Lightning Pt. 01

It was going to be a theme running through some of my stories. You can love two people at the same time. But you have to choose.' But I have decided to make it a series. Sometimes it's the wife, sometimes the husband and even the lover at times. Sometimes it is Love of a person, or a lifestyle. Some are BTB and some RAAC.

There are elements of truth in this story. I was in the corridor at work one day talking to one of our project managers and a work colleague walked by into the Hangar and she asked me who he was, I told her. And she said in a sort of offhand way. "I'm having him." I thought she meant it of a sexual nature, well they're both single and it was nothing to do with me. I'm sure she did have him that way. But that wasn't what she meant. They have been happily married for the last 18 years. She told me later that was what she meant. I don't think the poor blighter stood a chance.

It was like a small electric shock, I looked across the room and her eyes met mine and there was a crackle. She stepped backwards and a chap beside her grabbed hold of her to hold her up. I looked away, one of the blokes I was talking to asked me if I was alright, I said I was, I had come over a tad dizzy. I moved to the other side of the crowd, I wanted to hide.

What the bloody hell just happened was that instant love, lust at first sight, that doesn't happen, that's a Hollywood thing.

I could barely remember what she looked like, short curly blonde hair about 5 foot 7, not fat, not thin. Wearing a green dress that clung to her body but apart from being not fat or thin don't ask me anything about her. But her face was burnt into my memory.

I discreetly looked around the room, but I couldn't see her. Never mind, just get over it.

I'd been asked to give a lecture at Nottingham University about the interaction between electronic devices, how one can affect another and how good design and maintenance can prevent it becoming too much of a problem. For those that didn't think it was a problem I gave them a couple of examples and pointed them towards the ' banana skins EMC.' website.

I was at the reception for the presenters, it was a smart do, no jeans and T-shirts. Suits and ties were the order of the day. I tried chatting with my fellow presenters, we had all presented on similar themes, so we had something in common; even though we all work for different companies.

I tried to put her out of my mind but fuzzy pictures kept on leaping into my head. It was my turn for the drinks, so I headed towards the bar. Desperately trying to keep the order going round in my head. Fortunately, it was simple, just a few beers, a few lagers and a gin and tonic. I could probably remember that. I was standing at the bar when there was a tap on my shoulder. I turned round, there she stood. Bloody hell. She thrust a piece of paper into my hand, turned and walked away. She soon got lost in the crowd waiting at the bar. it was my turn to be served so I ordered the drinks then I looked at the slip of paper. 'Meet me in the Olde Trip opening time tomorrow'.

I knew about the 'Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem.' It's claimed to be the oldest and probably the smallest pub in the UK, built at the foot of Nottingham's new 190 year old castle. I was due to leave Nottingham at eight tomorrow morning to miss most of the traffic going South. But I decided to go to the Olde Trip to see if I could shed any more light on what happened.

I got there at ten o'clock. Pubs open early these days. I had just ordered myself a coffee when she walked in. She walked right up to me and kissed me on the cheek like a long lost friend. That put me on my back foot straight away. I gathered myself together, I asked if she wanted tea, coffee or something stronger, she had a coffee.

We found ourselves a quiet corner. "Why did we meet here?" I asked.

"I wanted a small place so you would recognise me."

"I was never not going to recognise you. The imprint of your face is etched on my mind." As soon as I said that I wished I hadn't. She had me flummoxed and it had been less than five minutes.

"Are you OK? It was lucky that fellow caught you before you fell on the floor. He was very quick. Do you know him?"

"Yes, I'm fine, thank you. That was Darren my fiancé, boyfriend, how about you? You went deathly white like you'd seen a ghost."

"Yes, I'm fine, thanks for asking."

Now it went silent who's going to speak first. She did.

"I assume you felt it too?"

"I'm afraid I did, is it love or lust, what is it?"

"I don't know, but it hurt."

"Yes it did. What do we do about it?"

"I don't know. Do you?"

"Yes I do. Nothing, I'm married. I love my wife and I don't cheat."

"But you met me here." she said.

"I had to find out if you knew anything about it. But this is as far as it goes, I can't ever see you or meet you again."

"I'm not sure I can do that, I'm not that strong." She said.

I had to run away, I stood up, I put my hand out to touch hers. But I decided it was not a good idea. Personal contact could change the whole situation. I wasn't that strong either.

