Dear Diary,
I could only guess that AJ was expecting that I
open the CD last night after I got home.
I was sure that he meant that the concert was tonight. That meant that I only had three hours and
twenty-four minutes to get ready for our first real date. Too bad it didn’t turn out as I had hoped it
would…
I actually left work on time that
day so that I could get ready. On the
drive home, I hurriedly decided that I would wear my new black dress. I thought that it would be appropriate for
the concert even though I wasn’t sure where it was going to be.
Promptly at 1900 hours, I heard a
knocking on my door. I grabbed my purse
and opened the door. I was shocked to
see AJ in casual clothes. He smiled
slightly at my confusion before he spoke.
“I guess I should have mentioned
that the concert is actually tomorrow night in New York.”
“New York? How did you get tickets?” I asked as I
suddenly realized that I had not let him in yet. I opened the door and he walked in, shutting the door behind him.
“I called some friends,” he said
simply as he pulled me into a loose embrace.
“I thought we might be able to enjoy ourselves more if we didn’t have to
worry about running into people we knew ever other minute.”
“Sounds like a good idea. Let me pack a bag real quick and I will be
right out.” I slipped out of his arms
and quickly changed clothes. I
carefully put the dress and the rest of the necessary items in a small dress bag
that would be small enough to use as a carry on. After that I called my neighbor and asked if they would be able
to watch Jingo for the weekend. She was
an older woman who lived by herself so she loved having the company of the dog
when I went away. With that taken care
of, I walked back out to the living room to see AJ smiling at me.
“What?” I asked smiling back at him.
“I forget how quick you can
be. Shall we?” he asked as he took my
bag.
“Jingo, you be a good boy for Miss
Lois, okay?” I told him and I gave him some farewell pats on the head.
“Miss Lois?”
“My neighbor. She keeps Jingo when I have to go out of
town,” I said as I locked the door on our way out.
From this point on the date went
down hill and fast. On the way to
Dulles for our flight, we were caught in the traffic jam from an accident. This, of course, caused us to be late
getting to the airport. It seemed
fortunate that we both only had carry on luggage until we got on the
plane. Since we were the last people on
the plane there was very little space left for my carry on. The stewardess saw me trying to find a spot.
“I’m sorry, ma’am. It seems we are out of space. I will have to check your bag and put it in
with the rest of the luggage.” I nodded
then sat down next to AJ, hoping that things were going to go all right for the
rest of the date.
Well, it seems that the gods of
first dates were not smiling down on us.
Shortly after we got off the plane we discovered that my carry on some
how managed to get sent on to New Zealand.
We took over an hour at the airport trying to get this fixed but there
was little that we could do. Finally,
we got to our hotel only to find that Murphy’s Law was still working.
They gave away our suite. The man at the desk was apologetic about the
problem and he offered us the last room in the hotel. Unfortunately, it was just a small room with a double bed. I just wanted to go to sleep by this point
so I nodded to AJ for him to take the room.
We were assured that we would have our promised suite or an upgrade by
tomorrow.
We got up to our room and not
having any other place to sit, I sat down on the bed. AJ sat next to me after dropping off his carry on.
“I’m sorry that this has turned
out so bad.”
“That’s okay, AJ. It isn’t your fault,” I said just before I
yawned. “I’m sorry.”
“Why don’t we go to sleep?” he
suggested as he reached for his bag.
“I’m glad that I tossed this in my bag after all.” He handed me his SeAL t-shirt and pulled out
the matching pair of sweatpants for himself.
I smiled at him as I took the shirt and after a moment, I got up and
slipped into the bathroom to change.
I put on his overly large shirt
and after making sure he had enough time to change, I went back out into the
room. He was again sitting on the edge
of the bed but this time he was just wearing his sweat pants.
"Sarah, I really didn't
intend for this to happen," he said as he gestured to the only bed.
"I know. Honestly, I am so tired right now, that I
think I could fall asleep anywhere."
I climbed into bed and noticed that he was still standing there. I reached for the covers on the other side
of the bed to pull them back in silent invitation. We both knew that nothing was going to happening tonight as he
climbed into bed. I rolled back over on
my side but scooted back closer to AJ.
He rolled over onto his side also, then pulled me into his arms. Surprisingly, I fell asleep moments later.