Author's Note: The story below is a sort of tribute to sarahhh, who's work you can find right here on this very site (check out the author index). All events are fictional, and any similarity between this story and real life is wishful thinking on my part! Apologies to Sarah for stealing all the characters from her stories! Feedback welcome, but try and be nice :)
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I'd read her stories online for a while. Perhaps not years, but certainly long enough that she'd long since become the only entry in my "favourite authors" list. Sure, I read the odd story from other people while I was visiting the site, but I really only visited to see if she'd added anything new and then browsed the "new stories" section if not. So, I figured, what's the difference... logging on to see what she's up to, and flying over to the US and checking out a Steelers game - it's nearly the same thing, right?
I booked my tickets, London to Philly. 8 hours to fly and think about the possibility of meeting her. Would she even be there? How would I recognise her? How would I introduce myself? "Hi, I read some of your work on the 'net" just didn't seem to cut it. By the time I got on the plane I was convinced it was all a waste of time, but I'd bought the tickets - at the very least I might get a decent cheese steak sandwich out of the trip, and I'd already paid for them. Sat on the plane I racked my brains about how to introduce myself if the chance came up, and slowly convinced myself that maybe, just maybe, it wasn't such a crazy hope after all. Recognising her should be easy - Steelers jersey, Steelers jacket, red hair cascading down over the yellow and black shoulders, covering up a great figure with fantastic breasts, burned into my memory after many evenings imagining my lips and fingertips tracing their outline. That'd be pretty unique, surely?
As we landed, I realised right away that my plan wasn't going to be quite so simple. The airport was full of black and yellow jackets, and while there wasn't a whole lot of red hair walking around, there weren't so many great figures and fantastic breasts either. Most of the people milling around the airport looked more like armchair football fans. She'd stand out well enough if I could get close enough to actually see her - but the black & yellow Steelers uniform wasn't going to help. On the contrary, if the game was anything like the arrivals terminal I was going to struggle a lot. And then a plan sprang to mind. I grabbed my luggage and jumped in the car the hotel had sent, remembering that the Rittenhouse offered free WiFi. I logged on without even heading to my room, and while the concierge desk busied themselves with checking me in and moving my bags upstairs I started putting together a series of messages I hoped she'd pick up on, then ran up a phone bill I hoped wouldn't top a thousand bucks in calls to Heinz Field, calling in favours, offering bribes and pleading as though my life depended on it.
A few hours later, at the start of the game, I rolled up to the gate with my tickets in my shaking hand - I'm pretty sure the guy on the gate thought there was something wrong with me as I stood there shaking and holding out the ticket stub, but eventually I moved on in and took my seat and began to watch the game. Sure enough, in front of sixty five thousand people, my messages started to appear on the scoreboard below the game plays... "Happy Birthday Sarah, love Cousin Hamish in Suite #1". 10 minutes went by before the next. "Sarah, surprise on your special day - join us in Suite #1, love your roomies Heather, Jasmine and Jennifer". It was working - the stadium guys had fallen for my pleas to make it a very special surprise birthday for a big Steelers fan. It had cost a fortune, renting the suite at such short notice, but it might just turn out to be worth it. Even if she wasn't here and was watching it with Rachael on a TV at some bar somewhere, she'd surely see the messages scrolling by?
Even the crowd were starting to notice, and every time a message came up they'd glance at the windows of the suite, too reflective to see anything but themselves, and cheer at the thought that all these people had gathered for a surprise birthday party. "Hey Sarah, Russell & Laurie here waiting to see you in Suite 1! Happy Birthday sis!", even managing to drown the boos when "Many happy returns pet, Browns Fan Robert in S1" came up. "Jim & Freddie bring early Christmas greetings to Suite #1 Sarah!" brought a few puzzled looks, but on and on it went. "Kisses from Kara, looking forward to seeing you again in Suite #1 before we hit the bar again!", "Hey Sarah, Suite #1 for now, party in the garden at home after the game, Dad xx", and on and on . "Hotdog guy to Suite 1 please, running out at Sarah's party! Thanks, Dr June".
I sat in the suite for an hour, hearing the occasional knock on the door, a few male voices discussing exactly what was going on inside (mostly along the lines of "Hey, dude, reckon we can get in this Sarah chick's party? I bet she's got a ton of hot chick friends?") and then eventually they'd wander off when they didn't get an answer. The messages kept scrolling on the screen, and the crowd had stopped cheering - bored of seeing them all go by, they'd started ignoring them.
And then, a knock followed by a single female voice which made me freeze halfway through my Yuengling: "Hello? This is Sarah. Who's in there?" Now what? Was it the right Sarah? In the end, I decided to stick with a theme - it'd either worked this far, in which case why change it, or it was the wrong person anyway. I answered "A friend of Dr Todd" and waited. And waited, and waited. A long pause, during which I wasn't sure if she'd left or not, or even if she'd understood the reference. And then in reply "Aww, and it's not even Valentine's Day!". She'd understood, and that meant it was really her. I walked to the door and opened it almost not daring to imagine what lurk on the other side. A bunch of armed police summoned to arrest a stalker? An angry boyfriend, ready to show me just what he thinks of my little game?
To my relief, neither. Just Sarah, stood there with her hair hanging down over her shoulders, Steelers cap keeping it in place, looking amused and challenging at the same time. "Well, aren't you going to invite me in?" she asked and I realised I was stood with my mouth slightly open - partly in surprise at her actually coming, and partly in surprise at the fact that she looked better than I'd dared hope - staring, leaving her stood in the hallway with wandering by on their way to the bathrooms and refreshment stands people looking at her wondering if she's the Sarah they'd seen mentioned on the board. I swallowed, managed a "Sorry! Of course!" in a voice that didn't quite sound like my own, and stepped to the side and motioned her in. She entered the room, closed the door behind her and brushed against me just enough to make it apparent she'd done it deliberately and just as deliberately kept it brief and innocent, then looked at me again with that challenging, half-laughing look in her eyes - a look that said more than words could and yet at the same time said precisely nothing. I rallied a little and decided to play along with the challenge.