My story: Have you ever wondered..."What if?"

[Aenarion]

Hi to all bros and sis here, I've been quietly lurking and enjoying reading the posts on this forum for many years now, but have never registered and posted anything, as I didn't think I'd ever have anything worth posting about.

I've had an encounter only recently, and I'd like to share it through a story, having been inspired by some of the excellent writers (recent great stories by e.g. bro ilock and bro nurgle come to mind) on this forum. I do this in part to record and reflect upon what happened during this period, as what is now firmly etched in my memories will inevitably fade with time.

Now, the story. Personal details have been changed, to protect identities as far as possible, but the core of what happened remains. Apologies in advance if the writing isn't any good or sexciting - I love reading, but I've never written a whole story before.

[maddog_mlvn]

1st camper reporting in, Bro TS pls get the ball rolling non stop.

[Aenarion]

Apologies - couldn't post anything last night as the thread was under moderation (my first post).

***********************
I once read an analogy about marriage, about how staying faithful is entirely by choice. It was something like this: If a stranger comes knocking on the door of your marriage, or looks into your window, will you crack open the door to take a step outside, or firmly shut the window in the face of temptation?

I remember laughing when I read this, and thinking "Siao..." as I never thought it would become relevant. Why would I ever have the chance to be tempted?

***********************

To get it out of the way, I should describe myself. I consider myself a happily married man in my early 30s, with a wonderful wife, and a beautiful young child who is more than I deserve. Having achieved a steady career which I enjoy, I now desire nothing more than to live happily with my wife and raise my daughter/future other children to be healthy and happy, barring any ill-health or misfortune. I do not smoke nor drink, and my hobbies are simple and inexpensive. Generally, a lucky but otherwise unremarkable man at the "raising a young family" stage of life.

Now...what about a "her"? No point to the story without a female lead right? There she stands in the wings, awaiting her turn on stage. To my eyes, she remains largely unchanged, as pretty as ever compared to when we first met.

[Aenarion]

Looks like even replies will take some time to appear. Going to be slow going then sorry, can't post at work except on phone which is a damn hassle.

[maddog_mlvn]

If u want to get out of moderation fast, keep posting, dun wait for it to appear on the forum. And pls post longer paragraph, u r not writing SHORT story for other to read.

[Aenarion]

***********************
8 YEARS AGO

"Hi! Sorry, do you think you could help me and my friends with this problem? We're not quite sure how to resolve this..." The question jolted me back to reality as I looked up from the problem I was working on, to see an attractive young intern standing in front of me. And her 2 even prettier friends standing a metre behind her.

Being fairly new to the job, I was doing my best to stay afloat, and did not feel like I had the spare bandwidth to spend time helping interns. Besides, I was knee-deep in a particularly busy project that week, and stress levels were rising. However, I recalled how my seniors had previously helped me when I was a clueless intern, and I knew I should do my duty in paying it forward.

Biting back a sigh of resignation, I stood up from my desk to see what they needed help with. It was a needed short break, anyway, to clear my mind. Besides, which straight guy would object to spending a few minutes in the presence of a trio of pretty girls, staring earnestly at you and hanging on to your every word?

"...and this is how we do this. It's not difficult once you work through a few more of these problems, just need to get more hands-on experience lah," I said as I finished explaining the issue.

"Hmm ok thanks, think we got it! Sorry for disturbing you..."

"No worries, let me know if you need any more help. Cheers."

Off they went, with a mega-watt smile from the cute intern who had first spoken to me. Grinning to myself, I turned back to my work.

[Aenarion]

Thanks for the tip, can't post too fast anyway. It takes a bloody long time to copy and paste things over using a phone and making sure the formatting is ok. Still need to work lol

[Aenarion]

As I was happily attached at that point in time, I didn't think much of it beyond enjoying the eye candy for a while, and thinking to myself that the standard of girls in our industry sure was improving over the years. I thought I probably wouldn't see them again given the size of the company, as interns were rotated through various departments for greater exposure. But to my surprise, the 3 girls came by repeatedly over the next few weeks, and I was happy to help with whatever small query they had at hand. Well, I would have been as accommodating to a group of similar guys, but certainly not as happy doing it :D

I knew that their coming to me for help had no extra meaning attached, as like all other interns, they would ask whichever senior was conveniently at hand for help. As it turned out, the reason I saw more of them during that period was because their supervisor (bless that guy) had requested them to get more hands-on experience in the department I was assigned to.

