1991

First love was late for David. He had dated girls back home in Boston, plenty of dates. Being at a great school and being part of one the wealthiest families in the area made sure he was never without a pretty girl. He always had a nagging thought that the family money was slightly more attractive than he was.

After his father's death, his mother threw herself into her charity work, which meant leaving Boston for Cardiff was not the wrench he thought it would be. After wrapping up the family estate, just before his nineteenth birthday, he made his way to Wales to start the next chapter in his life.

His Auntie Eileen, his dad's sister and Uncle Al were his surrogate parents in Wales. He stayed with them for a week before moving into Halls in Cardiff for the first year.

The Halls were typical student accommodation and for the first time in his life he had to totally fend for himself and he revelled in it. He decided early on not to divulge his family's wealth or position in Boston and find out if people liked him for himself. That was the best and most liberating part of this new chapter in his life.

On the second night there he attended a rugby training session and met his new best friends in Dan, Richard and Emlyn. Dan and Richard studying Business and Accounting and Emlyn studying Architecture. They were all in the same halls and they bonded quickly, becoming a tight knit unit.

At the freshers' ball, in their finery, the boys found a table and began drinking in earnest. It was Dan who spotted her at the bar and made a beeline to talk to her. She was tall, athletic, silver blonde and wearing a dress that was so tight you could see every curve of her body. After Dan made his move, it seemed to David that every male in the room somehow made a play for the girl at the bar.

He watched the spectacle of the girl rejecting every advance in the room with a certain amusement. He watched as the subtle and the not so subtle were rejected with the same response. The girl would smile, say something, then turn back to her group of friends and continue her conversation.

After an hour of rejecting every male at Cardiff University, the girl walked over to David. He quickly turned around to check that there was no one behind him. When he was sure he turned back to face her. She walked straight towards him and stood in front of him. She thrust her hand out for him to shake.

"Hi I am Grace." she had an American accent, sounded like upstate New York, "I would like you to take me out of here as these guys are just amateur." she smiled, "I heard you were American too, I just don't understand anything they are saying and they are all so drunk!"

"Wow, erm I am David." he stammered, "of course I will take you wherever you want."

"I want to go back to my room, where I have a stash of Reece's Pieces and Hershey Bars, I am willing to share if you are my knight in shining armour and vamoose me out of here."

David took her hand, grabbed a bottle of red wine and two glasses from the table and escorted Grace back to her room through the university grounds. They spent the rest of the night eating Grace's candy and drinking the red wine David had snuck out.

He discovered that she was from Westchester County and she was studying English Literature. She had spent two years in England at boarding school, which led her to Cardiff. From that night on and for three years David and Grace were inseparable. They spent term time together and breaks with each other's families. It seemed to everyone that their future was intertwined.

In between David's third and fourth year, he had a secondment to Belize for three months. He loved working as a medical student in the clinic he was assigned to.

Grace had a summer job at her father's bank in London, being a general dogsbody. He wrote to Grace daily and in the beginning, her letters were as frequent, they often crossed in the mail, but that added to the excitement of receiving her correspondence.

He described his daily activities as an attending medic whilst she gave a graphic picture of the City of London and its vices.

David decided to surprise Grace by returning back to the UK a couple of days early. He booked a suite at the Savoy, got a haircut, bought some smart clothes and decided to call on her at work. He found her offices quite easily as they were next to Moorgate Tube station. He felt so nervous and excited to see her finally after all this time. Their last few letters had been quite explicit about what they would be doing to one another when they finally met.

The bar outside the bank's offices was teeming with office workers quenching the thirsts they had built up over the week. At a table he saw Grace, sitting alone. She was breathtakingly beautiful. Her hair up in a grown up chignon. Her black tight suit clinging to her curves.

He quickened his pace to reach her when he stopped dead in his tracks. He saw a man in his early 30s wearing a very expensive suit walk to the table, kiss Grace passionately and set down a bottle of champagne and two glasses in front of her.

David felt like the air had been sucked out of his lungs by a vacuum. He stood rooted to the spot about thirty yards from the bar. He didn't know how long he had been stood motionless however he was suddenly aware of Grace running towards him, shouting something at him.

David did not know what to do, he was so confused by what he had witnessed. This was the love of his life, the girl he was going to marry and there she was clearly intimate with another man. Grace ran to him and grabbed his hand.

"David, I am so sorry."she blurted,"Let's go somewhere we can talk."

She led him by the hand to another bar across the road. David followed her blindly, numbed by his feelings, not able to find a word to say to her for the first time in three years. Grace bought them both a glass of red wine and they sat in a booth at the back of the room.

"David, I did not want you to find out like this." she held both of his hands across the table, looking at him directly, "I didn't mean for this to happen, I have been working with James on a deal for the last two months and we have grown closer over this time..." she trailed off looking at David to speak, as he was not forthcoming she continued, "He and I, its got a bit more serious in the last few weeks and whilst I wasn't sure how I felt about it all, I didn't want to let you know in a letter, it felt so .."

"Wrong," David finished her sentence, "I imagine it felt wrong Grace." he said flatly, she nodded in agreement. "Finding out like this was so much better for me, thanks for being with someone else but still giving me the benefit of the doubt."

Grace made to speak and David pulled his hand away. He dug in his pocket and fished out the room key and gave it to her.

"What is this for?" Grace asked.

"It's a room key for the suite at the Savoy so that you and your married lover can have a great night on me. Thanks for the lesson Grace, I will be seeing you." He stood up from the table.

"How do you know he is married?" she asked.

"They always are, for a smart girl you are acting super dumb right now. You will be his young piece of tail for as long as his interest is in you and then he won't leave his wife. He will move on to you Mark II or Mark III." He sighed, "I will get my things from your room and I will do the same with yours." he said flatly walking away from her knowing it would be the last time he would ever see her.

David walked in a daze from Moorgate to the Savoy, cleared out his things and got on the first train to Porthmadog, where his Aunt and Uncle picked him up and took him to the family house in Beddgelert.

The house was set in the Snowdonia National Park and he spent the first part of his holiday outdoors, hill climbing and mountain biking. He filled his time as much as he possibly could to avoid thinking about Grace and how devastated he was by her actions. Mostly he was lost without her. His life in the UK began with her and now he had to reset his internal compass and learn to get on without her.

His Aunt got him a job at the local outdoor equipment shop. After a month, he stopped pining for Grace every minute of every day and got on with helping tourists find their bearings and find equipment, that would stop the mountain rescuers being called out.

One of his colleagues in the shop was local farmers daughter Jackie. She bugged him every week to go to the young farmer's nights at the local hall. After a month, she wore him down and he reluctantly attended. He hadn't realised what a stir he would cause as within thirty minutes of arriving he had three offers of hooking up that night. It did his confidence the world of good and he found himself enjoying the rest of this holiday in the arms of various local girls.

He dreaded going back to university and clearing out his things from Grace's room. When he got back he found that all of his belongings had been carefully packed away in storage. On his bed he found a note from Grace explaining that she had forgone her honours year and was now working full time at the bank. She wished him well and gave a forwarding address for her belongings in his room.

Sadly, he packed up her things and duly followed her instructions, certain that this would be the very last contact he would have with her. He resolved that he would not allow his heart to be taken so easily again.

Authors note

Does this explain why David is such a player?