One

'Meet me', the message had said, and Juliet was filled with butterflies as she stared at her phone. It was late, and she had already been in bed for the night, just waiting for the darkness to consume her.

Yet as his message appeared on the screen, all traces of sleep left her body. Her thumbs danced along the keyboard as she typed a response and then deleted it several times.

It had been a long time coming, and she was excited to finally meet Matthew. His profile only said Matt.

After they had spoken for a few days, he told her he preferred to be called Matthew. He had only put a shortened version of his name online so that his work wouldn't find his account too easily.

Talking to him had become a part of her regular routine. They would text throughout the day while working and call to talk most nights.

She had tried to hide her fear of meeting the man who had her smitten, but her body still tensed at the thought of seeing him for the first time. They had tried to meet several times before, but it had always been poor timing. He frequently traveled for work, and her days off never lined up with his.

The anticipation was killing them both, and the longer it dragged out, the more scared Juliet had become. At this point, he was nothing but a fantasy.

She typed different answers.

Some accepted the invitation with over-excitement, and some declined his request with the fear of facing reality. She deleted each one to settle on the simplest reply of all.

Juliet: Where?

She messaged back.

She could see that he was typing and sat up in her bed. The blanket pooled around her hips where it fell.

A smile stretched across her face, and she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. Glancing at the time, it was 9:37 pm. There would be a handful of public places open that they could go to on a Saturday night, regardless of how late it was getting.

The three dots disappeared from her screen momentarily, and she waited anxiously for him to continue his message.

She was tired of waiting to meet him. It had been over three months since they first started talking. He was the perfect man in his texts, and she needed to know how much of that was real.

Matthew: Meet me at the Lookout Tavern. 10:30.

The moment it came across her screen she let out a squeal of excitement and pressed her fingertips to her bottom lip as she released it from between her teeth.

Juliet jumped up from her bed and ran to her bathroom.

Her long, dark, auburn hair was still lightly curled from the day. She pinned the top layer behind her head, leaving the rest to hang down her back.

Her phone vibrated against the counter, and she eagerly grabbed it.

Matthew: I can't wait to see you.

Juliet knew that nerves were to be expected, but the butterflies in her stomach turned to elephants as she read those six words.

Juliet: I can't wait to see you too. I'll be there. 10:30.

She sent back before placing her phone down to apply a light layer of eye shadow and mascara. She didn't like wearing a lot of makeup; it always made her face feel heavy and dirty, but she wanted to look her best tonight.

She ran through her apartment in a hurry, knowing that it would take at least twenty minutes to get to the bar. She slipped out of her pajama shorts and tank top on her way to her closet, and threw them into the corner of her room, adding to the mountain of laundry she needed to do.

She had avoided going through the stereotypical bar hopping phase of the early twenties and wasn't sure what to wear.

She grabbed a black skirt that sat tightly against her legs down to the middle of her thighs and a blue V-neck shirt.

Looking at her outfit in the mirror, she wasn't sure if it would make her look too promiscuous to wear heels with such a skintight outfit, so she grabbed a pair of flats and slipped them on instead.

The common area was dark, and the door to her roommate Natalie's room was closed. She tiptoed to her purse on the kitchen counter and quietly made her way to the front entryway.

She loved her best friend, but she could not deal with having any more anxiety about this meeting. That is exactly what Natalie would have added.

The drive was quicker than expected as she made her way to the bar. She had anticipated being a little early, but not by fifteen minutes.

Lights were strung up around the building and emitted a warm glow as they lit the walkway to the front and around to the back of the building. The calm ambiance was periodically disturbed by the door opening as someone exited, sending music and loud chatter into the outside air.

'Now or never. Stop being a wuss and just go meet him,' Juliet thought as she forced herself out of her black sedan and into the chilled air of the night, heading for the entrance with her chin held high. As she opened the door and walked into the dark bar of intoxicated patrons, her stomach was knotted with anxiety.