I am sick of women who love me. Women who hate me are much more interesting.
~ Oscar Wilde

There is a thin line between love and strong dislike. Shani Prescod and Julian Pierre have stood on both sides of this line over the past eight years. Normally, it is the answer that brings the row. In their case, what brought the row was a ricocheting tennis ball.

Eversley Road, Brittons Hill in St Michael, was like any other local community almost overrun with children and gangling teenagers bent on having fun outdoors in the evenings after school. Many days the boys hovered over the pavement, whipping the ball and cracking their raquets in a quest for the highest score in road tennis.

As with the nature of the game, the ball would go astray, colliding with whatever was in its path. One of those objects was Shani's house and this strummed up mother's anger causing her to constantly chastise Julian and his friends.

Shani took up her mother's fire rage - and ran with it. "Through her [her mother's] quarrelling with them, Julian and I were not friends," Shani admitted to Forever I Do.

Another event would deepen the divide one day as Shani was passing Julian's house. "One day I was passing in front his house, and since my mother had told him not to pass in front her house, he told me not to pass in front his house."

From then on they never spoke . . . that was until the night of Shani's best friend's birthday party. She served Julian the drink he requested, and a dose of her resolve not to have anything to do with him. "I gave him the drink [without replying], and as Julian turned to leave he said 'I like you, you know', but I just ignored him," she said, shrugging with the memory.

But she couldn't ignore him two months later when he turned up at her house. "I was on my way home from work . . . asking God to take me to my future wife," Julian recalled. Inexplicably, he found himself at Shani's. "Her mother and father were getting ready to go to church at the time and I asked her mother if I could speak to her." Julian had stepped up to the line.

Given the animosity that they had exchanged over time, Shani could hardly believe he had the temerity to show up on her step - asking for her, of all things. "When I came outside and saw Julian I thought: 'He couldn't mean me because I don't like him'." And despite the fact that she didn't like him, he managed to hold her attention long enough for them to talk.

"We started to catch up on the past," said Julian. "And from there we just developed a friendship. We even talked about how we didn't like each other," Julian mused. In that instant, the line blurred. Julian confessed what was in his heart. That he had been asking God to take him to the woman that he would love.

"We started talking to each other . . . even when we saw each other on the road. Then my cousin told me I needed to tell my mother I was talking to him [Julian] before people in the neighbourhood started to talk," said Shani.

Their communication had helped them move past the line that had been drawn between them as children. Now they had to face the obstacle course that blocked the path that would lead their friendship on to something more.

The first hurdle: The six-year age difference. Even in 1998 it was unacceptable for a still-at-school, teenage girl to be associated with a man who had already ventured into the world of work.

Mustering all the courage she could and trying her best to allay her hesitation Shani approached her mother. But somehow the words didn't come out right.

"I asked her if she knew about the family . . . the St Lucian man whose wife was a Christian woman like her . . . that her son said he liked me," she said collapsing in giggles.

Shani's mother merely looked up and gave her 'the eye', then returned to what she was doing. Later that night Shani was summoned. Here came the inquisition, and possibly blows, she was dreading.

"So who was this family you were telling me about?" asked her mother. Shani went all around the world again for her answer: "Do you remember the boys that used to play road tennis in front the house, one of them, Julian?" Her mother's answer was in the affirmative.

Shani winced and squeezed out the fact that she liked Julian. "I honestly thought she would've been angry. But we talked and she told me I needed to bring Julian to meet her and my father. When he came that night, they told him what they expected of him . . . from both of us."

And they also laid down the rules.

Julian's parents' concern mirrored that of Shani's family. The couple weren't going to have it easy. For both sets of parents, the age difference was a big concern.

Eventually they gave the young couple permission to go out on evenings, with one caveat - an eight o'clock curfew. And even though the rule seemed a little stiff, Julian told Forever I Do that he respected their wishes.

"Those were her parents, those were their rules and I didn't want to jeopardise the relationship that was now beginning," he admitted.

God had granted his request and he made the most of the opportunity he was given. "The first time we went out was at St Paul's Primary School fair," said Julian. That almost turned out be their first and last time out together.

A rumour about their behaviour at the fair reached Shani's home before Julian returned her there that evening.

"When I got back home my mother told Julian he couldn't talk to me anymore. I thought it was unfair. I thought that my mother should have listened to what Julian and I had to say, rather than what someone else said about us," Shani explained.

Her anger got the better of her and an argument ensued. Julian on the other hand, kept his cool. He quietly and simply asked for permission to speak to Shani. "He told me he would wait on me . . . that he would wait until I finished school and everything. But I was stubborn and I didn't want that," she confessed.

Shani became vocal again. This time, her mother called in reinforcement. My mother called my father [who wasn't living with us at the time] and he told me not to talk to Julian."

The order, Shani thought, was unfair since it came from someone who lived outside of her home. That was until she heard the ultimatum. She was asked to choose between her father and Julian. "I chose Julian," she said with conviction.

Shani's decision drove her and her father apart. He thought she was too young to have a boyfriend. And after that, all the parents kept an even closer eye their on their meetings.

And as if the pressure coming from both sets of parents wasn't enough, Shani and Julian had to contend with the opposition from their friends and Shani's older brothers -- who were friends of Julian.

Shani remembered just how rough the going got: "Julian had a lot of [female] friends. They tried make me think that something was going on between them and Julian. At times, it was hard to not believe that . . . but I tried my best to trust him."

Julian knew that his friends had said a lot of uncomplimentary things about him, but was fighting a battle of his own trying not to give in to believing what he was being told about Shani.

What helped them along was that their families eventually came around. "I always used to talk to them. I realised that if I went my way, she would still be their responsibility. They were her parents and they had to know what was best for their daughter," said Julian.

He had an idea of what he wanted his life to be like from there on. "I wanted what they [My parents] had," he said with a smile.

What they had was a lasting marriage. "I told myself I'd grow up with her, have a family with her and get married and see what life is really about. My parents are still together. And just like them, the years have passed and we're still together," Julian noted. They took the rest of the obstacles in stride, including miscarriage that left Shani crying for weeks.

All that time, Julian had been carrying a secret. He was just about bursting at the seams. One night at karaoke in St Matthias, Christ Church, Julian had to let it out. He asked her to follow him. He was vague. He was serious. She was curious, but she went anyway.

He took Shani to the most quiet corner he could find and fell to his knees. "He promised me he would never leave me or hurt me and that he really loved me," Shani said, her words heavy with the emotion of recalling that moment.

The words had barely fallen out of her mouth before a smile of amazement swept over Julian's face: "She remembers more things than I do."

He then volunteered one of his own treasured memories. For his birthday one year, Shani had taken him to dinner - he'd never had a girl that treated him like this before. There she presented him with a bottle of wine and a box. "She had saved the money just to buy the gift for me," said Julian recalling how surprised he was to see the chain nestled in the box.

Their love for each other was infectious, and proved to be more than the transitory juvenile infatuation. It enveloped their families, brought them closer together and pushed them past their obstacles.

And on January 10, last year, exactly one hour after their daughter Kiara was born, Julian proved that the line that divided them eight years ago would remain a thing of the past. He got down on his knee again, in front the nurses, in front the doctor, in front of Shani and proposed.

"That was the best day of my life. It was so exciting to see my daughter coming into the world," Julian dreamily recalled.

The couple have big plans for the rest of their life and their wedding on November 10. They entered Forever I Do in the hopes of meeting other couples and learning from their experiences.

Ever moving forward, Shani and Julian have started building their own home and Julian is toying with the notion of having a son. And for all intents and purposes, they want their love to last a lifetime, or as Julian puts it: "Until death do us part".