So... have you ever had one of those days where you just regret getting out of bed, or in my case off the couch, after a really good nap that you don’t want to end?

Oh, you have, well unless someone tied you to a 10-kiloton bomb and dropped it out of an airplane at an altitude of about 8 kilometers, I highly doubt you will beat my day, now this did not happen to me, it’s just an example I used to try to illustrate the magnitude of the nightmares I have had for not going back to sleep, and you want to hear the real kicker, it is an old cliché you may have heard many times before. It all happened because of a girl, a very cute one, but still…

“So, you knew as a child you wanted to build computers, how old were you then?” she asked curiously.

“I don’t know around 6 or 8 years old,” I told her.

“That is a young age to know what you want.”

“What about you, did you want to be a princess” I teased.

She laughed “No, I wanted to be a nun, a French maid, a nurse, or even a policewoman.”

“Wait a nun and a French maid, why those,” I asked bemused.

“Well, there were some movies I watched as a kid, with people I liked, so I wanted to imitate them.”

We had been walking and chatting for a few hours, and were almost at her place where the previous date had ended, I need to walk the same way to get home, so it was a bit old-fashioned to walk her home, even though I was going in the same direction. We had been on a few dates already and we seemed to have good chemistry, the conversations just flowed, and we made each other laugh.

I was just about to say goodbye and leave as I needed to get up early in the morning, when she asked me if I wanted to come up for some coffee, and my heart skipped a beat as I replied “Yes”.

We entered her apartment, and she went to the kitchen as I took off my shoes and jacket.

“Sorry, it looks like I am out of coffee filters, and I have no drinks in my fridge, only some custard and fish fingers,” she said.

“That is an interesting combination,” I replied.

“Yeah, it is not for everyone,” she said as she walked over to me. “But why don’t we skip that, and go for dessert instead” she stepped up on her toes leaned in, and kissed me.

I could feel my heart rate skyrocket, and my blood being redirected from my brain to someplace else. After what felt like an eternity she pulled back with a smile on her face, and I looked into her hazel eyes just as she leaned back in and started to lick my lips, then my nose, and my eyes, forcing me to close them, she was licking half my face, slobbering all over it. I started to think about what is going on, and I opened my eyes again to see a big tung darting directly for my eye, I managed to lean back and stop the tung from poking me in the eye, I pushed out trying to get her away, as my brain finally started to figure out what was happening.

“Sam stop,” I said a few times, while also managing to grab her collar and hold her back so she could not reach my face. I looked at her with annoyance.

“You could not have waited for 10 maybe even 5 minutes, so I could at least finish my dream?”

I let go of her collar and she turned around and walked away, wagging her tail.

I sat up on the couch thinking back to that dream, I heard voices and looked up and saw the tv was still on, it was showing an episode of Doctor Who, during the Matt Smith era with Karen Gillan as the companion, yeah… I guess that explains why I was dreaming about a leggy redhead, I really need to start dating again.

I picked up the remote and turned off the tv, sitting there for another minute thinking about going back to sleep for a few more hours, when I heard a clunk in front of me and saw Sam standing there looking down at her food bowl.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Wait what time is it?” I looked at the clock, “passed 9… I am sorry Sam I forgot to feed you.” I said while rubbing her head.

I looked at the table and saw the pizza box I had brought when walking home from work, I took the box and put it down in front of Sam.

“Here you go, you can have the last half of the pizza”

She looked at the pizza and sniffed it, then looked back up at me with a grimace.

“You know, you’re a strange one, you are the only dog I know of who does not like junk food”

She still just looked at me with a displeased look. I pushed the pizza closer to her, and she bent down and picked up her bowl, and started walking back to the kitchen with it.

“Alright, alright,” I said while getting up.

I put the pizza box on the kitchen table and opened the cabinet, it was empty, I had forgotten that I had given Sam the last dog food this morning, even though I had reminded myself to buy some on the way home. I looked back down at Sam.

“Well guess you are getting some homemade food tonight then,” I said to her.

