Everything was ready and now all Erin had to do was wait till morning. Wait for the best day of her, and hopefully Maria’s, life to start.

Three hours later Erin was staring blearily at the alarm clock sat on her bedside table. The LED screen blinked steadily, displaying the ungodly hour of 2:00am. It had been quite some time since she’d last been awake at such a late, or early, hour and all she wanted was to go to sleep. Sleep continued to elude her, however, and her frustration directed inwards was continuing to climb.

Erin rubbed at her eyes, blinking the sleep gathered across her eyelashes free. She stretched out languidly and felt the rays of the sun falling across her body where she lay atop the quilt. She sat up suddenly and turned to look at the clock. It was 10:45. “Sh*t,” she said, leaping from her bed and walking to the wardrobe were her clothes were already laid out.

She was supposed to arrive at Maria’s at 9:30 to prepare her breakfast before rousing her at 10:00. “It’s ok, it’s ok,” she mumbled to herself; tugging her shirt over her head before wiggling into the jeans she knew Maria loved her in. “We can work with this.”

She was out the door in ten minutes flat and still managed to look somewhat presentable. She pulled up to Maria’s apartment at 11:30, cursing the traffic for crawling at a snail’s pace.

Erin sprinted up the stairs and knocked on Maria’s door only to hear a text notification from Sugarplum (Maria) pop up.

“Sorry baby, an emergency came up at work and I’ve been called in. I’m not sure what time I’ll get off but I’d love to see you once I’m done if you’re still up for it...”

The text went on but Erin could no longer see the words. Her eyes were closed and she quickly let herself into Maria’s apartment before sliding down and leaning back against the door. She breathed evenly for a few minutes and let things come back into focus. These things happened, she told herself, she would simply move her plans to another day. With that decision made she walked to Maria’s room and changed into a pair of Maria’s comfy clothes before curling up on the bed and waiting for Maria to return.