I looked at her and said. "I'm sorry." And walked away. I did not look back. But I thought I heard gentle sobbing.

The drive home was enough to keep me occupied, it didn't give me time to think of what happened. One big question, how much do I explain what happened to Helen, my wife of five years without hurting her. We never keep secrets I would have to tell her possibly, I don't know, maybe a little white lie. I really don't know. There were not enough traffic jams to give me time to think, that was strange for Friday. I don't normally want traffic jams, but one today would have helped.

When I got home Helen had other ideas, I wasn't opposed to them.

We met when she was a new starter in HR, she was being given a walk around the hangar floor to see what we did. She seemed to stumble and somebody picked her up, but she looked at me and smiled. I thought she was very pretty. I had to go out to the post office at lunchtime and I saw her in a coffee shop, so I popped in to see if she was alright, she was very flushed. We got talking and we went out for a drink two nights later. We went to the seaside that weekend and within a month we were almost inseparable. She just seemed to know what pleased me, but that didn't matter. It was nice when she looked at me and smiled. She had big blue eyes and I fell right into them. We were married two years later. She was my heart and my soul, I could do nothing to hurt her.

Friday night was good Saturday was busy catching up with the additional jobs I had to do, for some reason the girl was there. Nottingham girl, or Olde Trip girl as I started calling her in my head, was in the back of my mind and unfortunately every now and again she thrust herself to the front. I pushed it to the back, I would never see her again, but how do I tell Helen?

Sunday lunch was good, she pulled out all the stops. She picked a piece of beef. It was tapered. I like it rare, she likes it well done. So, I sliced mine from one end and hers from the other, we compromised on the bit in the middle. There was Cauliflower cheese, Yorkshire puds and pigs in blankets, which was strange as they are all my favourites. There was a nice bottle of wine with a cork, not a screw cap. She even put on a dress, brushed her hair how I like it and put a bit of makeup on. There were just the two of us. It was very nice but I got worried. What was all this for?

We had dinner. It was good, we stacked the dishwasher together. She grabbed the bottle of wine off the table, looked at me and said. "Are you here with me today?"

"What do you mean?"

"Several times I've seen you looking into the sky, something is bothering you. What happened in Nottingham?"

I came clean or told her I'd met somebody, it was like a bolt of lightning. I don't know where it came from. I told her exactly what happened. I went dizzy. The lady fell over and the man next to her held her up. And we met in the Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem on Friday morning.

That sort of thing doesn't happen in real life, it only happens in Hollywood.

Nothing happened I told her. I didn't even know her name, where she came from or which company she worked for. I told Helen I loved her and I would not cheat on her. I would not see the Olde Trip girl again.

I told her everything including how the Olde Trip girl changed what she called the chap who was holding her up from fiancé to boyfriend almost like she was trying to distance herself from him.

I confided in Helen that what bothered me was that the Olde Trip girl said she's not strong enough. What little time I had to think about it on the way home I wondered, amongst other things does that mean she's not strong enough to go on, or not strong enough to stay as she was, or to carry on with her boyfriend.

I even gave her the note the Olde Trip girl gave me.

Helen looked at me, she had pity in her eyes. "That's been worrying you since Friday?" She asked.

"No sweetheart, it was how to tell you what happened."

She was crying, tears were pouring from her. Were they happy tears or sad tears, I took her hands leaned forward and kissed on the cheek. She stood up, wiped her face with the back of her hand, sniffed, smiled at me and went upstairs without saying a thing.

Now I was confused. When she came back down she'd repaired her makeup. She poured herself a large glass of wine and drank most of it. She got down on her knees in front of me and took my hands, she said to me. "Yes, my sweetheart, it does happen.

"It happened to me when I first saw you, I was getting the tour around the hangar seeing what you spanner monkeys do. I saw you, you looked at me and smiled. You had to be mine."

"That sort of thing doesn't happen, I don't believe in love at first sight. Lust yes, but not love."

"Oh, it does. I have to let you into a little secret, I saw you walking across the hangar floor, you smiled. I nearly fainted, I almost fell over. I decided there and then that you had to be mine. Even though I'd never spoken to you, I didn't even know your name and didn't know where you came from. But in that split second I knew that you were going to be mine. When you came and talked to me in the Coffee shop, I felt fate had given me an opportunity.

