This is a story I was asked to write about a woman who travels across the country to meet the man of her dreams, someone she only knows from the internet. They have a wonderful day sightseeing San Francisco and then go back to their hotel room for a wonderful evening.

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Sherry fidgeted, uncomfortable in her airport seat. She kept her ticket in hand for fear of losing it or forgetting where she packed it and having to scramble at the last minute.

She kept her eyes open, surveying the waiting room. She needed to be sure that no one she knew spotted her. It could lead to questions that she wasn’t prepared to answer at the moment. There were families with small children, some sleeping, some running around. There were couples, old and young, but mostly there were businessmen presumably heading for important sales meetings across the country.

Sherry was also heading to an important meeting across the country, but it wasn’t a sales meeting. The selling had been done and she was sold, a million times sold.

She had played out the next three days many times in her mind. They’d ride the cable cars, they’d see the Golden Gate bridge, maybe they’d visit Pier 39. All the things she’d read about San Francisco. Then, after an exhausting day of sight-seeing, they’d do head back to the hotel for a romantic evening of wine and lovemaking. She and Michael had never actually talked about the lovemaking, but it was clearly implied.



“Welcome to American Airlines,” said a woman’s voice on the loudspeaker. “Flight 179, service to San Francisco is now boarding. Please have your boarding pass ready and proceed to the boarding area marked American Airlines 179.”

Sherry stood up, grabbed her purse and carry-on bag, looked at her ticket one last time and proceeded to the area marked American Airlines 179.

Once on board, once she had passed that point where she could easily back out, the regrets started kicking in. Sherry was married. A loveless marriage to be sure, one destined for an early divorce, but it was marriage. She had taken certain vows, made certain promises.

All of this pained her, but the thought of finally seeing Michael, face-to-face, seemed to ease the pain a little. Sure, she was doing something that was technically wrong, but hadn’t the man she married — who had made those same vows — done the same kinds of wrong things, broken the same kinds of promises, only he barely hid them.

The thought of seeing Michael. It forced a smile to her lips. In her mind’s eye she saw his face, complete with short, light reddish beard and his blue eyes. Oh, those eyes. She longed to look into them, but more than that, she longed to have them look at her, to take in every inch of her body, her naked body.

Bing! The fasten your seatbelt lights came on and within minutes, they were in the air. Sherry had never flown before and so had no idea what to expect. She found the immense power of takeoff was exhilarating and terrifying at the same time.

Some of the flight was spent reading (she was currently on “Fifty Shades Freed”), some spent sleeping, but most was spent running over scenarios in her head. The return to the hotel room after a glorious day of sightseeing, the room service, the wine. It all worked out so beautifully in her mind, but Sherry worried it might not be so great in actual real life.

Sherry and Michael had met about year before on the website Reddit. They became fast friends. While Sherry told herself it wouldn’t progress to anything more than online pals, maybe a little flirting — she had even let her thoughts wander to cybersex — it clearly had progressed. In retrospect, the progression happened quickly, but it took her months to finally admit to herself that she had fallen in love with this man.

Sherry awoke with a start. She dozed off for the last hour or so of the flight. The plane’s landing gear must have deployed. She looked out her window and saw a breathtaking view of the city. There was some haze, not exactly smog, but she felt as if she was looking at an old, faded photograph. Then she saw it. The Golden Gate Bridge, and it was just like all the pictures, only there was a surrealism to seeing it with her very own eyes.

The plane landed smoothly and it took about 90 minutes before Sherry was sitting comfortably in her hotel room. Michael wouldn’t arrive until tomorrow on a flight from Philadelphia, so Sherry settled in, set up her computer to use the hotel’s wifi and ordered a pizza from one of the menus on the hotel room’s desk. After eating, she took a relaxing bath and spent about an hour browsing Reddit before falling asleep.

Sherry could not have asked for a better sleep, despite the time difference. She woke up refreshed, stretching under the heavy bed linens and lay there awake for a few minutes, remembering where she was, why she was there and who she was about to see for the first time, in person. She smiled at that last thought and with that got up and got ready to head down for breakfast. She looked at the neon red digits of the alarm clock: 8:03am.

She had eggs, toast and coffee from the hotel’s buffet, checked her email and took a look at Facebook and Reddit again, and then she was off to the airport. It took a good 20 minutes to figure out which gate he’d be arriving at but then plunked herself down for the wait. Passengers from the Philadelphia flight started to come through the gate and make their way to the baggage carrousel. So far, no Michael.

She waited another few minutes and soon began wondering whether he’d stood her up. Backed out at the last minute, or maybe never even intended to come. That thought had never even crossed her mind before, but now it made sense. Really, he was just some guy she’s met online. They had so much in common, but then wouldn’t someone playing games with her mind make it a point to show that they had things in common. What if he didn’t show up?

But then, he did.

Michael walked out from behind the frosted doors. He was wearing a pair of black jeans, a red t-shirt and his trademark Philadelphia Phillies baseball cap. Sherry felt all the doubt drain out of her and all the love she’d built up for this man flow into her. She was about to stand up, but felt a warmth come over her and remained seated until it passed, a few seconds.

He had a backpack over one shoulder and he had something in his right hand. She couldn’t exactly make it out from this distance, especially with all the other people shuffling in front of and around him. As he approached, and the crowd between them thinned out, she saw it. A single orange rose.

Sherry stood up and took two running steps, slowed, then settled on a brisk walk for the 20 or so steps it would take to reach him. When she finally did, he wordlessly handed her the flower. It was lighter orange around the edges, with an almost-burning red in the center. The flower said three things to her: fire, passion, desire.

She took the flower and threw her arms around Michael’s neck, closed her eyes and placed her lips firmly on his. The remained locked in the embrace in the crowded San Francisco airport terminal for perhaps a few seconds, but Sherry lost all track of time. She would not have been surprised if, upon opening her eyes again, the sun would have begun to make its dip below the horizon.

Of course, that didn’t happen, and when, an eternity later, she did open her eyes, the sun was still shining brightly from the large airport windows.

“Hi,” said Michael, in a deeply vocalized whisper. The first word he had spoken to her in person.

“Hi,” Sherry said. Her first word to him.

The two stood gazing into each others eyes for minutes, not saying anything, just taking in the other’s face and letting the roller coasters of feelings they were experiencing settle to a fast merry-go-round. Passengers bustling past them barely took notice, and the ones that did assumed they were lovers who had been separated for a long period of time, months — maybe years. None suspected they were meeting each other in person for the very first time.