I went over and opened the fridge and instantly remembered why I had bought the pizza; the refrigerator was all but empty, I was tired from work and wanted something quick to eat and also to take a nap before the release tonight, I had completely forgotten about the dog food. I looked back down at Sam.

“Are you sure you don’t want that pizza, I really don’t want to go outside.”

Sam tilted her head down while still looking up at me, her eyes growing in size as the seconds passed.

“Ah man if you weren’t so cute” I relented, “Ok, you win, but I am not going outside by myself, it is cold and dark, so you have to keep me company.” I smiled at her.

She immediately ran out of the kitchen as I went to put on my shoes, jacket, and backpack to carry the groceries in, I looked to my side and saw Sam sitting there holding her leach.

The store was about a 25min walk from my house and we arrived with 10 minutes to spare before the store closed for the night. I tied Sam to a hook and went inside and found the food for Sam, as well as some snacks for later and some frozen dinners for the next few days. Yes, I know it’s not healthy food, but I want something quick and easy for the next few days.

I saw the store’s owner Dan manning the register and he smiled at me with a goofy grin as I started putting my eh… not so healthy wares up on the register.

“Hey, don’t judge me,” I said to him with a stern look.

“HA, I am not judging you in the slightest, what I have planned is not much better,” he said with a grin.

Dan and I had known each other since we were kids and had bonded over computer games and nerd talk, and today they were finally releasing a new Ultima Online, a massively multiplayer online game, this was the first release of the series in 25 years, and we were obsessed with those games as kids, so, of course, we have to play the new one.

“Are your kids joining us?”

“No, we talked about it, but it is a school day tomorrow, so they will have to wait until they come home from school.

“I bet they loved that.”

“Oh yeah, they complained about It for hours, but I told them they could play until midnight tomorrow and then later also promised them some soda and snacks, which made dem quiet down.”

“So, you bribed your kids?” I asked him with a grin.

“Well yeah,” he laughed. “Do you know what server we are all meeting on?”

“No, the server names had not been released when I last checked this morning, you should ask Will on Discord.”

“He was here an hour ago, he said the names had not been released yet, apparently they have been expanding the server capacity to fill the sale volume in the last few days.”

“Already before launch… do you know how many copies have been sold?” I asked.

“No, but my kids have been telling me a lot of their friends will be getting a copy while using that as an excuse to be able to play it at launch, I thought they were just exaggerating, but Will said social media is buzzing with early glowing reviews.”

“Well, that’s bad, that likely means there will be a several-hour-long login queue.” I grimace.

“If it takes more than an hour, ill head to bed, no point sitting up half the night waiting to get in.”

“Don’t you have to open the store tomorrow anyway?”

“No, I switched with Terry, she will open the store, so I can sleep in tomorrow if need be, what about you?”

“I took off work tomorrow, I have accumulated a bit too much overtime, so I am taking a day off work to compensate”

“Then you can go early to bed too and get an early start on the game.”

“Not likely, I fell asleep on the couch when I got home and did not wake up until about 30min ago.”

“Ha, that is going to suck if you can't get in then, just sitting up all night being unable to play”

“Yeah, I am not too happy about that thought,” I said.

I started packing my items into my backpack, as I was gently hitting and mashing the bag of dog food to allow the bag's zipper to close, I remembered something.

“Hey Dan, I almost forgot, you are out of this type of dog food, this was the last bag.”

“I know, we should have more next week, and on the topic of dogs, what breed is Samantha again?”

“She is a border collie, are you finally considering getting one?”

“Yeah, with the new house and the kids being old enough to help walk and take care of one, we have started to look at different breeds.”

“Sam’s sister just had a litter a few weeks ago, I know a few of them have yet to be sold, you could buy one of them.”

“That is worth considering, ill talk it over with Jen.”

I left Dan's store and started to walk back home with Sam, wondering if I would be able to play Ultima Online tonight, or if I should try and get some more sleep and get up early to play it, unfortunately, I never got the chance, because we never made it home.