ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
PERTH MAN Kevin Tilley has achieved what many leading experts consider to be the impossible. After seven tentative years of friendship – he finally made his best friend, Kaycee Lane, his girlfriend.
“It didn’t happen overnight,” says Mr Tilley.
“In the books I read, it said relationships take time to mature and grow,”
“I spent seven years in emotional exile before I had to guts to tell her how I felt,”
Their relationship grew from a by-chance meeting one day as they walked to morning classes at high school.
“I sprained my ankle playing netball,” says Ms Lane.
“Kevin walked up to me and offered to carry my books,”
“After that, he was by my side everyday. Even after my ankle was better,” says Ms Lane.
It wasn’t until last week when their relationship began to blossom.
Kaycee was kicked out of home by her parents.
“They didn’t like the way I was living my life,” says Ms Lane.
“The boys, the drugs, the getting kicked out of TAFE,”
“I had nowhere to go,”
That’s when Kevin stepped in and made sure she had a roof over her head.
“She came to my door in tears,” says Mr Tilley.
“I just had to tell her there and then that I loved her and that she could stay with me as long as she wanted,”
“I got down on one knee and proposed that she be my girlfriend… and she said yes!”
The couple is now planning a holiday to Bali in the coming weeks to “get away from all the attention”.
“When my Nan died, she left me a little bit of money that I’ve been saving for something special,” says Mr Tilley.
“So I’m taking Kaycee to Bali. We’re just waiting on our passports,”
Both Kevin and Kaycee have a few words of advice for people locked in awkward friendships.
“Don’t die asking “what if?” says Mr Tilley.
“Yeah. Never under-estimate what people are prepared to do to win the love of another,” says Ms Lane.
“In my experience, it got me a bed and an overseas holiday. And a wonderful boyfriend.”
