The long hello

I met Andy online. Back in the days everyone used chat rooms in AOL. I had been chatting away to my friend Clare (who we gave the name Wendy to, as she sometimes 'enjoyed' the company of a fella who was her 'Bob the Builder' type friend....fixing things in her home).
Wendy always made me laugh....and I was in need of laughter.
His online name, at the start, was 'MintSauceOne' with a little avatar of a sheep. I laughed at the ironic cruelty....sounds sweet until the connotations of a lamb chop and mince sauce finally dawns on you....and it took me a while.
I remember Andy asking me "....what are you looking for...." and by that time, I'd have to say I was already falling in love with him.
He, I felt, kept himself just on the other side of the line...for a good few weeks. But, when he'd get home from his shift finishing at 1am, he'd say hello. I always stayed up, no matter how shattered or stressed I was about getting something done for work. I was working long hours on a project implementation. I have no words to describe how much I longed to talk to him. He was so witty, and he'd take daft pictures of himself. For no reason, other than the silly comments, and the ease of which we could talk for hours.....my life became exciting. He was into motorbikes, which I'd always loved but never ridden on my own, or taken lessons for. He started to talk about BSB (British SuperBike) races....and I was enthralled. It just made him all the more interesting and exciting.
He changed his addy to 'FullOnNutterdom' which I just loved.
There I was....35 years old and just overwhelmed with excitement when I simply saw him log on. Was I a teenager? It felt like it. It felt good. He never once became sleazy, not a hint of anything like that.
One day, I gave him my mobile number. I will never forget the constant chiming as he sent joke after joke to me. It was on my desk and colleagues were laughing at the fact it seemed to be in melt down.
When I saw who they were from, and started to read them......I was so happy. Laughed out loud. I was really getting to like this guy a lot. He brought me so much laughter.
I talked about him non stop to Wendy. She was probably sick of my girly nonsense......but she always humoured me as she could see I was having fun. I was so much happier since I'd started to talk to him. Another early morning....maybe 5am, when he was going to bed and I had to get the kids up at 7am......I somehow always managed to get through the day with so little sleep.
As I said, all of a sudden my life was exciting.
I kept every single transcript. Every single text message I painstakingly copied into a word document. I loved our chats so much. Why would someone do that? I never wanted to forget what he said....what it was that made me feel so good....I wanted to keep them for posterity. I loved to be able to read our conversations easily, instead of having to open tonnes of text messages. It was my guilty pleasure. I, for years, thought I'd been so smart to keep them as we'd ended up together. I often thought I'd write a book about us. Our love. Or....rather, I'd write about a man who was so amazingly special.....my love story.
I daren't even think about that word document now.....it could be what pushes me over the edge. And I'm standing so close. Every minute of every day.

During one of our all night chats, he sent me a picture of this bike. I will tell you more about it soon.

The window......that's here and now......its story will become apparent.

N'nite.....enough memories already as the tears have been escaping for the last ten minutes. Can't see screen. Gotta go.