Merritt was almost dressed for work when Emma texted: “Ready for coffee?”
M: “Yes! 😀”
Merritt opened the door to the common area and waited for Emma. It was only a moment before she came from her unit and made her way to his.
“Me and Addison are going to make sausage, biscuits, and gravy real quick so you and Hannah can have a nice breakfast before work.”
Merritt smiled and started the Kurek. Then, while the second cup was brewing, he pulled Emma into an embrace. Holding her was simple joy.
Merritt, having entered the 25th year of his life, felt like everything was on hold.
At work, he was an engineering tech. To get his license required a log of work experiences as well as passing a test. He had to wait. He had to grind out time before he could move forward.
Being a Time-Traveler, too, had become a matter of waiting. Without any input on when it would happen, he and the others were expected to drop everything and… in some way, contribute consciousness to the Translocation team. They wouldn’t even have access to the memories from the missions until a few days had passed.
So it was wait for the mission to start and wait again to know what had happened.
In a different way, his relationship with Emma was stuck with a “wait” as well. He was 26. She was 20. They had known each other less than a year. They had done the “meet the parents” thing, so the way was clear for them moving in the direction of sharing life together forever—marriage.
Yet, they were aware of the bigger social expectations. They were borderline “old enough” to marry in 2025 without raising eyebrows too high. As members of Traveling Friends, LLC, were far more than ready financially. But, knowing each other less than a year at their ages would probably incite unwanted questions. And speculations.
So, they decided to wait some small, undetermined amount of time.
And so it was that Merritt viewed his current life situation as a collection of waits.
But, it wasn’t so bad, for he had Emma to wait with him.
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