Title: The Invitation 
Author's name: Neoxphile
Feedback: neoxphile@aol.com 
Category: Skinner/other
Rating: All Ages 
Spoilers: none 
Archive: just the starter of this challenge and/or I; others e-mail first
Summary: Skinner's New Years plans. 
Notes: Response to a challenge: 500 words using the word "chatroom"
Word: Chatroom 

Lights, which were verging on overstaying their welcome, twinkled and cast 
colored shadows on the wet pavement. Inside the coffee shop Skinner sips his 
latte and sighs; he wonders why he chose this, of all ways, to spend his 
New Years Eve. People in gay finery sweep by the window, and a few too many 
stumble with the awkwardness associated with unpracticed drunks. For a moment 
he's tempted to join them out in the festive dampness, and not go to the 
party with the woman he's waiting to meet. 

Perhaps it was loneliness, or a mere longing to fill empty post-work hours, 
that prompted him to log onto a chatroom for singles in the DC area. At first 
he'd been timid, and interjected little into the scrolling conversations, 
but eventually he became relaxed, and found himself returning again and 
again, to speak with the people who also hid behind their names and numbers. 
He never realized how much one could grow to like people whom you never saw, 
but these people, they taught him that there are others out there who are 
also reaching out for words of kindness and camaraderie. 

At first he chatted amicably with whomever was in the room at night, not 
really taking note of the individuality of the various people who also 
frequented the room. Then, as people in these situations often do, he found 
himself drawn to one other chatter in particular. She had a sunny demeanor, 
which he found a welcome change from the cynicism that hung around his 
coworkers, and himself, like a storm cloud. Eventually her optimism became 
infectious, and he found himself having the types of pleasant happy thoughts 
that had eluded him since late childhood. With his sudden new found 
happiness came an eagerness to share more with this woman, and to soak 
up information about what made her Her as well. Each e-mail from her, each 
conversation, was like an unexpected gift, and it was not long before even 
he admitted that he was quite taken with her. 

After Thanksgiving they got up the nerve to exchange photographs. He'd 
held his breath until she replied, because he was desperately afraid of 
being rejected by this woman whom he'd grown to care for so much. Her 
reply was kinder than he'd ever dreamt of expecting, and her own photo 
took his breath away. In an act of uncharacteristic spontaneity, he asked 
her to spend the New Year with him, and was thrilled by her enthusiastic 
acceptance. 

Which brings us back to the man sitting in the coffee shop, waiting for 
his unseen love. A man who chides himself for his lack of faith in the 
woman for whom he sits and waits, because he has no evidence, not even 
a second of lateness, to give credence to his growing fear that she won't 
come. Desperate to take his mind off of his worry, he plays games in his 
mind, assigning half-seen passersby lives based on appearances. So caught 
up in this game, he doesn't notice at first that the woman he'd just 
decided was in love was standing at his elbow, softly saying his name 
until he looked up at her, and smiled.