Story-telling Sunday

I was reminded of this story by my mother the other day and although in hindsight it is a bit embarassing, I had to share it. Especially in view of the ending.

My oldest  cousin Seona is about 8 years older than me. As a result, her and my second oldest cousin were always in a different life stage than the other 4 of us cousins. My eldest cousin, Seona had a boyfriend called Gary throughout her high school years and being a relatively close family we all knew each other well. When I was around 8 or 9, I fell desperately in love with Gary. I idolised him with that puppy love that I am sure that many others can identify with (well, I hope others can anyway). I spent my time following him around, talking to him and trying to get his attention. It became so bad that I would actually try to insinuate myself between him and Seona continuously. He was always very sweet to me, but of course saw a little girl, but I saw myself as his girlfriend. Needless to say my cousin was NOT impressed and extremely unhappy with me, lol. In retrospect I have found out her mum talked to her regularly about it to reassure her and the adults always tried to distract me to go and play with other kids. Fortunately it was just a month or so after this that my cousin finished school and they both went off to university and so we didn't see them nearly as much. The relationship didn't last and my cousin eventually married another guy who had been waiting in the wings for years and they are still married today.
Fast forward nearly 20 years. The occasion: my cousins second childs christening. My daughter, Brenda is about 15 months old. Since, she was a typically active toddler I spent the majority of the service outside with her at the kiddies play area. There were a few other parents there, but most had smaller babies. There was only one child of walking age who Brenda was desperate to play with. He, unfortunately was terrified of her and kept running away. She would go up to him with a toy and he would run to his father. This happened nearly the entire morning and even at the party afterwards. The funny thing (or I thought so, a bit shamefacedly) who was the father? You guessed it - Gary, my cousins ex boyfriend!
This story is part of Sian's Storytelling Sunday.