The Goalkeeper.

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The ball whistled passed my ear and into the back of the imaginary nets.

‘Jonesy,’ my teammates yelled, disappointed that I had not saved an easily saveable shot, but I hadn’t moved. To make matters worse, we had just decided that the next goal was the winner. So I’d just cost our team the chance to win 24-23 after two and a half hours of play.

The reason I hadn’t moved was because I’d caught sight of Helen and Karen coming into Romily Park. Had they already been there, I would have done my best to save it, a dramatic dive followed by two, maybe three rolls, but as they had just appeared my ‘show off’ instinct wasn’t yet honed.

I loved Karen, she was everything a 13 year old boy dreamt of. Dark hair, big eyes and a body that was beginning to change from puppy fat to grown up curves. She was easily the best looking girl in our class and I’m sure it wasn’t only me who dreamt of kissing her behind the bike sheds. But I’d never had a girlfriend, I didn’t even know what going out with someone meant. Where was out? And what did 13 year olds do when they got there?

Anyway, the game of football was over and Craig and I walked over to join the girls on the swings.  They smiled as we approached.

‘Great save.’ Karen said, smiling at me. I blushed the colour of my Wales shirt, was she flirting with me?

‘Hey Paul, I need to ask you something,’ Karen said again, I looked at Craig, he looked at me and shrugged. “Let’s go for a walk,’ she said.

We walked from the swings to the shelter. ‘Paul,’ Karen said. I took a deep breath this was it. ‘Helen wants to know if you would like to go out with her.’  It was like my nan had licked her hanky and wiped the smile off my face. Of course she wasn’t going to ask me out herself, of course she was going to ask on behalf of her friend, that’s how these things worked as 13 year olds.

‘Um, I dunno,’ I stuttered. It wasn’t that I didn’t like Helen, she was nice, a little plain, a little quiet, but nice enough. The problem was she just wasn’t Karen. I might have been young and innocent, but I knew that if I went out with Helen, then Karen would be off limits forever.

“I’ll tell you tomorrow,’ I said, just trying to buy myself some time.

But I never did tell her my answer; I never turned Helen down, but never said yes either. Within 2 weeks Craig was going out with Karen and Helen with Mark, leaving me slightly regretting my decision.  

If I regretted it then, it was nothing to how I feel now. 28 years later. Wales Online often runs a 20 sexiest Welsh women feature and I sometimes flick through the pics of models and TV personalities. But today’s was different - 20 sexiest older Welsh women. To be honest I hadn’t heard of half of them but I certainly recognised number one. Staring out from my computer screen was Helen Burns, Head of Productions at Coch TV and boy she wasn’t plain anymore. It made me wonder if she was still waiting for my answer.

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