Ketchup Popsicle 20

When she returned to her desk, Robert was already in Mr. Neason's office with the door closed. When he came back out twenty minutes later, Sandra busied herself organizing the papers on her desk refusing to look at him or say good-bye. She wasn’t going to allow him to see how much he had hurt her.
"Sandy." Bobby was standing over her desk, speaking in a much softer tone. "Sandra," he corrected. "It was good to see you again - I’m glad you’re not dead." He smiled at his joke and for a moment Bobby was back.

"Well, you didn’t seem very happy to see me." Sandra retorted, still hurt.
"I guess I was a little shocked." He said, leaning on her desk. "It’s been a long time."
Indira walked by as they were talking, Bobby stood up again and tensed his jaw. "Well, I’ll see you around I guess." He said and started to walk away.
"That’s it?" Sandra asked incredulously. "Bobby - you were my best friend when we were kids …. I thought….it would be like old times." She felt idiotic saying it out loud.
The softness was gone from his voice, "Maybe I had to grow up Sandy. Ever think of that? It’s not like you picked up a phone in the last ten years or did an internet search – I’m registered everywhere." A pained look crossed his face creasing his brow, and before she could respond, he walked purposely away.

Sandra sat stunned again by their second encounter. How did it go so wrong? Her heart was aching inside her chest and her eyes were stinging with oncoming tears.
"Dammit." She said. "Dammit, dammit, dammit." All she wanted was to have Bobby back in her life. Why was he so angry? What had he just said? Had to grow up….internet search...could have looked him up. "He’s mad at me for not trying to find him." She said out loud to herself and suddenly felt absolutely awful for not doing so. All those times she typed in his name and then deleted it. He was somewhere carrying on with his life thinking that she was dead and gone. Suddenly there were the same footsteps coming her way. Bobby was back in front of her desk. He dropped a folded piece of white paper down in front of her and walked away again.

Curious, she unfolded the paper which read 5:00 PM STARBUCKS. He wanted her to meet him after work. Her hand flew to the phone and dialed home.
When Marta answered she tried to act casual, "Hi Marta, I’m going to be a bit late tonight if that’s okay with you. Some people from work want to take me out to a welcome dinner." She lied through her teeth."

"Sure. No problem. Daniel is sleeping and I was just going to do some yoga. I’ll go home when Mike gets here." Marta said. Sandra could visualize her on the floor stretching out her ballerina-like legs. For an older woman, Marta was in great shape and very attractive.
"Great, thanks." Sandra said, "I’ll talk to you later then." she said and clicked the hang up button with her finger and dialed Mike. She got his voice mail.
"Bo – Mike, I’m going to go out after work with some colleagues, don’t worry about picking me up at the station. I’ll get a cab. If you’re going out tonight, you’ll have to wait till I get home, won’t be too late. Bye." She hung up feeling surprisingly only a tinge of guilt for lying.