Forever, maybe - a grown-up story about love, life, friendship and family

The best sandwich in the world

Combine the world's most delicious cheese sandwich (trade-marked), drug and alcohol-fuelled hunger, and a kind-hearted, impulsive gesture and you have the basis for a romance. Who would ever have guessed?

As twenty-year-old Daniel Murray leant out of the van parked outside the student union building late one Thursday night to take the customer's order, he found himself transfixed.

Before him was a tiny, pretty girl. She wore an orange ball gown, which was sleeveless and puffed out at her hips. It reached her calves, where it had been snipped with a pair of blunt nail scissors. A black net petticoat poked out beneath it, explaining the volume of the dress.

Her head was shaved on both sides and dyed red, the colour clashing violently with her dress, and skimming her bottom. Doc Martens and a black, crocheted shawl pulled tightly across her thin shoulders completed the look. Large turquoise blue eyes locked on Daniel and glassed over as if she was about to burst into tears

"Oh! I don't have any money!" she wailed.

Daniel's assistant, the very able Joe, sighed. They were used to this with students.

"Sorry, hen," he began. "Nae money, nae grub."

"Oh look!" Daniel exclaimed. "There's some cheese savoury filling left over that needs used up. As a one-off, I'll gie you a freebie."

Out of sight of the customer, Joe kicked Daniel's calf and glared at him. Daniel blushed before shrugging. He grabbed two thick slices of the bread that had been made that very afternoon and buttered them generously. He slathered on the cheese savoury filling (a combination of grated cheese and home-made coleslaw with chopped onion) a spoonful of mayonnaise and some sliced tomatoes. The poor girl appeared to be in desperate need of feeding up.

Placing the sandwich in a brown paper bag, he asked Joe to hold the fort. Joe grumbled briefly—it wasn't yet 1am and the disco finished in half-an-hour, meaning hungry hordes would descend on the van—but then smirked, muttering, "You owe me, big time!"

After Joe began his "Sorry, hen" speech, the girl had walked away, recognising it as refusal. As too much cider still swished around her system (and she wasn't used to it) she only got so far before plonking herself on the ground and wrapping her arms around her knees, her head on top of them.

"Hey," Daniel prodded her gently and sat down beside her. "Sandwich on me."

"Thank you!" She gave him a brilliant smile as she took the sandwich from the bag, gazing at it with almost holy reverence. Unknown to Daniel, earlier that evening she had drunk an excess of cheap cider and smoked too much dope. The combination resulted in her whiting out earlier and spending an hour laid across two seats while various friends prodded her from time to time to ensure that she was okay before taking themselves off for more dancing.

When she eventually recovered, she realised that the dope had left her ravenously hungry, so she staggered out of the student union building, intending to return to her halls and make herself Marmite on toast with the meagre supplies left in the communal kitchens.

The allure of this snack rapidly paled the second she spotted Daniel's van, . The van cast a magical spell. Enticingly decorated with a black and red colour scheme and a blackboard perched in front, worded to make each sandwich sound as mouth-watering as possible. She wandered over and was at the counter before realising she had no money left.

Even if she hadn't smoked dope earlier that evening, the sight of the stuffed-full sandwich was heavenly, The sandwich tasted so amazing that any excitement she might have felt about a young and attractive guy personally serving her up a freebie didn't register at all.