Nicole Everett, 32, tells i about her experience of a polyamorous relationship, in which she became the 'unicorn' to a husband and wife. According to a survey by YouGov, 7 per cent of UK adults said that they had been in a consensual non-monogamous relationship at some point in their lives. When I was in my late 20s, I worked in London on a series of events at work with a woman named Cathy. We became friends, and I got to know her well over a few months. During that time I learned that she and her husband Thomas of nine years were in a different kind of marriage to the monogamous ones I had grown up knowing about.
They were not things I was familiar with. Cathy invited me out to dinner, and then asked whether Thomas could come along. I said yes, not necessarily knowing anything would happen, but when we met, he and I got on very well, and we found ourselves flirting, almost subconsciously.
There was lots of jokey banter and innuendo going around the dinner table that night between the three of us, and then Cathy left Thomas and me to get on with the rest of the evening alone.
He came back to my place for the night. He and I started a relationship, one on one, and would see each other about once a week. After a few months, I started to go over to their family home at the weekends. During that time I began to get close to Cathy too β what started out as a friendship became something more.
I had, a few years earlier, realised that I was attracted to women as well as men. Cathy and I had an intense connection. We realised we were in a three-way relationship. Cathy and Thomas had a beautiful, strong bond in their marriage, and had had previous open relationships, and so this was me stepping into their world, which they were transparent about with their friends and family.
