Shannon and I were getting along really well, but I was still nervous as hell to go any further with her. I was 20 years old, and still a virgin – but I knew she was ready for more.
I wasn’t ashamed of that status, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted more – not yet at least. That want would grow more and more in the months ahead, but I wasn’t quite ready.
Shannon and I lived in different cities – she was in the big smoke, and I was still living in a regional area with my parents while I went through university. The plan was to move to the big smoke to work once I graduated – so having a budding relationship to work on leading up to that day was exciting.
My biggest fear in moving would be living alone. I had never lived alone in my life, and despite being an introverted man, I knew being alone in a new city would be difficult. So Shannon was something of a light on my horizon.
I cared about her very much, and we spent weekends together whenever we could – probably two out of every four or five. I would have loved more time with her, but that’s just how things were working out. Even so, things were going well – it felt like enough for both of us at that time.
One Saturday night, I was studying late, and heard the house phone ringing – it might even have been 10pm, which was a bit unusual. It was a time when mobile phones were around, but they were an oddity rather than the norm they are today – but it was a time that calling number display was a pretty new thing.
My father literally hated with a passion answering the phone to telemarketers and spam calls, so he quickly jumped on the ability to see the number that was calling in. We soon had a phone that could show the number of the incoming caller, and our rule was that if we didn’t recognise the number, we wouldn’t answer.
I was the only one awake, so I left my bedroom to answer the phone. I looked down at the number and I panicked. It wasn’t an unknown number at all, it was a number I knew only too well.
It was Maddie’s number – well, at least it was her parent’s number – but it was Maddie’s number. I knew it upside down, backwards, and forwards.
Now, remember as far as I knew, Maddie was working overseas so it was more than a little bit of a surprise to see this number so late on a Saturday night. It was also odd because to the best of my knowledge, despite being reasonably close for all of these years, it was the first time either one of us had actually dialed the other’s number.
“Hello?” I answered nervously.
And down the line came that beautiful voice I hadn’t heard for nearly three years.
“Hi Andrew, how are you babe?”
Babe? Okay then, I smiled to myself.
“Hey! I’m well, how are you?” I replied.
My memory of that night tells me that we spoke for at least 45 minutes – just two old friends catching up after three years. I don’t even remember what we talked about, it was all just an excited blur to me.
As we got to the end of talking, she stopped and said, “Oh, I guess I should get to why I called?”
“I guess so!” I chuckled.
“It’s my 21st birthday in a few weeks, I was wondering if you’d like to come? I can’t imagine a day like that without you around!”
I thought of Shannon, and how I might explain to agreeing to go to Maddie’s birthday. I guess I could bring her along, but I just agreed to come and that I would be delighted to do so.
Which was absolutely true.
“Well, I’ll see you there – I can’t wait to see you!” she finished, and with that the phone call ended.
Awkward – but it was amazing, more than amazing to talk to her after so long. It was such a surprise given she had been away from Australia for some time, and I didn’t know she was home again.
I was really developing deep feelings for Shannon, and I’d need to find a way to bring this up with her. There was no way in the world I was going to miss Maddie’s 21st birthday. Your first love only turns 21 just once.
I felt like it was going to be okay.
Shannon didn’t seem upset at all, which I found a little bit odd. She wouldn’t be able to come with me anyway, even though I did invite her along at that first opportunity. She had come up during my conversation with Maddie, so it didn’t feel like it was going to be a big issue. However, Shannon was going to be away on a holiday she had booked before she and I had even met.
So it was going to be me and Maddie at Maddie’s birthday – probably with some other people we went to school with, and people I didn’t know at all.
I have to say, I was nervous as hell.
So many days had gone by, would things be any different? I was nervous that seeing Maddie again would trigger feelings I should probably be thinking about leaving in the past.