Over the period of time they came to me for help, I got to know the three of them a little better. The ladies were 3 years younger than myself, from the same course in university. They were named Elizabeth, Ruth, and Aerith, and all three were definitely prettier than average. Strictly speaking, Elizabeth and Ruth would be considered by most to be the prettier girls in the trio of SYTs, but there was something about Aerith that attracted me more compared to her friends.

***Why "Aerith"? I'm a Final Fantasy VII fan...deal with it :D

At roughly 1.6 m, with a petite frame, she looked like a typical slim, sweet girl next door. She was not a traffic-stopper, nor did she have much of a figure to speak of, apart from nicely shaped, slim legs tapering down to a pair of slender ankles. Overall, she wasn't quite the type I thought I was normally attracted to. I wasn't sure what in particular drew me to this girl - was it the winning smile she had given me when we first met, her big lively eyes, her unconscious easy grace, or her down-to-earth, good-natured mannerisms? Whatever it was, I just naturally seemed to click better with her compared to her 2 friends.

Still, I thought nothing of it and left things as they were, without even getting her number for any "official reasons". I recall being a little disappointed though when on one occasion, Ruth whispered something to Aerith that sounded like "...your boyfriend...", and Aerith covered her mouth and laughed, looking slightly awkward, with all 3 girls giggling together after that. So, she's attached... not that that's any of my business, I thought.

In the end, it was nothing more than a minor attraction (and probably one-sided on my part), and they left after a few weeks, leaving me a nice little "thank you" note (which I unfortunately threw away after a few years when moving house, thinking there would be no meaning in keeping it).

[Aenarion]

***********************
8 YEARS LATER

Time and life flew by - I grew older, my girlfriend became my wife, I moved to another company and got promoted, saved up for a car, our beautiful daughter was born... the brief interaction I had with the three girls faded into memory, and it never crossed my mind that I might meet Aerith again.

Until one morning at work when my lady boss came by my room.

Boss: "Aenarion, we've got a group from the advanced training programme who'll take turns to be attached to our department. You'll be handling them most of the time, can?"

Me: "Steady boss, no problem. Just send me the list and projected dates later, I'll work out the schedule for them."

Boss: "Thanks, I'll leave it mostly to you then. Let me know if you need any help making the arrangements."

I sighed internally. While I enjoyed my work, I also enjoyed the spare time in between to do my own stuff occasionally. With a trainee around, my time spent surfing about non-work related stuff would vanish, along with any chances to sneak in some mobile gaming.

"DING!" I pulled up the email, and the accompanying word document to look at the list of trainees who would be coming. Scanning through the dates, I proceeded to make arrangements for introductory lectures, hands on experience, project work, etc... all the usual work stuff. As these advanced trainees would only be a few years younger than myself, I went onto facebook to try and kaypoh to see if I could check out who these people were.

"Huh..." I had gotten to "Aerith XXX" and typed in the name, before recalling that it sounded familiar. As the profile came up (we had common friends, but having forgotten about her, I hadn't even tried searching for her FB profile before. I'm a relative dinosaur when it comes to FB, don't use it much beyond keeping up to date on what friends are getting up to), a profile pic of her holding a young child in her arms popped into view.

Could it be...? A coincidence, was this the same Aerith who would be coming? It struck me just how much time had flown by. While she looked much the same to me based on her FB profile, she was now married, with a young toddler who looked even older than my own daughter! A little FB stalking showed that yes, this was the right Aerith, and that she had been married for only a year plus less than me, but had a baby son a few months older than my girl. A small wave of nostalgia swept me as images of the past swam up from the depths of my memory, and I smiled. We had all moved on in life, but it would be good to see her again for a few weeks.

[Aenarion]

Feedback and comments please! Have tried to stick to what's relevant, while still including the small details I thought were important to tell the story, but is the style ending up too long winded?

Thanks in advance!

[maddog_mlvn]

If u hv a longer posting, maybe u will be out of moderation b4 ur 10 post.

[TrustNoDog]

camping here :)

[Mazerrunners]

Youre doing well bro! Love the writing style and content :) keep it up!