Total Eclipse of the heart

Having received the letter from Sam I was all of a dither, What should I do? I had told no one of my close encounter except my sister and she was all for it, but I knew mandy would think me totally out of my mind . The Easter holiday was fast approaching and a dance was happening that the gang was planning on going to.

So come the end of term I got the train home to Norwich and looked forward to a fun holiday. I had no further contact from Sam. The evening of the dance, this one was a bit more up market , not in the old village hall but in a local hotel. My sister, her boyfriend and I went along and there met Mandy , her boyfriend and the Three Muskateers!

In the cold light of day Sam looked so very young and I was shocked at how my feelings had altered, that yearning I'd had all those weeks whilst away in manchester just disappeared. I couldn't do this, it was all wrong and I'd make a fool of myself, so for most of the evening I avoided contact with him, except when we were all dancing togther on the floor, then every now and then I'd catch him watching me and his face would break in to a gorgeous smile and I could feel my cheeks going pink with embarrassment. Towards the end of the evening he asked me to dance , which I did and we chatted and laughed, he had such a great sense of humour you couldn't help but become enthralled by his chatter. But because I didn't want to alert mandy to any gossip we kept our distance and we parted at the end of the evening as friends but nothing more.

I returned to Uni and through myself in to all sorts of activities , so much so that i even spent half of the summer holidays in Manchester working on a Mencap Playscheme, with one of my student friends. During this time I began I brief relationship with Steve, another helper on the scheme, he was sweet and attentive but I really had no strong feelings for him, but it filled a gap, I kept trying to make myself fall in love twith him, but it wasn't there, he started getting too intense and wanted me to meet his mum , EEKK!! I came back home to Norfolk and carried on the pretense that I was "in love", ringing him each day, pretending i was missing him, but it was no good, it wasn't true, so by September I had to tell him we were through. He didn't take it very easily and still kept ringing me.

It was on the evening after I'd phoned him i was wandering aimlessly around the village when Sam roared up on his little Motor bike, he stopped and we got talking. Then he said he was off to Eric's to do some work on their bikes and did I want to come, So I jumped on the back of the bike (Yes, I know 'elf and safety wouldn't allow it) and we zoomed off to Eric's. In a sense spending an evening watching two lads playing with their bikes isn't much fun, but it was the company I needed, and it gave me a huge buzz. Sam took me home again on the back of his bike , and it felt kind of special.

The following week was my 21st birthday and a group of us had arrnged to go clubbing in Norwich. To my surprize, Mandy brought the three Muskateers with her. Sam handed me a card and a present, It was a beautiful little necklace , which i still have and a corny card for a 1 year old, I still have that too, in it he'd written "Happy 21st, I'll see you at 42". I was so touched . It was a fantastic evening and Sam & I danced together, well I danced with all of them in tirn, but it meant most with Sam and we had the last slow dance togather and he kissed me just briefly and then it was over and we all came home. I rushed back to Manchester so didn't see Sam again for some while.

Just to add another dimension to the story, during the summer another young man had been paying me attention, my mum's headteachers' son, Tony, he was a lovely person but I didn't fancy him at all, but we occasionally met for a drink or for lunch, trouble is I think he had stronger feelings for me,andin september he went off to Canada for a long holiday and whilst he was away he wrote to me. He invited me to go to The College Christams party, and I agreed to go.

Meanwhile, My friend Linda, the one who went out with my ex from the other story, was getting engaged to her new man and she was having a party in the November, which meant I had to come back home for a weekend specially for it. I wanted ot have someone to go with and I contacted Sam and asked him to come with me. Much to my delight he said "Yes."

The party was quite a distance away, so i took my mum's car and we stayed over night, all above board, girls indoors and boys were in a caravan. It was a weird weekend, Sam and I sort of thrown together and the intimacey grew and by the time we went home we realised we wanted to be together, but I still was having reservations .

Back to Manchester, another brief fling to try to throw Sam out of my system, but it didn't work, I wanted to see him so much.

Back to Norfolk for Christams, the College Party I'd forgotten all aboit it and the fact i'd agreed to go with Steve, trouble was this was Sam's college too. Steve and I travelled by coach and arrived at the party, it was all dark and we felt our way through to the tables and sat down, suddenly i spotted Sam, he walked across the floor and spotted me, my heart lurched, he came over and asked me to dance, I fell stupidly into his arms and just hugged him, so hard, I think he had to hold me up I was in such a state. He kissed me and I just knew, he was the one.

Steve is watching all this and is fuming, when i go back to the table he is quite angry, I can't remember exactly what happened, there was a bit of scuffle with him and Sam, but neither are fighters so they calmed down and I talked it through with Steve, he was not happy, but we got through the rest of the evening.

This is quite difficult for me to write as I am getting quite emotional, but That point at the Party was the real turning point, when Sam and I both knew we couldn't hide our feelings anymore and we "came out" as a couple, most people were ok about, though I did get a few calls of cradle snatcher. Mandy just thought I was mad, and humoured me.

My Sister and I had another Christmas Party as our parents were away and this year was the most stupendous of all parties, Sam and I were able to be together in the truest sense of the words and it was just amazing.

As our relationship grew we were togeter more and more, though he had a habit of disappearing for days during boy things in the Cadets, he later joined the RAF and is always away somewhere. But I was still at manhester for the terms and finals were coming up, I wasn't coping very well and when I was away I missed sam so much, after the Easter break I went back to Uni to revise, but I just couldn't settle I needed to be with Sam, so I came home again, and it was the only way i could cope with revision. We'd go clubbing and Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the heart had just come out and it became our song.

There was "Nothing I could do , Total eclipse of the heart". Turn the music up loud and lets all sing at the top of our voices!

I'd like to say "and Reader I married him", but that was not to be.............I'll continue tomorrow