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hours. We exchanged our family news,
shared holiday experiences and things in general. I felt sorry for him when he
told me about a girl he had been seeing for five months. Her father had taken
some sudden dislike to Alex and told her in no uncertain terms to call it off.
It was quite clear that Alex had really liked the girl and was still puzzling
over what he had done to make her father turn against him. After a few minutes
of searching we came across a cosy little restaurant and over our meal we
discussed some of the kids from school. Alex hadn’t been in touch with his
school friends for quite some time and had very little gossip to report.
However, he had read in one of the national newspapers that one of my bullies
(Ann Stead) had died in a tragic car crash, about eighteen months previously.
    We had a couple
more casual dates before Alex asked if I would consider being his girlfriend. I
wasn’t sure - I was over Gavin, but I still hadn’t been able to forget the hurt
he’d caused me. I told him that I wasn’t really looking for a relationship and
that my studies consumed almost all of my spare time. I told him that I would
like it if we could still continue to meet up as friends and though he looked
disappointed he reluctantly agreed.
    We continued to
meet up each month for maybe three or four months and then one night (after we
both had way too much to drink), he tried to stick his hand in my undies and I
pushed him away. He was a bit taken aback and he responded aggressively,
    “Come on,
Helen, you didn’t push me away behind the bike sheds. You were keen on getting
poked and plenty of lads poked you.” He made me sound like a slut and I
didn’t see it in the same way he did. We had been kids for heaven’s sake,
experimenting, doing what is natural – becoming sexually aware. I felt very
hurt by what he was implying.
    “Alex, I
thought you were a nice guy, good-looking, funny, and I valued your friendship
– but I’m sorry, you have ruined it. I was a young girl at that time, just
finding out about sex and experimenting, maybe a little too much if I’m honest.
You thought I would be cheap. A dead certainty you’d get laid! You’ve offended
me!” I walked away, hailed a cab, and went home.

CHAPTER 6
    I still wasn’t
going out much. I had no close friends, no boyfriend and to tell the truth I
wasn’t too bothered. Any social life (if you could call it such) was spent with
Mum and Dad. I sometimes met up on a Saturday afternoon with the girls from
work. We mooched around the shops and went to a pub for a few drinks. They went
home to prepare for dates with their boyfriends - I went home to Mum and Dad -
and my studying. Not wanting my co-workers to think I was totally dull, I
invented a boyfriend, Justin. I had some exciting dates with him, got fed up
with him and a few weeks later I was seeing John (my next creation). I wasn’t
proud of myself telling lies, but it was far easier than having to explain why
I wasn’t interested in men – why I preferred to study. What if I had told them
the truth? I would probably have earned the label ‘oddball,’ started getting
strange looks from them all and would never get invited to the Saturday
shopping sessions ever again or anywhere else for that matter.
    Dad tried
getting me back to his golf club (where I was a fully paid up member), but that
wasn’t for me. He started dropping hints (in a bid to tempt me) that there were
quite a few eligible bachelors with a really good handicap.
    “You’d like
Thomas, sweetheart, he’s quite a dish. Well the ladies seem to like him
anyway.” I just laughed at him,
    “You’re not
very subtle, Dad – stop trying to get me off your hands. Studying comes first;
I’m still young, for heaven’s sake.”
    There was cause
for celebration later in the year when I achieved my A.A.T. qualification. My
parents were thrilled and as I started making moves for further studies -
towards getting my chartered recognition, Dad