she's
actual
size

Ok, so Dave will be here in a week. Am I excited?

Hell yeah I'm excited! bounce bounce bounce

Anthrocon has really crept up on me this year. I remember last year when I was getting ready for AC. I was working at FarAwayEvilCompany, and AC would have been my first vacation in over seven years.

Yeah, I was pretty excited then, too.

I knew that Dave was coming, and I totally cleaned my apartment. Top to bottom, the place was spotless. (It helped that I took a whole day off work to do it.) I washed dishes, I did laundry, I cleaned the toilet... I even mopped!

Everything was clean - at about five in the afternoon. Dave was due in around eleven o'clock or so. Nothing to do but wait.

Well, I packed. We wouldn't be leaving until the day after that, but I didn't see any sense in waiting to pack. I picked out some shirts and shorts and underwear, and carefully packed everything in my duffel bag. I found all my AC paperwork, with my badge number and directions to the hotel, and set those aside. I wrote out directions on how to take care of the rats and Jaws.

That took me until seven o'clock.

I walked through my apartment again, looking for anything that I might be able to clean or straighten. Nothing. I looked at the pictures that Dave had sent me of himself. I wondered if I would like him.

Eight o'clock.

The sun was just setting, and the horizon was taking on that rosy glow it only seems to get in the summer. It was still oppressively hot and muggy, so I was drenched in sweat. I set the fan in my upstairs window and sat on my bed to read. (The latest copy of Asimov's had just arrived in my mailbox.)

I read the entire magazine. Opening it back up to the beginning, I started to read it again.

My stomach was doing flip flops as the hour grew later. Where was he? Did he get lost, despite the detailed directions I'd sent him? I know he'll be annoying, I thought. The nice ones are always annoying. Was tonight really the night he was supposed to come, or did I get my days mixed up? Would we like each other?

Eleven o'clock.

I wandered downstairs to get something to drink, and stared out my screen door. It was so still outside I could hear the blood rushing in my ears. Lightening bugs were just finishing up their evening display. Jaws rubbed up against my leg, asking for food.

I fed the cat, and went back upstairs to sit in front of the fan. I was halfway through the magazine again when I realized my eyes were just passing over the words without really seeing them. I put the magazine down and turned off the bedroom lights. Drawing up the shade a bit, I leaned my head up against the glass. I watched the parking lot. Every time a car pulled in, my heart skipped just a bit. Where was he?

Midnight.

My frown grew deeper as the minutes ticked slowly by. Where could he be? Another car pulled in. It wasn't his. Damn.

The shrill ring of my bedroom phone jolted me out of the reverie I had sunk into, and I dove for the handset. "Hello?" I asked breathlessly.

"Uh, hullo?"

"Hello? Yes?" I repeated, a bit annoyed.

"Uh, might I speak with Sarah please?" The voice sounded familiar.

"This is Sarah."

"Uh, hi. It's David. How are you?"

"I'm fine." My hand holding the phone started shaking. "Where are you?"

There was a slight pause as he shuffled the phone around a bit. "Well, I'm in your town," he said. "But I'm not sure where. I seem to have made a wrong turn."

After asking a series of questions, I figured out where he was (just a few blocks from my apartment). I hung up the phone and returned to my station by the window.

I don't remember what I was thinking in those last few minutes before actually meeting him. I do remember seeing a car pull in. I remembering running downstairs. I remember opening the door and giving him a hug before we'd even had a chance to look at each other.

I remember that his face was stubbly.

When he went to move the car, I stood on my doorstep alone again for a moment. I made a face. It was sort of a "yuck" face, with a bit of "sheesh" and "gimmee a break" thrown in there, too. It wasn't for him; it was because I had so much pent up energy. I couldn't believe I had just jumped into his arms like that. It was very not like me.

But somehow I knew... It was just the beginning of something wonderful.