Sarah was excited when Richard kissed her, though she found the sensation strange. It was one thing to watch two people kiss in a vid, it was another to actually have someone’s tongue invade one’s mouth. Still, she found she rather liked it and returned the kiss with enthusiasm. “I suppose the two weeks I experience before our next date will feel like the twenty years I’ll miss,” she said after she had reluctantly withdrawn from his embrace. “And thank you for making my first kiss as memorable as I could have hoped.”<br/><br/>She smiled at him, and then walked away toward the waiting monorail—though before entering she looked back one last time and waved. Then she went inside and took a seat. She wondered what the future held—what might happen with this new romance, what would happen to her family after she departed the solar system, what experiences her future career and time after the colonization would bring. As optimistic as she was at the moment, she could not help but to feel a little apprehensive as well.