"But I had to let you fall in love with me, not make you fall in love with me. I had to be normal, do you know how hard that is?

"If I had gone out of my way to entice you, then it would have been a lie, and I couldn't live a lie with the man I loved.

"If you didn't love me, it would have hurt but I would have moved on."

"So you did nothing special for me, anything out of the ordinary?"

"Oh, I'm not that strong either." She said. "Yes, there were small things I did. I found out which beer you liked; what food you liked. I didn't get it for you especially. I didn't get stuff for you. I just made sure it was available wherever we went, if they didn't have your beer we didn't go there and when we became intimate, I learned quickly what you liked. In most cases." She smiled at me. "You still can't have my bum." That was an in joke of ours, I didn't want her bum.

I pulled her up into my lap and gave her a big hug, I did love her with all my heart. We had developed a partnership over the years. "Does this change anything?" I asked her.

"I don't think so. You've been completely honest with me and now I can see why you're distracted."

She looked me in the eyes. "It must be a bit of a surprise, being married to a conniving bitch all these years?"

I smiled at her. "No, you're not, you're just a woman who fell in love."

"What do you want to do about it?"

"Absolutely nothing, I love you, you love me. I know nothing about her, not even her name or where she comes from. As far as I'm concerned, it's over. In fact, it never started. There was nothing to start."

"It must have been a bit of a shock to you though?"

"Oh yes it was. Initially I was completely out of my depth, it took me a while. My biggest problem is I didn't know how to tell you. That was why I was bothered, nothing happened, but how to tell you so you weren't upset?"

"Well now you know my little secret there's nothing for you to worry about. You're honest and faithful. I do trust you, and it's not so bad now I know why you were on cloud cuckoo land.

"I can understand her feelings. I feel sorry for her, and Darren, her boyfriend, former fiancé, he's going to be hurt. But there is nothing we can do about it."

It was about three months later when I started to get strange phone calls on my mobile. The phone would ring. As soon as I picked it up the other person would hang up. I told Helen and she told me that was the same, she was getting missing phone calls on the landline and then hanging up. We had a caller id but when she phoned back nobody answered. I started making sure that the house was closed, the windows were shut, the shed, the workshop and the garages were closed and locked. I think people were trying to see if we were home and break in.

Then Helen changed things, not much, she started going out every other week of an evening with friends. I got worried, like a lot of men. If people change what they are used to without a good reason, we start to worry. It did cross my mind that she's having an affair. But apart from the meals out there was no other change, I know I looked for any change. There were none.

She repeatedly showed me how much she loved me, both in and out of bed and on the sofa, kitchen table and the back garden. That was a bit risky. Was this guilty sex?

I will admit that once or twice I did follow her. On one occasion after she left I walked to the restaurant. She was there with a woman, I couldn't see her face. She was facing away from me. But I could see her hands and they were obviously a woman's hands. I did see there were no rings on the fingers of her left hand.

I did follow her again a few weeks later but she was sat on her own, although there were two place settings. I couldn't see there would be anyone else in there to attract her. They were with partners, were too young or groups of men that were too old. I waited outside for half an hour. Nobody turned up and I felt guilty. She was a bit late after that evening, she apologised and told me her friend 'Lauren' was late getting there and they had a lot to talk about.

It was a Wednesday when Helen told me to make sure I was home on time on Friday. She had a surprise for me. I must have looked worried because she came and gave me a big hug and said, "I love you sweetheart, don't worry, there's nothing for you to worry about."

That actually made it worse. I was worried all day Thursday; Helen could tell I was worried all evening. She took me to bed early and she made me forget for a while. She assured me there was nothing going to worry about.

Friday came around and I couldn't park the car on the drive. There was another car there, one that I didn't recognise. I had to park on the street. I walked up to the house but before I could open the door Helen opened it for me, she put her arms round me kissed me and again said. "Please don't worry."

She took my hand and led me into the living room and there was the girl from Nottingham. I looked at Helen. I was about to ask what the hell was going on. Helen put her arms around me and kissed me.

She looked at me. "Please, there is nothing to worry about."

The girl from Nottingham stood up, Helen spoke up. "Matt, please meet Lauren."

Lauren put her hand out. "Hello Matt, nice to meet you again."

I staggered. Helen took hold of my arm and stopped me falling.

I didn't know what to say or do.

Part 2 coming soon.