﻿A Canadian man who sprang to fame after offering a free round-the-world trip to a woman with the same name as his ex-girlfriend has returned from the jaunt with his chosen namesake, although, to the dismay of those following the story, love did not blossom between the pair. Jordan Axani, a 28-year-old Toronto real-estate developer turned charity founder, made it back to Canada with Elizabeth Quinn Gallagher but said the pair had “forged a brother-sister-like relationship”. 
Axani had made headlines in 2014 after offering an air ticket to any Canadian named Elizabeth Gallagher. He had booked a three-week vacation with his ex-girlfriend but, after they split up, he was unable to change the name on the flights. 
That’s where Axani’s new travelmate, a 23-year-old student from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, came in. Gallagher, who goes by the name Quinn, replied to a Reddit post Axani had submitted – along with other hopeful Elizabeth Gallaghers – and was selected. Gallagher had made it clear before the trip that she had a “pretty serious” boyfriend but that had not stopped romantics, and journalists, from hoping the globetrotters might fall for one another. Unfortunately, it was not to be. 
“It wasn’t easy and it certainly wasn’t immediate. It took us about a week to really figure each other out,” Axani said. There was a certain amount of “natural stumbling” around “the dos and don’ts of travelling together” as the pair got to know each other.
“I’m going to be explicitly clear,” Axani said, shortly after the pair returned to Toronto. “This was never a romantic endeavour. It was strictly platonic. I do not think of Quinn in a romantic light in the least. There is no future for us romantically. She is a good friend. I think of her as a little sister but that will be it. And her feelings are entirely mutual in that regard.” It took work to establish that brother-sister, good-friend, no-future-for-us-romantically relationship, however. other. “At the end of it, we’d developed a really great rhythm of, one second, having really funny inside jokes, and, the next second, knowing when the other needed space.”