She eyed the rotary phone that was sitting silently, a bright shiny red ribbon perched on top. She smiled inwardly as she pictured his face when he saw it- he would love it.
She recalled when he had told her that he had always wanted one. It was during one of his first self-appointed guard duties. And as they sat on her couch together he had explained how Pops had had one. He had explained that, as a child, he would play with the phone for hours, marveling at the tick of the dialed numbers, the whirr of the dial as it spun back into place, the cold, black, smoothness of the whole thing, and the sheer weight of it. He said it was a "real" phone and told her how he use to compare it to a soldier, how he had wanted to be like the phone- strong, good looking, and constantly reliable.
She had scoffed at the time- why would someone want to model themselves after a phone? He had tried to explain it to her, but he gave up after a while and their conversation turned to other things. And it was conversations like these that she had learned to value above everything else in their relationship. The way that they could talk about everything and nothing at once never ceased to amaze her. She had never experienced anything like this with anyone, let alone a man. She had never known any person so completely before in her life.
And that was why, as she sat on the his couch next to Hannah, laughing and joking with Cam and Angela, their conversation easy and light, she felt a surge of anticipation rush through her at the thought of him coming home and seeing the phone waiting for him. The phone he had told her he had always wanted. And when she heard the door open and footsteps make their way down the hall, excitement flooded her.
But as Cam and Angela left for the night and his attention turned toward the phone on the table, and a huge grin spread across his face as his eyes brightened with joy, and a large smile lit up her face at his obvious happiness, she realized, with such surprising clarity that it sucked the air from her lungs, that he was not smiling at her thoughtfulness; he was not smiling at her gift; it hadn't been her that made him happy.
Too much. Her smile faded and she turned away, collecting her purse and coat. She forced a smile as the couple asked her to stay for dinner. No, she argued, she would only be in the way. Plus she needed to get herself together. The sudden emptiness in her chest would not due for proper focus at work in the morning.
But as she walked down the hall towards the door and she heard him call out her name, she couldn't help but feel something she could not define; but what he would have describe as a flicker of hope somewhere deep inside her. She turned and stared at him, his eyes earnest. "See you tomorrow," he repeated to her. She gave him a small smile and nodded. Even at his friendly words, the small flicker of hope seemed, to her at least, to grow ever smaller as she left the apartment into the cold emptiness of the hallway.