What’s in a name

What’s in a name 

Shane pulls back from our loving Kiss. 

“Cathy do you have any idea just how much I love you?” He asked looking deeply into my eyes with his feverish look that set me on fire every time. If we hadn’t already just finished making love we would have been doing so again. 

He’s looking at me with an expectation of a reply. I’m so baffled by the question I’m unsure how to answer, he carries on speaking. 

“I know I tell you I love you all the time but I’m not always sure I show it, do you believe me when I say I love you?”. 

There is that expected response look again.

“Of course” I finally respond swallowing a lump in my throat. 

“Thank god for that, I was starting to worry you was going to say you had no idea” Shane chuckles shaking his head. 

At work we are all stood looking at the notice board. Patrick scrolls down the list.

“Omg that’s amazing well done girl! Looks like you got the promotion, you wanted!”

“I did that’s amazing, let me see.” I scroll down the list Patrick has just read trying to find my name:

James

Julie

Janice

Peter

Lucas

Sandy

As I get to Sandy, Patrick picks me up, swinging me around with 

“ she did it, she did it way to go sands” 

“What” is all I can manage out loud, my brow curling into a frown.

Later on in the lunch queue Julie asks how I am feeling about Sandy getting the promotion over me.

“I’m not really sure?” I reply.

“I’m seriously shocked it went to Sandy, it really should have been you Polly. You’re so much more qualified than her. I reckon Martin gave her the promotion for sleeping with him don’t you?”

“Yes, you’re probably right, I’m more baffled as to why Patrick grabbed me and spun me like that when Sandy’s name was there? Well done to you though Jules, I’m glad you made it, you deserve it.” I smile congratulating her. 

I have no idea what is going on, if I’ve been zapped off to an alternate reality, or kidnapped by aliens from another planet, but even my work friend Jules, couldn’t seem to get my name right today.

When Shane called me Cathy this morning, I’d instinctively jumped to the conclusion he was having an affair, I mean who gets their own wife’s name wrong? 

When Patrick had congratulated me as if I were Sandy, I thought maybe he needed to go back to the opticians and get his eyesight rechecked. He is getting older and it has been a while since his sight got checked. 

I am really perplexed how Julie thought I was polly? Where did she get Polly from? There’s no one at our workplace called Polly! And why does nobody seem to know my name today? Has the world been brainwashed? 

This is starting to get concerning. The people in your life are meant to know your name, especially when you’re married to them, and/or work with them closely.

I’m beginning to think I am on some kind of tv show, that I’m unaware of. Everyone else on the show has been given the script and I’m left to improvise. They have been asked to set me up, to prank me by pretending I am other people to to see my reactions. I bet they have people betting on when I’m going to crack over having every name but my own. Maybe there’s a prize for not cracking at all? I should make this fun and play along? Or maybe I’m disappointing the audience by not reacting? Then again people really could have somehow forgotten my name? There seems to be a pandemic of amnesia around after all? 

All I know for sure is that it is goddam irritating and beyond annoying to keep being called the wrong name, and so many different names at that. It’s not even one wrong name like mistaken identity but many different names.

If I had been an actress, it would be expected for me to get into each new character, I was playing. But I’m not, the problem with today is everyone else seems to be an actor or actress in this unknown movie I seem to be in. Even though they have all been given the script, I seem to be the main character in this whole plot against me. I’m starting to get a headache from all the confusion.

I’m Getting ready to go out with my friends. I turn to Shane.

“Can you zip me up please babe”

“Of course”

Holding my hair up over my hand, elbow pressed against my head to keep it away from my zip, exposes my neck. As he zips up the back of my dress slowly, he starts gently kissing the back of my neck. I lean back towards him, as he moves round to the side of my neck, his kisses gone from light and feathery to much deeper his longing clear.

“You smell so good” he says in a breathy tone, my breathing becoming more rapid, my hair now fallen to the other side. My neck tilts, my hand reaches to his head grasping onto his hair as I groan out loud.

“Stay in with me tonight Sonya.”

Well that killed it! wrong name again, I drop my hand from his head flicking my neck and head upright so my hair whacks his face.

“Ow what was that for?” he rubs his cheek while asking.

“You know I can’t stay home, we’ve been planning this for months now. You, Dan and Adrian are home while me Pearl and Beth are out, next time we swap over remember?”

He doesn’t reply, still busy rubbing his cheek. I roll my eyes. I doubt it hurt him that much, besides I’m not the one who keeps forgetting MY name. I’m becoming increasingly frustrated with the world. It’s not like any of these people are strangers, work colleagues meh, but my own husband? This is surreal, it’s like someone has sucked out everyone else’s memory, but only where my name is concerned. Everything else is exactly as it should be, and I most definitely need this night out with my friends. There’s no way they would forget my name. we’ve been friends since childhood. 

Wrong again it seems, as I’m asked,

“What would you like to drink Sally?”

“Pearl have you lost the plot, her name is Alice”

“ Well ok thanks for the defence and correction Beth, but actually I’m not Sally or Alice, or Sonya, Cathy, Sandy or Polly, though I am starting to get used to having to answer to any name but my own. So, Sally and Alice will have a Vodka and Coke! Because why not try something I don’t drink either, as it appears it’s not for me anyway.” Sitting with my arms folded, it’s all become too much and I’m left watching Pearl and Beth do goldfish impressions at my sudden outburst. 

I’ve definitely stepped into an alternate universe, where everything is exactly the same but my ever revolving name changes. I just want to return to my world. I’m not even slightly surprised when the fire alarm randomly decides to go off in the pub we are currently at. There’s no other sign of smoke or fire. The barman looks at me, a reflection of puzzlement on his face as he says.

“Darling wake up, it’s time for work” in my husbands voice, then proceeds to lean across the bar to kiss me.

As I look up into his sexy hooded hazel eyes, he pulls back from our loving kiss and states,

“Darling, do you have any idea of just how much I love you?”.

Wait a minute, I’m not going through this again I think, so my response is a suspicious.

“More importantly what’s my name?”

“Ally?” Is his puzzled answer, when I don’t instantly reply he adds “short for Alison, which you know I love to shorten to Ally, though I have to say being asked what your name was wasn’t the response I was expecting!”

“Oh Shane, just knowing the answer, shows how much you love me. I absolutely hated no one knowing my name. But what really stung was when you called me Cathy and Sonya!”

“Huh! Say what?”

“Oh nothing, I just had the weirdest dream, where nobody even you, knew my name.” 

Before he can ask anymore, I entwine my fingers together around his neck and pull his head down towards me, while he pulls me up towards him and our lips meet, for a kiss that answers his own question of how much he truly loves me.

I sigh contentedly, finally someone has called me Alison.

The End.