When Richard and Cathie got together in the mid-eighties, they both thought it would last forever. That’s what she kept telling him, and he allowed himself to be swept along with it.

He was fifteen, and she was older. Only by eighteen months. But it felt significant at that age. She wasn’t a virgin, and she had all the confidence of a woman, not a girl. She told him she loved him, and that she wished she’d waited. He wished he’d had at least some experience before Cathie. As it was, he could only hope his bumbling ineptitude didn’t show when she planted that first kiss on him. He thought there was probably something he should be doing with his tongue, but he wasn’t sure what. He allowed her to explore his mouth with hers, and he put his hands on her hips to shift her away from what was going on in his trousers. The occasion was both thrilling and mortifying. He used to be such a shy lad.

After a week, he admitted he loved her too and let her take what was left of his fifteen-year-old innocence.

‘Will you marry me?’ he asked after he had come too quickly. If she said no, that would be the end of him, but at least he would die happy.

‘I thought you’d never ask,’ she said.

They didn’t share the same taste in music. That might have been a problem but for the fact that Richard was now head over heels in love with sweet, sexy Cathie. Or at least in love with having sex with Cathie. So, he listened less to David Bowie and worked hard at mustering enthusiasm for Wham! and Madonna instead.

He took her to the pictures, but she didn’t enjoy Once Upon a Time in America or The Hotel New Hampshire, so he didn’t insist on seeing Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and deferred to her choices from then on. Electric Dreams and Sixteen Candles were meaningless drivel, but Desperately Seeking Susan was better than he’d expected.

For their six-month anniversary, she gave him the soundtrack to Flashdance and seemed surprised when he told her he’d never seen the film.

To Richard,

This album is to commemorate happy memories of the past six months and our love in the future.

I love you,

Cathie xxx

She dotted her i with a heart, and Richard was immediately dispatched to the video shop.

He tried his best to stay awake during Flashdance. He knew Cathie identified with the aspiring dancer. He’d seen her in a local production of Annie. She’d been disappointed not to get the lead but stole the show as Pepper. She had her heart set on going to drama college, but she’d been working in Woolworths since leaving school last summer.

Now, curled up next to Cathie, watching a film he couldn’t concentrate on, all he wanted to do was take her clothes off. He considered that they could marry now he was sixteen, but there was no hurry when her parents wouldn’t be home for ages, and he could shag her on the sofa.

‘I’ll only be gone for a few weeks,’ said Cathie when Richard complained about her plans for the summer.

‘But what am I going to do while you’re swanning around in Bristol?’

‘The Old Vic summer school is really prestigious. It’s a big opportunity for me.’

‘I suppose I should start studying for resits anyway.’ Richard hadn’t got his O-level results yet, but Cathie had distracted him enough from his revision that he felt sure the news wouldn’t be good.

‘What if you meet someone else?’ said Richard.

‘What if you meet someone?’ countered Cathie.

Richard didn’t have any concerns for his own fidelity. Nobody else had ever shown him the slightest bit of interest. But Cathie was bound to meet a lithe and handsome dancer.

‘I don’t think the male dancers will be interested in me,’ she said.

‘What about the female ones?’

She left him with a parting gift of Madonna’s Like a Virgin LP.

Think of Madonna. Then think of someone twice as sexy – that’s me.

Play this a lot – it’s to remind you of me in the next few weeks. I’ll miss you. My love for you will last forever.

I love you,

Cathie xxx

Forty years later, Richard is sorting through his old vinyl. His wife says the walls are closing in, and if he wants to buy any more records from that market stall on Saturday, he needs to clear some space.

‘But some of these will be worth a bit now,’ he says.

‘I’m not saying get rid of Electric Ladyland,’ says his wife, ‘but maybe it’s time to reconsider the eighties.’

He regards his Tears for Fears and Eurythmics albums and gives The Communards a spin for old times’ sake. He’d listened to Don’t Leave Me This Way incessantly in the desolation that followed the loss of his first love. Now, at this distance, pain-free, he can appreciate it for the great song it is.

But he doesn’t need to keep the only Madonna LP in his collection, nor the tragic Flashdance soundtrack.

Content in middle age, Richard can let go of his heartbreak and leave it in the past where it belongs. He only hopes Cathie is happy, wherever she may be.

Or maybe they stayed together? Who knows?

With thanks to Heightside Records for supplying the records/love letters, and to Richard and Cathie wherever and whoever you are.