The fallout from the discovery of the blossoming affair between then forty-seven-year-old Amala Gupta and her son's seventeen-year-old friend Patrick Lawton was far-reaching.
Firstly Patrick was devastated at the enforced break up and his feelings lasted throughout the school summer holiday and into his important final year at school, affecting his schoolwork. It also cost him his friendship with Amala's son Sunil and whilst some at school had admiration for him bedding a much older woman others saw him as a source of amusement and cruel remarks.
Patrick's relationship with his parents, especially his mother Susan, was very strained at first but gradually started to heal but Amala's relationship with Sunil seemed broken beyond repair. Amala, of course, missed Patrick hugely.
Amala's relationship with her next-door neighbour Fiona was now lost, whilst Fiona no longer actually talked to Amala she was very happy to talk to anyone about her.
In fact, Sunil found it so difficult being in the same house as his mother that he eventually moved in with his friend Michael Rumbold and Michael's parents.
This was the situation for the first twelve months but at the end of the school year, both Patrick and Sunil got the qualifications necessary to enter University although the then eighteen-year-olds would be going to different ones.
Amala was now finding life in this town almost unbearable and with Sunil no longer having any intention of living with her again she sold the house, which was hers after her much earlier divorce from Sunil's father, and moved to a town about eighty miles away to seek a new life.
Over the next few years, things went quite well for both Amala and Patrick. She settled in her new town, started a small business and made friends. Prior to Patrick arriving in her life, she had not been overly bothered about sex and she was not overly bothered now although she did have occasional sex partners although none of them developed into a steady long-term relationship.
Patrick did well at university and got a pretty good job when he left, he purchased a home of his own in his original home town and he had his fair share of sex both at uni and since without having anything permanent.
They each thought about each other quite frequently because their relatively short time together had had a huge effect on both of them, and in fact, Amala was still Patrick's one and only true love.
Neither had made any serious attempt to find the other in the years that followed their break up and once Amala had sold her house Patrick did not know where she had moved to. Sunil had an address for his mother, although he made no effort to stay in touch, although as he and Patrick were now far from being friends he would not have told Patrick what it was even if he had asked.
The years continued to pass and Patrick was now aged thirty-two and Amala was sixty-two, with both of their lives going on much as they had for the last six or so years.
Patrick's career had come on leaps and bounds and he now had a very high-powered job which meant frequent travel both within the UK and Internationally. He was sitting in the bar area of a high-class UK hotel prior to having his evening meal and he was flicking through various newspapers that were spread on a table nearby.
He was currently looking through the local newspaper and a headline and a photograph caught his initial attention. The headline itself was not earth-shattering, it read, 'Local Business Woman Wins Award' but the photograph and the words below the photograph caused Patrick's life to stand still.
The start of the text read, 'Local businesswoman Amala Gupta' and if Patrick had had a drink in his hand at that moment he would undoubtedly have dropped the glass because the name and a look at the photograph confirmed to him that this was his love from fifteen years before. She looked as though she had put on some weight and there was a hint of greyness in her hair but she still looked absolutely gorgeous.
It took Patrick quite a while to recover his senses as he gazed at the picture and read over and over again the text below it. As he had no idea where Amala had moved to he did not know until that moment that he was actually, apparently, in the same town as her.
Patrick ate his meal, sort of, but his mind was elsewhere. Apart from thinking about the past, he kept mulling over whether to try to contact Amala or not. His head was spinning with questions such as did he really want to contact her? would she want to hear from him? would she want to meet him, if he indeed wanted to meet her?
The piece in the newspaper gave the name of her Company so initial attempts to contact her should be easy enough and the fact that her name was still that of her first marriage suggested that she was not now married but still Patrick was unsure what to do if anything.
He had a restless night but he did resolve to try to contact Amala because this could well be a once in a lifetime chance to again meet the woman who had taken his virginity, given him the best sex of his life, and was the only woman that he had actually been in love with.
He obtained the telephone number of the Company that Amala owned and when a female voice that was certainly not Amala's answered his call he said, "Hello, is it possible to speak to Amala Gupta please?"
The youngish sounding female that had answered the phone replied, "I am sorry, Ms Gupta is not here at the moment, can I ask who is calling please?"
Now Patrick was unsure whether to give his name or whether to say that he would try again later but he had to say something so he thought hard about his wording as he said, "Um, my name is Patrick Lawton, could you ask Ms Gupta to call me back please?"
"Yes sir, should she call on the number that you are ringing from?" asked the female.
"Yes please, if she gets time," replied Patrick who's breathing and heartbeat seemed very irregular at the moment.
With the call finished Patrick was now fretting over whether he should have made the call and whether Amala would phone back and, if so, what she would say.
A while late Amala arrived at the two-roomed office in which her small but successful business was based, "Hello Debbie, any calls?" she cheerfully asked the twenty-year-old that was part of the small workforce.
"Yes Amala, Bryson's phoned to thank you for your work, and a Patrick Lawton rang," replied Debbie.
Amala had started looking through some posts but the second announcement hit her like an express train, so much so that Debbie asked, "Are you alright Amala?"
