The Best Laid Plans

She walked up to him, awaiting the long-sought kiss with an eagerness that can only come from three long years of silence. He walked past her, still chatting to his comrades. He hadn’t seen her. It wasn’t his fault, really, she reasoned. I was behind a few people and anyway, I was meant to be waiting in the civilian area, not up here near the barracks. It wasn’t his fault that she had made these arrangements with his counterparts from the other side of the camp. It wasn’t his fault that she would have to run back, out through the gates, down into the throng of the public just for that first kiss after the long endurance brought upon her by his plight. It wasn’t his fault at all.

She felt like a ten tonne weight had been dropped upon her head.