Talk about the past coming back to haunt me. But this time with a sting.

I was bored at work around 30 minutes before home time. I finished and managed to meet all the deadlines for the day/week so I spent the last half hour surfing the net. More particularly Google-ing the names of people I know. Not just any names, names of people I went out with in the past — all the flings and almost-serious relationships. I’m pretty sure that some of you have done it as well.

So I put in his name. He has a pretty common name so there were more than 100 items on the search results. None of the ones on top of the list actually referred to him, him. They bear the same name but as I said, his name is common so the first 6 pages of the results really was not him at all.

After about 9 more pages, there it was, a photographer’s website with photos of his wedding!

I felt like someone reached into my chest and pinched my heart. Yes, it had been a long time ago — way back in 2001. How did it end? He needed time to sort his head out. See, he came to me without properly ending it with another woman. It was unfair for me and for her as well, and I couldn’t agree more, so WE had to end.

But oh, it was one of the best beginnings of a relationship that I had. Met him in a board room where his company was taking over one aspect of a company I used to work with. We spoke all the time on the phone — all work — to check on the progress of the transfer. The first social event for us was a drink at my favourite pub in Cambridge, The Anchor, when he had to stay overnight as we had back-to-back meetings during the final stretch of the project.

When the transfer was finally complete, he invited me for a skiing trip in France. It was a short notice so I wasn’t able to go. He sent me a postcard and wrote how we really wished I was there.

He returned with a rather serious injury from that trip. He bent his knee backwards during a fall around the 2nd or 3rd day of this skiing holiday. So he told me that he spent most of the time in the chateau they rented, alone and wishing I was there to cuddle up to him. He was on crutches all the time so I didn’t get to see him. In betweens, we emailed, texted and spoke on the phone. But nothing all revealing of what we felt for each other.

In a little over a month, he was finally free of those crutches. He asked me out for drinks and dinner in London. He told me that he had meetings there one Friday and we could meet after work and possibly spend the night in case it would be too late to go back to our respective homes — Cambridge for me, Southampton for him. He booked TWO rooms in a hotel around Earl’s Court area.

On that Friday, we met up at Victoria mainline station and he gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. It was our first real date after all so he didn’t want to come on as too forward. He took my overnight bag from me as we headed for our hotel. I checked in (he already had on his part) and went to my room to freshen up while he waited at the lobby. I came back down after 20 minutes, all changed from my work clothes and ready for a nice night in town. He suggested a drink at the hotel’s bar and I followed him. He ordered our drinks, beer for him, Martini for me. We sat in one of the tables and just caught up on recent events.

I was at that time really stressing out with my job and he helped me by becoming my sounding board and support group. As I was telling him my current despairs at the office, I felt his hand on my knee. I felt a surge of electricity through my body but I tried not to show it to him…yet. His hands stayed there, gently stroking my knee, until we finished our drinks and headed out to the restaurant.

He didn’t book a table so we just walked around until we found a decent-looking Thai restaurant. We ordered our food, he got us a bottle of red wine and somehow he managed to put his hands on my knee and shoulder every so often in between the meal. Just as he paid and I was motioning to get up from my seat, he held me down and kissed me passionately on the lips. I melted right there and his hold on me was the only thing keeping me from falling on the ground.

When the kiss broke, he said, “I’ve wanted to do that since the day I met you at the board room.”

And I shall leave it that…

…well, for now, my dear friends, as I need to be someplace in a little while so I have to get ready. Promise, I’ll carry on with the memories on my next post.

Like

Unlike