"Um, yes, yes, um did Mr Lawton leave a number?" replied a still stunned sixty-two-year-old.
"Yes, here it is, he said to please phone him if you get time," said Debbie handing Amala the piece of paper with the number written down.
"Thank you, Debbie, I will ring him later," said Amala trying to sound nonchalant but with her insides churning.
Now it was Amala's turn to have memories flashing through her head and questions about what to do in the immediate future because as Patrick had tried to contact her he must be interested in talking but did she want or need that now. After a while she came to the same conclusion that Patrick had, this might be her one and only chance to again see her lover from all those years before.
With his business meetings going on, Patrick had his mobile switched off so when Amala had got some privacy and phoned the number from her own mobile she got his voicemail, "Um, Patrick, hello it is Amala, can you please ring me or text me on this mobile number, um, speak soon I hope," she said and then just stared at her mobile after disconnecting.
At lunchtime, Patrick checked his mobile and he had missed a few calls, two of which had gone to voicemail. The first one was just a message from his own office and then he was listening to a voice that he had not heard in fifteen years.
He almost immediately phoned Amala's mobile and she saw his name come up because she had already saved his number into hers, she took a deep breath and answered, "Hello, Patrick?"
"Hello Amala, so good to hear your voice, how are you?" gushed Patrick.
"I am fine but I don't understand, how have you found me and why now?" asked Amala.
"Oh yes, I am in town on business and I just happened to see a piece about you in the local paper, I hope you do not mind me contacting you," replied Patrick.
"No, I don't mind at all, I still think of you a lot, do you mean that you are in this town?" said Amala who was just talking as thoughts entered her head.
"I think of you a lot too, yes I am in this town but only since yesterday and then for tonight and most of tomorrow," said Patrick who was longing to discover if his former lover wanted to meet him.
The word 'tonight' caused flutters in Amala's body, "Where are you staying, um, could we meet, if you want to of course?" said Amala.
"I am staying at The Grand Hotel and I would love to meet you Amala," replied Patrick.
"The Grand, you must be doing well for yourself, could I meet you there perhaps?" said the increasingly excited Amala.
"That would be wonderful, do you mean for a meal or for a drink?" asked Patrick who was now semi-erect at the prospect of again seeing this woman although he did not know if it would end up as sexual.
"A drink and a nice long chat if that is alright with you, what time do you want me?" said Amala.
"Oh I always want you Amala, um, sorry, shall we say eight o'clock?" said a now slightly flustered Patrick.
"Baby, I always want you too, see you then," said Amala confirming that it might well get sexual, especially using the term that she frequently used all those years before.
Neither Patrick's nor Amala's thoughts were entirely on their business activities that afternoon as they both looked forward with excitement, and a little bit of trepidation, to their upcoming 'date'.
Amala had a long, luxurious bath at home before spending a lot of time deciding what to wear, including underwear because she thought it very likely that her undergarments would be seen at some point. Patrick too made every effort to make himself look his best and he was feeling almost as nervous now as he had done at the start of what turned out to be quite a brief affair.
Patrick was in the bar when the beautiful woman entered, Amala nodded to a gentleman that she knew through her business and then her dark eyes fell on Patrick and he looked, to her, just as sexy as he had done as a teenager. Amala was wearing a green trouser-suit and looked stunning.
Patrick stood as Amala approached and they both showed enough restraint to make their initial contact just a kiss by Patrick on Amala's cheek although he thought he might well be kissing a different cheek later.
"Amala, you are gorgeous, still," said Patrick.
"Thank you, a little bit heavier than when you last saw me, you are still so handsome Patrick," replied Amala.
She was noticeably heavier, certainly not fat but her hips were wider which meant that her lovely arse was bigger and her breasts had probably drooped a fraction but she was still an amazingly attractive woman.
Once Patrick had got her a drink they sat in a corner and chatted over what had happened in their lives over the last fifteen years, "Isn't it amazing that you picked up that paper and I was in it?" said Amala, all white teeth and twinkling dark eyes.
"It is, I could not believe it at first, I kept reading it over and over again," confirmed Patrick.
There was a brief silence as they looked into each other's eyes before Patrick, slightly nervously, said, "Amala, would you like to go to my room?"
"Darling, there is nothing that I have ever wanted more," replied Amala before leaning forward and kissing Patrick's lips.
They could have turned that into one of the many long snogs that they had had during their time together although the last one of those led to their enforced break up but as they were going to be in a bedroom together in a few minutes they did not take it further.
The kiss was the trigger to get them off their seats and out of the bar with Patrick walking slightly behind Amala. She smiled back over her shoulder and said, "My bum is a bit bigger than when you last saw it, isn't it?" knowing that that was what Patrick would have been focussing on.
"A little bit perhaps, but it still looks wonderful," he replied as they got close to the lifts.
They regrettably did not have the lift to themselves because they were each longing to get their hands on the other but they soon arrived at the floor on which Patrick had his room. They did manage to walk with bodies touching and with some kissing and giggling as they made their way to his room.