The Summer of '93

Awkward!

I had plans of my own. Driving back Friday I thought about arrangements to book my flight to Heidelberg. I had checked on the map and both Frankfurt and Stuttgart were equidistant.

I went, very early (well early for me on a Saturday) to visit my good friend, Quig at 10am. I had known Quig a long time. He was in the year above me and his surname was Quig so that's what everyone called him.  We knew each other to talk to from our student union days at College. We got Susan and Anthony together (I actually found Anthony very attractive but up until meeting Susan he was a total player!) – I'd gone to school with Susan. Again we got to know each other better at College. His friend Anthony and Susan had been together since then and finally Anthony had got around to proposing to Susan. It had only taken him seven years.

I got a wedding invitation through Quig to go to Sue's wedding from Anthony.
Quig asked "Will you be my plus one?"
"Oh yes, that will be nice to see them get married. But what is surprising is that they have been together for seven years! Why are they getting married now?"
"Maybe they want Children?" Quig replied.
"We will need to get them a gift, maybe a joint one so we can buy them something that they really want."

Sue had joined the police force recently and I had noticed a significant personality change in her, during the few times I had seen her recently.  The romantic, gentle Sue that I knew became hardened and very much focused on her work. I doubted it was children. I suspected it was a change of dynamics between Anthony and Sue. I wondered perhaps if it was because the police was an institution and they didn't like them living together. Anthony was working as a software engineer.

The day of the wedding came and I picked up Quig from his home.  Anthony had stayed the night with him as it was bad luck for the bride and groom to be together the previous evening. We sat through the wedding vows together in the church and after I drove us to the reception. I was sat with Quig.

"Ooh you make a lovely couple!" Someone passed by our table and commented without invitation, as we were deep in conversation and so consequently pulled us out of it. That happened again and again. I cringed every time we were asked if we were together as a couple. It was truly uncomfortable. For some reason the whole wedding felt awkward.

So when I went to University and I started dating Quig's friend Richard who I dated for four years, Quig and I would hang out together. I was around at his flat a lot. When Richard and I split up it was Quig who told me (later rather than at the time) that Richard had been cheating on me  whilst we were dating. Quig was shorter than me and I towered over him height wise. He always felt sorry for himself and was very self deprecating but we could have a giggle and conversation always flowed. We went into Poly and then had lunch. 

I then met Mum in town and we went to the travel agent to book a flight. It was done and I was £107 lighter (flying with Lufthansa). I bought Mum a T-shirt for Mother's day and myself some leggings. The nineties were the leggings era. My impending trip had moved on its status to confirmed and finalised with the purchase of the ticket and felt more real - it was a great feeling having the ticket in my grasp. The excitement was rising as I was so thrilled at the prospect of seeing Dionisis again, and properly this time too (and hopefully I would have him all to myself!) I really couldn't quite believe it, especially since I had planned my fate and it was not working incongruently for a surprising change.

Quig had become over time my best friend. He was lonely, had been dating this girl and she had really messed him about. She wasn't good enough for him and she had gone back to her ex, who was a total bully but Quig was hearing none of it.

"I just want to find someone and settle down, and have children with them" Quig complained.
If only Quig had been blessed with height, had a better start in life and looked like an Adonis! He had a good heart and was intelligent but was oozing desperation every time he dated a girl.

"I gave him a hug and said "My Mum always says that the right person will come along", I stopped hugging him and continued, "when you're least expecting it."
He gave me a weak smile as a response. It was apparent these were empty words for him. He put his arms around me again. Maybe it was the fact that he was desperately lonely, and the comments at the wedding had planted the wrong seed in his head (he also knew that I had had such an emotional beating from Richard, but after two years I was hopeful of dating again and I was on the cusp of exploring that possibility), that prompted him to change from hugging to moving his hands up and down and exploring my back in a caressing way. I froze.
No, no, no, no, nooooo! 'This can't be happening' I thought. After a moment I separated myself from him and said "You know that's not the answer." He looked down at the floor. It was exceedingly and embarrassingly awkward.
"There are worse reasons for us to date." he said slowly.
"I've got an early start tomorrow and I think it's the right time to leave. Give it some time to get over that ex of yours and let's arrange something to look forward to. How about a curry when I get back from Scotland?"
"Yeah that will be good, safe journey home!"
It was the kindest way I could think to diffuse the uncomfortable air surrounding this situation. I wasn't quite sure how to handle that from now on but I got myself out of there and left for home.

Back in Edinburgh, which felt like it was becoming my second home and I was back in my hotel room again. The hotel was quite run down and not very welcoming really but it was a base and I liked being in Edinburgh. My Company had an office in Edinburgh, one in Leeds, and one in North London.

Most of the time I was delivering training but on Tuesday I had arranged to meet the project manager, Michael Stocks. I headed up to our office on Castle Street to meet up with him. It was a pleasant office; beautifully constructed of hewn stone, with a perfect view of the castle, sash windows that stretched up to the high ceilings with cornicing and ornate plasterwork. It was a far cry from the ugly brick eyesore in Leeds. The people were really friendly; David the Salesman was typically Scottish with piercing blue eyes, curly dull grey longish hair and a grey suit. He was always in grey. Sandra was one of two trainers in the office. She was very down to earth and had taken pity on me as a stranger out of hometown and taken me to Darios around the corner where I bought her dinner.  She was a more mature lady and I really liked her. Sandra had raven black curly, short hair and wore a lot of black. I always was mesmerised by her perfectly painted red nails. My nails never grew and if I decorated mine they were all too soon, sporting crumpled nail varnish, displaced in error by a premature knock or graze. I also was fascinated by Sandra's thick Scottish Glaswegian accent with the humour to go with it, a bit like a female Billy Connelly, but of course without the beard! She had the charisma necessary to be an engaging trainer.

Michael and I were good friends. He always had a great humour and a smile. He was intelligent and funny. I would describe him was tall; probably about 6 ft 2. He was 36 (so to me there was a huge age gap) Michael had two children, Daniel of 6 and precocious, bad tempered Sarah of 2. She obviously took after her Mother because the only time I went to his house to pick up some documents she looked like she was chewing a wasp. At this point Michael and Karen had separated. Michael's face reminded me of the moon; it was large, pale and full of heavy pot marks. He had steely blue eyes and grey (that once sandy brown hair that had become a washed out something of a colour) hair. He was not overweight but his trousers never fitted quite right and they were always held high above his hips with a belt. He was going through an early mid-life crisis and to look trendy he always had spikey gelled hair that looked a tad greasy but we worked well together.