A Day I'll Never Forget

Woohoo! It’s day three of D65’s 7 Posts 7 Days challenge. I apologize in advance, this is a bit longer than my usual posts.

Today’s prompt is: Write about a day that you will never forget.

I had a few ideas for this post but realized I only had one that was a whole day that I’d never forget. You’re going to have to indulge me on this one. It’s romantic in nature, well, romantic in my world.

The day I’ll never forget is the first day that Jez and I spent any real time together.

If I’d had my way, I would never have been there. Why? Well, let me take you back to the late ‘90s…

I was at the Royal Navy School of Meteorology and Oceanography (RNSOMO) studying to become a Met observer. We were paid monthly, and I’d send a little over half my pay back to my parents each month. And, as an eighteen-year-old, I wasn’t the best with what I had left. I was about a fiver short of being broke mid-month.

The school had planned an impromptu outing: cliff walk around the coast and a stop off at a local pub on the way back to the base. As you can probably guess, with me being almost broke, I didn’t want to go. But my instructor told me it was mandatory and that everyone was going (including the officers studying to become forecasters).

For the first load of miles, I fretted about how little I could get away with spending in the pub. And how I was going to deal with not smoking—yep, I used to smoke—as I’d run out the night before and couldn’t afford more.

We continued on, enjoying the scenery and sticking with our own ranks—I was a lowly rating. But when an enormous, white hotel came into view, there were murmurings of going there instead of the pub. I started to panic, as most of the ratings wanted to lord-it-up there.

Luckily, some of the officers and a few ratings wanted to continue on. Phew. The relief of not going to the hotel made me realize that the pub was doable—a pint of diet lemonade wasn’t that expensive. 

I started to drift away from the other ratings, enjoying the solitude and the surroundings. Then I realized that I wasn’t alone. An officer I’d noticed at the school (who I may have liked the look of) joined me.

I’d always called him “Sir” or by his rank, but he told me to call him Jez. He was so mellow in comparison to everyone else I’d met in the military. He was happy to just walk and talk about the scenery, where I’d been surfing, and generally taking the piss out of anything and everything. Oh, and he had smokes he was more than happy to share—this is important information.

When we finally made it to the pub, we realized that we hadn’t talked to anyone else for miles. A quick shrug and we decided that we’d share a table at the pub. That’s when I did the unthinkable.

I could see that Jez was a bit nervous. I thought it was because he was an officer, and I was a newbie rating—and fraternization between the ranks is a big no-no (forbidden love, if you’re a romance reader).

So, to ease this nervousness, I started talking. I let out the crazy. You know the crazy you don’t reveal until you’ve been together for at least six months? Yeah, I let it out right there, before we even started going out.

I went straight in with my love of vampires, heavy metal, and freaking bat watching. So, so many things that should have been locked in the crazy vault.

But he didn’t balk at any of it. No, no, no. This guy joined in. He was a metal guy who loved Interview with a Vampire as much as I did. He was also pretty interested in going bat watching with me.

We talked for hours until the mini-bus came to take us back to base. We said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. I’d had a great time but knew that there was nothing more to it than that. There couldn’t be. 

Back at the rating’s bar, my friend just stared at me. When I asked what was up, she gave me a knowing smile and said, “You’ll know soon enough.”

You know what, the next night, I did. We’ve been together ever since. 

P.S. Those smokes I mentioned, Jez deliberately brought more than he needed so that he could use them as an in to talk to me. (It’s the reason behind it that’s romantic, not the actual smokes.;)

TL;DR: I was skint; went on a walk; hot guy shared his smokes; I shared the crazy; together ever since.