Well, I indeed thought that that was that...but faith, or whatever it is that decides these things, decided otherwise...
Somewhere beginning of October there would be a party for all the volunteers, celebrating what we had accomplished and just to have a wonderful time together again.
Obviously, I wanted to go and I arranged to sleep at a friend's place (another friend this time) again. The party would be in Amsterdam and I still lived too far away to get back late in the evening.
I went there and it was great fun. But it was a little bit hot and smokey inside the room where the music was. So some time into the party I decided to go to the pantry and sit on the staircase for a while, just chilling out and giving my feet a rest.
I still don't know if it was coincidence or if it just had to be, but while I was sitting on the staircase the woman who had brought me to my friend walked down the stairs with a group of people. (By this time I obviously already knew her name was Angela, so I will call her that from now on.) We recognised each other and said hello. They would go and eat together, but in the end the whole group fell apart in a couple of different groups. We ended up together and because we were both hungry we went to a restaurant to have something to eat.
It was great, we were chatting along, but then suddenly this moment happened that changed my life, or at least my evening. I looked at her at exactly the same moment that she looked at me and smiled. It was the most gorgeous smile I had ever seen! And suddenly I felt all flushed, the butterflies in my stomach didn't want to stop flying and I couldn't get myself to look her directly in the eye again.. I was in love with her!
She didn't notice anything and the evening just progressed. I told her that I would be staying at a friend's house and she offered to take me there. We drove past my old work and I told my ex-colleagues that she really wasn't my girlfriend! Of course Angela didn't understand why I was being like that. How could she know...
She brought me to my friend's house, we said goodbye and she drove off. I went inside my friend's house and the first thing I said to him was: "I am in love"!
He asked me everything I knew about her. And I told him that I thought I would have to kick her out of my thoughts because she would be too old for me.
At that time I was 22 and I had about guessed her age at 33 or something like that.
But well, banning someone you hopelessly fall in love with out of your memory isn't easy. As I was to find out...
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