As the coach pulled
into the campsite Gavin Newman was half out of his seat and craning his neck to
look for her.
He hadn’t seen her for
four weeks and he had missed her terribly.
Gavin had only been
going out with Lisa for less than three months before she had to leave for her
summer job.
They were both
students and had just finished their first year when they met at Clapham
junction railway station.
Lisa was only tiny, a
smidge over five foot in her stocking feet, providing they were thick socks.
And she was struggling
to get a case up the stairs that was bigger than she was.
Gavin happened to be
behind her and came to her assistance and as they both had to wait for a
connection they had coffee together.
And that was how it
began.
While Gavin was a
student he worked weekends at Homebase and before he went to University his
manager had said if he ever wanted work during the holidays he only had to
call.
So he did. And
whenever he was home he was always able to pick up shifts.
So that was what Gavin
had sorted for the summer holidays.
However his new
girlfriend Lisa Toms had a similar arrangement with a café restaurant but that
particular summer she had arranged 8 weeks work at an outward bound resort.
It paid better and she
even managed to get a bit of a holiday into the bargain.
What she hadn’t
bargained for though, was meeting Gavin which wouldn’t have been such an issue
had it not been for the fact that the resort she had signed up to work at was
in Scotland.
So that was why it was
that in July when they stood at the coach park and kissed goodbye and she left
for the summer.
He was to follow her
after a month and spend two weeks with her and then he would have to leave her
again and she would be there another two weeks.
She wouldn’t look up
as the coach pulled up into the car park she had volunteered to work the
breakfast shift in the marquee, as it was right next to where the coaches
stopped.
So she would be able
to watch when the coach arrived on the camping ground.
She had missed him so
much while she had been there without him
But she didn’t want
him to know just how much she had missed him.
Lisa was worried it
might scare him off
The other reason she
didn’t look up was that she thought she might cry when she saw him and she
didn’t want to him to see that either.
Gavin could see her
and his heart soared, he had no idea she would be in the marquee but why didn’t
she look up?
He had been chewing
his fingernails on the way up he had missed her so much, and after 12 hours on
that bloody coach, desperate to see her again and she wouldn’t even look up.
Lisa must have heard
the coach arrive, everyone else was looking.
Then she picked up a
tray and went inside the marquee
“Where is she going
now?” he said to himself
He quickly walked down
the steps and went in search of his pack.
Lisa almost weakened
and looked up but she kept her head down and carried the tray she was holding
inside the tent.
She really wanted to
see him, she was desperate to see him.
She had been looking
forward to that day for a month, she wanted to see him so much, and she hadn’t
slept a wink the night before because she was looking forward to that day.
Once inside she dumped
the tray on the nearest table and positioned herself by the flaps of the
opening so she could see out without him being able to see her.
“Is that him?” she
said to herself, “the one Looking out the window? No it’s the driver”
She searched among the
faces in the crowd.
“He isn’t there,
Why isn’t he there?
Where the hell is he?”
She stood on tiptoe
and looked again, not that that helped much it just elevated her from five foot
nothing to five foot two.
Her eyes scanned the
group milling around the pile of back packs and cases.
“He isn’t there.
Why isn’t he there?”
The crowd slowly
dispersed and there was no sign of Gavin
“Where is that bloody
man?” she said aloud
“I’m behind you” Gavin
said
Lisa turned around and
launched herself at him and showed him exactly how much she’d missed him and
she cried too.
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