I was to meet her where the light and dark sides of the moon met. I stood there and looked down at my watch. Two minutes to go. I had arrived early. Nothing annoys someone more than someone being tardy. I knew she would be on time. The shuttles to the moon were always regular and were exact almost to the second. My shuttle had just left. Hers would be coming in a couple of minutes. After that, the shuttle service took a hiatus for a couple of hours. She would be leaving on a shuttle out, maybe three hours from then. I had booked a seat on one that would leave a further two hours afterward. I would need the extra time.

I looked up as I saw a shadow stretch across the crater in front of me. Distinctly female. It was her. It had to be her. Nobody else who would be on her shuttle would be anywhere near our meeting point. They would all go to the small settlement for their needs.

I was correct. It was her. She walked up to me and hugged me. It felt so good. The moon was cold, but she was not. Her warm body pressed against mine made me feel more human than I had ever felt in the past several months. We did not need special clothing. The technology had already advanced to such a level that we were able to be as normal almost anywhere in the universe as we were on earth. I preferred it that way. We could never have hugged in a spacesuit.

We started to walk around, looking at some of the more impressive craters as we talked. She was a little stressed over an assignment she had to do for her degree. I was doing the same degree, but I was at a level above her. I had gone through the same stresses at her level, but somehow they seemed more to me when she was going through them. I gave her my advice on trying to make the best of her experience. At my level, I could still have fun, but it was hard because I always knew that I had some sort of examination coming up.

We crossed a particularly large crater and sat down on a bench just outside its perimeter. From our seat we could see the quarry, closed for the night. The large pieces of machinery and equipment impressed us both. We were silent for some time, and then I started to talk. I had so much on my mind. So much to talk about. I felt as if I could talk to her forever, but I knew that something such as that would be almost impossible.

She sat and listened to every word I said, and I loved her even more for that. She would look at me in such a caring way when I spoke. I could not look at her too much. It was something that I had been trying to break. I needed to look at people more when I was speaking to them. I did manage a few glances, though. She looked amazing, and yet she had done nothing special. She was just herself. But herself was more than enough to qualify as amazing.

After a while we got hungry. We got up and walked across to the dark side, where there was this little restaurant I was familiar with. We entered and were seated almost immediately. The robotic waitress came to us and took our order. After a few minutes, our drinks came and we sipped on it while continuing our conversation. The food came afterward, and even though I had eaten there several times before, it tasted so much better this time.

She had to leave all too soon. Her shuttle would be arriving in another five minutes and she needed to be home before it was too late. It made me sad to have to know that she had to leave, but I made no complaint. I offered to pay for our meal but she insisted on paying for what she had eaten. I reluctantly agreed.

I walked her outside to the shuttle pickup point and waited the minute or so for it to come. When it arrived I gave her another hug and watched as she entered and took a seat. A few other people were around, and they entered as well. But my eyes were focused on her, and her alone. As the shuttle pulled away from the pickup point, she waved goodbye to me. I would be seeing her again when the weekend was over, at the institution where we both studied, but I knew I would miss her dearly.

Satisfied that the shuttle was safely on its way, I walked back to the bench overlooking the quarry site and I sat on it. I could almost imagine her sitting next to me still, talking and laughing with me. I looked past the quarry, at that Blue Marble that I called earth. Her shuttle would be almost there by now. A full fifteen minutes had already passed, and those shuttles traveled at a very high rate of speed. She was almost home. I hoped that she would reach safely.

I sat on that bench for much of the rest of my time on the moon, thinking about her and the little time we had tonight. Her memory seemed so real, it was as if she had never left. I knew that once I had her memory with me all the time, I would never be alone. I hoped that she knew that I wished that she would never be alone, either. I was always just a memory away.

I got up and walked to the pickup point. My shuttle came in a few minutes. I was the only one on it, the shuttle being guided remotely from a control centre on earth. Her memory would always be with me whenever she could not. And I loved her for that, too.

It made me feel more human. She…made me feel alive.

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