Amy

It had been years since I’d last seen her; the girl who had won all of our hearts back in school. But there she was standing over by the pool, chatting to my dad. Time had been kind to her. She looked even more beautiful than she did back then. He long dark hair falling down her suntanned back; crystal white teeth shining in the sun and impossibly long legs that could give a man vertigo.

She’d gone through boys in sixth-form like teenage boys go through tissues. It seemed like every two weeks she was dumping one and then selecting her next victim. Old Joe Dixon had three or four turns, but the rest of us were left wondering what might have been.

Despite her reputation and her ability to chew up boys and spit them out, she always kept those long legs well and truly shut. I’d had my turn, our lips met at her front door after I'd been chosen to walk her home from the youth club. But that’s was far as it went. If my memory served me right, we had one more ‘date’ where we shared a bag of chips and a couple of silk cut, and then I was discarded with the rest of them. Meanwhile she was like a cruise ship, sailing on to the next port of call, not looking back.

Twelve years ago. That’s how long it was. How much water has flowed under the bridge since then? A lot for me, married, two kids and a recent messy, messy, divorce. So I had escaped to get some winter sun with my dad who just six months ago had divorced my mum after thirty-two years of marriage. Both of us were looking for sun, sangria and rebound sex to take our minds off the mess back home.

Seeing Amy put a little spring in my step. A small voice in the back of my mind wondered if maybe, just maybe, we could rekindle the weak fires of old and go further than chips and cigarettes; a small voice.  The large voice, a voice with a megaphone was saying ha who am I kidding?.

But then both voices went quiet. Stunned silence fell in my head. I watched Amy and my father kiss. Not a peck on the cheek kiss but a full on hands everywhere, get a room snog.

I stood and stared in disbelief for a moment and then decided to leave them to it and go back to my room. But I was too late. My dad had decoupled himself and had seen me.

‘Hey Josh,’ he called out.

‘Hi’ I said blushing profusely.

‘You know Amy, don’t you?’ He said.

‘Hi’ I repeated, barely looking at either of them.

‘Sorry, I should have told you,’ my dad smiled. ‘Amy's here with me, we've been together a couple of years.’

My mouth moved like a goldfish in a tank but nothing came out.

Just a note on the origin of this story. My sister Rachel gave me The Writer's Toolbox for Christmas. 

In it, there are prompts for stories one prompt was 'There she was, Amy Gerstein, over by the pool, kissing my father.' 

I didn't use the line exactly but created a story from that.