Love Story
I recently spent the weekend in the company of old friends, a Wild Man and his Wild Wife.
He was one of the original bad boys, dreaded by dads everywhere. He was all about girls and cars and rocknroll and for sure he had his nights and his fights, cos he was never a peaceful kind of guy; long black hair, flouncy shirts and metal boots, he made Russell Brand look shy and dull. When he pinned his hopes on a beautiful friend of ours, all legs and attitude, we counted the days waiting for the explosion, cos she was no shrinking violet either. Indeed, she told him straight out, she wasn’t up for a relationship with him. He wasn’t her type. Then, he did something no-one had counted on…
See, the guy had plenty of what some described as self esteem and others called plain arrogance. We all thought he’d either take stinging umbrage, or prove his attractiveness by dating some other trophy pretty, cos he was and still is plenty proud. Instead, he stayed cool, and they hung out together from time to time. They were friends. It was OK.
Then weird things started to happen. On holiday we noticed she was calling him at 3 in the morning ‘Just to say goodnight and tell him how the day went.’ Just friends huh? We shut up cos she could get pretty fiery in her denials. But her voice still went just that little bit gooey when she said his name.
Her voice went even gooier many months later, when he whisked her off to Marrakesh, got down on one knee and proposed to her. Years later the Wild Man has a baby girl. His hair is still long and he still wears flouncy shirts, he still loves rocknroll and cars and he is very proud of his beautiful daughter and gorgeous wife, all long legs and attitude, the woman he had to work to win.
The lesson? It’s easy to focus on the heartbreak and drama of love and forget the other stuff; the truth that love can grow out of friendship and patience and be just as passionate for all that. We all have at least one love story; some are over, some are ongoing and who knows what’s about to begin?
Copyright Debbie Gallagher 2010
Debbie Gallagher
Carolyne Faulkner
Katie Keeley