Blog 17 – Time to get away and out of the spotlight.

Lucky for me Mick seemed to actually expect that the event was just a one off. It was like I was crush he’d had for years and now he’d realised the dream he was as happy as a sand boy! I’ve been wiping my brow in relief as I was dreading upsetting Roomy by having this fling with her mate and then having to find a way of tactfully giving him the brush off!

CF arrived home from Aus and when he invited me round to look at his photo’s I did just that. Never mind that I could have just seen them on Facebook. I just can’t defend myself any longer, I am inexplicably attached to a man who is no good for me and gives me very little of what I want or need. I’m well aware of this which is why I don’t treat the ‘situation’ with any respect and keep searching for something better. Familiarity is so nice sometimes though, but I realised the right sentiments weren’t behind it when he fell asleep straight afterwards and didn’t even hear me leaving. I just didn’t feel comfortable falling asleep there too, says a lot really.

Getting into all this strife is so exhausting, I’m definitely ready for a break and the company ski trip couldn’t arrive a minute too soon. There are only six of us in the business and our boss wants us to have fun so it's unlikely there'll be any boring meetings, it really is just a jolly! We are all feeling pretty jammy and in high spirits on the way to the Alps and I personally have really been looking forward to a change of scenery. My skiing is pretty terrible so I can’t wait to brush up on my skills, breath in some fresh mountain air and have a laugh with my work mates.

We are staying in this gorgeous tiny resort in Italy, it’s all very stylish and no rowdy groups anywhere which suits us fine. On the first evening we are all chilling in this lovely bar after dinner. Jane (another singleton) and I are looking around agreeing there’ll be no mischief on the menu this weekend….Until right on cue the doors of swing open and a huge group of guys walk in. They all look between 25 and 40, are well dressed, many are very attractive specimens and I can hear that they’re English. Bingo.

So this is the deal; our ‘manor from heaven’ are stockbrokers on a corporate trip. The rest of the team are shaking their heads in amusement as Jane and I get up and walk to the bar without even saying a word. Queuing at the bar is a great advantage point to cruise the joint from and we identify our targets within about 3 minutes. There’s usually a group within a group if you look carefully and this gang of half a dozen late twenty to early thirty somethings’ suited us down to the ground. Stockbrokers are known to be a sociable bunch so it wasn’t difficult to start the banter.

They turn out to be a great bunch, and don’t even remotely fit the sexist macho stereotype that might be associated with that profession. My attention was on someone quite specific from the moment the crowd walked in however. It was a combination of things that attracted me; his height (6’4”), his t-shirt was my favourite colour (green), his eyes sparkled and his smile shone. I can’t say that he was shy but he wasn’t as forthcoming as I expected him to be after we’d spent some time having a laugh and getting to know each other. At some point in the evening he just seemed to loosen up though, it was like he’d decided he was just going to go with the flow. I don’t think it was the alcohol lubrication but I wouldn’t rule it out!

After that point we separated off into a corner of the bar with Jane and a guy she’d been chatting up all night. We had such a good time, it was snowing outside and we were in one of those warm, laughter filled bubbles of an evening. Jane and I decided we needed to ship out at about 3am because we had ski school booked for 9!!! Whilst snogging to keep warm outside in the cold my handsome stockbroker (HS from now on) tried to persuade me to go back to his hotel room but as much as I was tempted I wanted to see where this would go….and having a one night stand probably wouldn’t take it very far....