Intended to have one by me until then (8)
I believe the answer is:
meantime
'until then' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'intended to have one by me' is the wordplay.
'intended' becomes 'meant' (meaning is a kind of intending).
'to have' says to put letters next to each other.
'one' becomes 'i' (roman numeral).
'by' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'meant'+'i'+'me'='MEANTIME'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for meantime that I've seen before include "interim?" , "Intervening period" , "For the moment" , "interval" .)