A Visit to Ms. Cassidy's

Chapter 2: Scheduling Mix-ups and Setbacks

My mind was racing. Her response was a short and simple sentence, yet it managed to make my heart want to beat right out of my chest. The ball was now in my court and I had no idea how to play. To be honest I didn't even think I would get this far.

When it came to actually picking a time that would work I was at a loss. There was no way I would be able to get there during the week with how busy my job made me. That would be especially hard to sneak past my parents too. I decided on asking her if she was available on weekends. That would be the easiest time for me to weasel my way out of explaining what I was doing.

Her responses to my email had been pretty regular, usually taking about a day to respond. The gaps in response time were short enough to still be professional while also long enough to make me antsy.

After I asked about weekends free, she asked if I was free Sunday. For context, she sent this on Saturday, meaning I would have to go meet with her tomorrow. There was no way I would be able to work up the nerve for something like this overnight especially when I already had plans that same weekend. Slipping away from those unnoticed would not be do-able. I instead opted for the two weeks out from then, as I would be travelling for work the next weekend.

Things were unfortunately very busy for me at the time. I had work trips, family outings and visits to friends going on throughout that month and it really reflected in my email etiquette. I continually got dates and town names mixed up. I could only imagine the scatterbrained first impression I was giving off for this Mr. Baloney I had created.

Finally it seemed like we were able to set up a date and time we could both agree on. Saturday August 26th at 1pm. After confirming that with her she gave me her address, phone number, and detailed instructions on where to go for our meetup. It was actually happening. Everything was falling into place perfectly. Then everything immediately fell right out of place and shattered on the ground.

I had a trip to a town about an hour and a half away that weekend and had planned on making it a quick morning trip and being back in time to then drive to Ms. Cassidy's town for my session. Unfortunately my schedule shifted that day and I wouldn't be able to make it to her address until a few hours later that day.

At first I thought it would be no big deal, but then she took longer than her normal 24 hours to respond. That was when I started to panic. I followed up on my original scheduling email to see if she had just forgotten to respond, hoping that I wouldn't come off as annoying. I was really starting to let my desperation leak through now.

She responded by saying she had another session at that time and would be busy. I decided to see if she had any other times available that day to which she responded, "I am not sure. I might have plans".

This whole conversation felt like a complicated dance where I had two left feet. I had done nothing but stepped on my partner's feet and based on her responses I felt like she was getting irritated with me.

I decided to go for broke. I laid out when I would be free that day, apologized profusely and gave her my cell number if she wanted to hash out scheduling further. It felt weird to give my phone number to someone I barely knew outside of the internet. I was desperate though, and I wanted to use that as an olive branch to try and repair this schedule that I had continuously shattered.

It seemed as though my risk paid off. She asked if I had any openings available tomorrow, with her schedule being pretty free. It was short notice, but at this point I wasn't gonna just quit when I was this close. I sent her a time that worked for me and she agreed. I was finally going to be spanked.