Once upon a time a young girl made her way to Wellington. She'd only really moved to Wellington because her then boyfriend was also moving there from Auckland to take up a job at TVNZ in Avalon Studios and she felt obliged to follow where he went. After making do for a few weeks with a job behind the counter at Burger King, followed by some breakfast waitressing at the Novotel hotel, she eventually found more suitable work as a receptionist at the Museum Hotel. It was her first real job out of university after completing a degree in Japanese and Chinese. Not ideal, and not really what she wanted for her career, but it was a start at least.
A few months passed. She worked hard doing 7am-3pm and 3pm-10pm night shifts. She enjoyed the people she worked with, mostly young people like her finding their way in life. Strangely enough, amongst the group of them working together, there were 2 young guys who even shared the same birthday as her. What were the chances of that happening!
Things on the home front weren't all that happy though. It had been a tumultuous relationship, this one with her boyfriend of the past four years. Break-ups and make-ups, more fights and unhappy moments than she cared to admit, and a constant worrying sense of trying to make him happy when he seemed unable to do so for himself. His jealousy and inability to trust her was a constant source of tension and uneasiness along the way. She longed for more, but wasn't sure what 'more' meant.
One night her work hosts a farewell for one of these young guys she shares a birthday with, as he is going back to the UK after completing a year of work experience for his travel management degree that he has been studying for back home at Brighton University in Eastbourne. A group of them head out to a famous Wellington landmark 'The Tugboat' for drinks and dinner.
The girl enjoys the company of this young guy and has thought on more than one occasion that it is a shame he is going back to the UK as she would like to get to know him better. And on this night, after a few (too many) glasses of wine are in her, she boldly makes a move, putting her hand on his knee under the table, although she is a little too sozzled to realise that everyone else can see what's going on as they are sitting at a glass table!
The night continues with the group going to town dancing at Coyote, but it ends early for her as her head is spinning, and she shamefully finds herself home and seeking the solace of a bucket by the bed for the rest of the night. She isn't rostered on at work the next day (thank goodness!), but when she returns the day after, she finds a Kinder Egg in her cubbyhole with a note from this young guy saying 'hope there's no awkwardness...we were just two great mates having a good time......'.
However, she's had time (whilst spent in bed feeling a tad sorry for herself) to do some thinking. Especially thinking that whilst she should be feeling pretty guilty about putting a move on another guy the other night, she really isn't at all, and what does that say about her...really? And what does this say about this relationship she's in that she feel this way?
She thinks long and hard. About the fact that she has been unhappy for a long time, the fact that she'd like to get to know this boy better, but the madness that it would be to contemplate pursuing things when he is about to move halfway around the world in just a few week's time. But suddenly she doesn't care. And she knows what she has to do.....
For the other posts in this series carry on here:
Part II The Original MNM's: Truly, Madly, Deeply
Part III The Original MNM's: Long Distance Love
Part IV The Original MNM's: Making it Work
Part V The Original MNM's: Surviving the Storm
8 comments :
ohhhhh I do love these stories
Can't wait for next one
awesome...I love these stories too - so cool!!
Oh c'mon, don't leave me hanging! Obviously I know the ending but I want more!
yay! More stories!
Love this - don't leave me hanging!! ;)
What a cliffhanger!... Great to read your love story.
lol
love it!
love and light
Oooooooh, more! More!
So glad you decided to write your story, and the similarities are spooky xx
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