Bacardi Girl

Here she was, 50 years old and was widowed, early last year, just before her 49 birthday. Colin was her life, her children were her life, her job was her life. Everything was her life except a social life.

In the early days, friends would visit, invite her to dinners, but nothing replaced Colin.

Colin was her first love. Her first school romance. In fact, her only romance. All she ever wanted was Colin, yes, they had their moments together just like every other married couple. But they were soul mates.

Chrissy, her best from school and work, said to her during their lunchbreak, ‘Helen love, you’ve got to get back out there, girl. You’ve got to get a social life. You can’t sit night after night in front of the TV or in bed reading a book, it ain’t natural gal.’

‘Dinner at DaVinci’s, 8pm Friday night’ she carried on saying. ‘Well, take it from there, put the slap on old gal and we’ll have a few vinos.’

She didn’t want to go, but nobody said no to Chrissy. If she didn’t turn up she knew damn well, Chrissy would be hammering her door down and dragging her out to dinner.

Friday came, as she stood there in front of the mirror, dressed in her little black dress; suddenly she felt a presence, a feeling, a voice in her head. She closed her eyes and took a depth breath.

It felt like Colin was standing next to her and telling her she looked lovely and to out and enjoy herself, and that she was too young to be on her own forever. He would be happy if he knew she was happy.

A tear rolled down her cheek and she looked at the picture of Colin and her that sat on the bedside table.

She arrived at DaVinci’s just before 8 and Chrissy was there waiting for her. ‘WOW, you look a million dollars, hun.’

Chrissy hadn’t even showed her where their table was, before she was being dragged over to meet Alan, Chrissy’s brother and his friend Mike.

Chrissy had such a bond with Alan… and when Chrissy said Friday, it hadn’t even dawned on her that every Friday night after work Chrissy would always meet her brother for a meal or a drink.

Mike pulled out the chair and Chrissy promptly said, ‘Helen this is Mike, Mike this is Helen.’

With a few shy words acknowledging each other, Helen hoped the ground would open up and swallow her up, and take her out of DaVinci’s and back to her lounge.

Small talk was made between all of them, when suddenly Mike looked at her and said, ‘Helen, so why are you single?‘

The blood drained from her face and she couldn’t speak, she felt her mouth go dry and became incredibly tongue-tied.

Mike then took her hand, and said gently, ‘Sorry Helen, I didn’t mean to embarrass you. I’m single because my wife died of cancer a couple of years ago, and it’s taken me all this time to pluck up the courage to get myself back out there, and meet new people.’

Helen, still letting Mike hold her hand felt the blood flow back into her cheeks, and looked into his smouldering eyes and said, ‘Me too… my husband died last year.’

Mike then laughed as he wryly said to her, ‘See we do have something in common!’