I was nineteen when I met Colin. It was at Comic Con and he had this really neat Star Trek uniform. By a coincidence I was also there as a Star Trek character. I'd made my costume myself and I'd done a damn good job of it if I do say so myself.
I naturally approached Colin and we started chatting. It turned out that he'd also made his own costume with his father's help.
"Father's help?" I asked.
"Yeah," Colin assured me. "He's real good with his hands. He does carpentry and glazing but he can turn his hand to tailoring when required. He's made me a few costumes over the years."
I'd tentatively touched on the subject of his mother, but it seemed she was deceased. Apparently she had lost an argument with a train when he was just a child.
Our costumes matched so well that we just naturally stayed together for the whole Comic Con and a number of people asked to have their photos taken with us. We were even asked by the organisers to pose for a couple of shots for their web site.
We had a great time and I spent most of the weekend with Colin.
No, not the nights, if you're wondering. I wasn't yet ready for that sort of thing. Colin's a great guy but I wasn't into sexual experimentation at that stage, especially only having known him for that weekend.
It turned out that we lived quite close to each other. It was surprising that we hadn't actually met before locally, but when you consider the map it was quite reasonable. I was close to one suburb shopping centre and station while Colin was closer to one in the opposite direction. We'd spent years heading away from each other.
After that weekend we continued to see each other. I won't say we were actually girlfriend and boyfriend, but rather two people with similar hobbies and tastes who liked each other's company. We friend zoned each other, I guess.
I got to meet his father. Talk about a study in contrasts. Colin I would describe as a gentle person. He's smart, really smart. He's studying to be a doctor. He actually wants to be a brain surgeon. A weird ambition, in my opinion, but he'll probably do it.
His father, on the other hand, looks and sounds like a bit of a thug. But for all his looks, it's plain that he's the reason for Colin's brains and his manual dexterity. I've seen some of the work that his father does and it's amazing. There's a touch of real artistry behind those thuggish looks.
Before I knew it a year had rolled past and there was another Comic Con coming up. Colin and I had decided to turn up as a matched pair again. I'd finally finished my costume and took it around to Colin's place to show him so that we could compare it with his new one.
When I got there Colin was out, but George, his father was there. I explained the reason I'd come and he asked to see the costume.
"Since I'll be doing most of the work on Colin's, I might as well know what I'm going to have to match it to," he said.
I unwrapped it and laid it out on the table for George to consider. He nodded a couple of times and then asked to see it on.
"I work a lot better when I've seen a 3D image of an object," he said. "If you care to change into it, it will give me a better idea of how it's supposed to look. I'll take a couple of photos, as well. You can change in the bathroom."
I saw no real reason not to. It wasn't as though I'd be modelling a bikini or anything like that. I nipped into the bathroom and came out to model.
George checked it out pretty carefully. He made a couple of suggestions as to where minor improvements could be made and told me how to go about them. He took some photos, front, back and side.
Then he lowered the camera and said, "That's fine, as far as it goes. Can you take the uniform off now?"
I said, "Sure. I'll be right back," and then I got a shock.
"No, you misunderstand me, Sharon," he said, his voice perfectly normal. "I want you to take it off while I take a few more photos of you."
I'm sure my mouth was hanging open, but George just stood there, patiently waiting.
"I'm not sure just what you mean," I said, a touch nervously. I was quite sure he didn't really mean to take photos of me in my undies.
"I think it's time for a Star Trek moment," he told me. "I want you to take off your uniform while I take a few more shots and then I am going to boldly go where no man has gone before."
George was propositioning me. Not even that, really. To be blunt, he wasn't asking. He was telling me to get undressed as he was going to screw me.
I may have been a virgin but I was an adult and I wasn't going to beat about the bush.
"You're not taking photos of me getting undressed," I said flatly. "Or even after I've got undressed," I added, when I saw he was about to suggest just that.