tests for people who were travelling,” he says. “I didn’t know anyone in London except my boyfriend, but luckily the team I was working with were great.”
In June, they were joined by Christine, a biology graduate who lived in London and had transferred from the PCR testing lab at Heathrow. “When I arrived, they seemed like a tightknit team, so I was a bit anxious about fitting in,” she says. “But Brandon was super friendly and that drew me to him straight away. I really wanted to be his friend.”
Brandon thought Christine seemed nervous, but he was impressed by how quickly she got stuck in. “She was very up for engaging with people,” he says. “We were also the same age, while the others were a bit older, so it was exciting to get to know someone going through the same period of life as me.”
They clicked straight away, talking about “everything” and bonding over work. “It was really stressful because you never knew what each Covid wave would be like and which travel restrictions were being lifted, as things happened quickly,” she says. Often the lab would get hundreds of samples, all of which needed to be processed within a day.
“Sometimes we’d have really long 14-hour days,” says Christine. “We really kept each other going and made the best of the situation. We would laugh, cry, scream – and we’d have lunch together every day in the Costa next door, and get excited about the bean and cheese toastie.”
In September 2021, Brandon left the team to pursue a PhD in chemical engineering and chemistry. Despite only knowing each other for a short time, he and Christine were determined to stay in touch. “I joined an LGBT rugby club, and Christine would often come along with us on nights out, or I’d go out with her friends,” says Brandon.
Whatever was happening, they always made an effort to stick to plans they’d made. “We’re both so busy but we knew we wanted to prioritise spending time together,” says Christine. In May last year, she decided to move to Spain, where her dad has a Airbnb business. “He needed some help and I was ready for a change, so I’m now studying Spanish and working for him.”
Brandon has already been out twice to visit. “Christine’s life is so social and I’m quite outgoing; she always introduces me to interesting people.” As well as going out together, they’ll often sit on the sofa and binge-watch Love Island while they chat. When they’re apart they stay in touch through WhatsApp, sending each other regular voice notes.
“Shortly after I left the lab, I went through a breakup and spoke to Christine a lot about that,” says Brandon. “I found it really hard and she was very supportive. She was able to listen and talk to me without any judgment, and provided me with a shoulder to cry on.”
Christine also values Brandon’s ability to comfort her during testing times. “He always reassures me that it’s going to be OK, and that I don’t have to have everything figured out yet. He grounds me and helps me to unpack things.”
Although they don’t see each other all the time, Brandon says they go through “all the emotions” when they meet up. “We can talk about something upsetting, but we’re always going to laugh together too, because that’s what our friendship was built on: finding the light in everything.”
Christine loves that they share the same sense of humour. “It’s rare to meet someone where it’s like two pieces of a puzzle clicking together,” she says. “I feel really lucky our paths crossed.”
