The Year 2145

At 25 years of age, Maria had waited all her life to meet her perfect man, and now here he was standing before her in the Arrivals Hall having just returned from his long journey, and she felt she instantly found him very attractive, although over the years she’d had many nervous doubts about whether she would.

This was the way it was done, because it was still something of a social experiment and the Earth Government wanted it officially monitoring for a little while longer before letting just anybody freely do it. The next thing that would happen is that they proceed to a private little lounge where they simply sit and chat for 2 hours, updating each other about their lives and sharing early feelings they have for each other. Then they each report to the Supervising Committee to say whether they want to proceed to ‘Stage 2’, which is courtship. Stage 3 is full, unfettered sexual relations, but it’s permissible to go straight from 1 to 3, if both parties feel strongly they want it and present a good case to the Committee.

The 30-year-old Damien had been travelling for about 2 months, and his outward journey had been the same, with 8 months in between to undertake his work placement in Tidally Locked Worlds. So, he had been away from home altogether for about a year. Now he faced the reward for his endeavours, and instantly found her absolutely beautiful in every way and had always known he would. He’s immensly relieved she’s decided to wait for him, though.

The meet in the RL suite – ‘Re-acquaintance Lounge’, that stands for – goes extremely well for these two. So well, that they were tempted to blur the boundaries already and in their excitement do some kissing and petting right away, but the official advice was always not to: a week’s reflection was the proper process, so Megan and Damien would stick to it because they so wanted this to work out perfectly, and also have it conscientiously logged for the benefit of others who would want to try it. There was a big waiting list.

Well, their chat was brilliant, Damien was charmed and enthralled by hearing about all the stages of Megan’s life – education, friends, hobbies and what not – to this point. Megan, in turn, was totally fascinated to hear about Damien’s journey, the sights he’d seen, and the work he’d been doing. She did not need to ask him about his life prior to all that, because she already knew about it, although had not actually witnessed any of it.

Feelings were what really mattered in all this, though, and what would raise it above mere close friendship to the deepest possible kind of erotic love that can exist between two human beings. Megan’s feelings were that here was a man who would always protect her and understand her every need so well, quite apart from being precisely her moistness-inducing physical type. Damien’s feelings were that here was a young woman he felt colossal protectiveness for, as well as loving her personality and having excruciating pangs of lust.