I don’t know what it was but something about hearing you say my name sent tingles up my spine. It heightened every receptor on my body and put the brightest smile on my face.
It was all I could do to try and contain my excitement. I felt obligated to recount the event of the report for those friends who missed out and it was during these times I found it most difficult to subdue my enthusiasm.
It seemed so silly and insignificant, I don’t know why something so simple sent my heart racing, but it did. I felt like I could do anything after hearing you say my name. I nearly felt invincible.
It might sound odd but it felt like I connected to the universe in some small way. It almost felt like it was waving at me and to an extent it felt like it had nothing to do with you, like it had to do with something greater. Yet at the same time it felt like it had everything to do with you because you were real, you were tangible.
As I walking around on cloud nine the universe decided to throw a curve ball at me to see what I was made of.
It was a typical, beautiful summer’s day on the coast and some friends and I stopped in at the local fish and chip shop before hitting the beach. We were nearly finished our meal when low and behold, you walked through the door.
That tingling sensation overcame me again and I could feel my face flush and smile with excitement. I didn’t even have time to point out what was happening to my friends before the loudest of them all took it upon herself to announce it to our table and nearly the whole shop.
‘Hey! Isn’t that Alfeines!? The weather man!?… It is!!!’
The whole table started giggling and laughing.
‘Hey Steely! Why don’t you go introduce yourself? Tell him you’re the one that wrote the joke!’
‘I don’t want to bother him… he’s having lunch with a friend’ Which was a bit of a lie, I wanted to walk over to you and say something clever but the surmounting pressure from my well intentioned friends drew the words further and further away from me.
‘Go on! Go tell him you’re the one that’s not easily forgotten!’ they teased with googly eyes and melodramatic love gestures.
‘Stop it… you’re embarrassing me’ I could feel my face growing more flush and my stomach becoming tense.
‘Go walk up to him and tell him another joke!’
It was starting to get ridiculous.
‘Hey STEELY! Can you pass the pepper? STEELY… RIPTIDE?!!!!’
I could sense eyes on our table now and I didn’t even want to check if that included yours. I cracked. I was mortified and I couldn’t grab my surfboard fast enough and high tail it out of there leaving my ‘friends’ to pay the bill.
I felt my reality collapsing in on me and I needed to be somewhere safe. I hit the ocean and stayed out there all afternoon, catching wave after wave, until my legs were too tired to stand on.
wanderlove: memoirs of a lonely travelleress 