When Bobby had come home from the park, the phone had been ringing. He was glad for the distraction, his head was spinning. It turned out to be one of his superior officers asking if tomorrow he could cover the shift of an officer, who had just experienced a death in the family. Since Bobby's current partner was on vacation, he agreed to cover.

He wondered how it would affect Victoria getting home, and then he wondered if he should even call Victoria tonight. Maybe it would be better if he just didn't tell her, and see if she called. He really hadn't expected asking her on a date to have that effect. She had almost shunned him out of her life it seemed, and completely tore down any thoughts he had about their relationship.

Why did she have such an impact on her life? He should be glad that she didn't say that they couldn't be friends anymore. It might be a little awkward, and he wondered if he just pretended the whole conversation from earlier hadn't happened, if she would just allow things to go as they were, and forgive his misjudgment.

He decided to put it out of his mind for now, since if he didn't he would just be replaying it and analyzing it, trying to figure out where he had gone wrong. He then spent several hours studying for his upcoming detective exam. He was sure he had everything done in the book, but he wanted to make sure that he had it so well, that if he forgot his brain would already have it on auto-pilot. This method helped because it elevated some of the stress taking the police exams brought up.

At 7:30 he took a walk and bought a Chicken Caesar salad, and several newspapers at nearby stores. He enjoyed walking in the city, it always was a nice experience, especially when the weather was a nice medium temperature like it was now, the frost winter coming had a little nip in the air, but other than that it seemed like a nice spring day.

At 8:35, He had eaten, and gone through most of the NY Post, and the NY times, when he decided to call Victoria. It probably wasn't appropriate to leave her high and dry if she expected that he would walk her home tomorrow. He picked up the phone to dial four times, but never quite found the heart to hit the last digit. The fourth time, he hung up his phone, and began to pace the width of his apartment, thinking over the situation.

A minute before 9pm, he wiped his hand in case there was any sweat, and dialed the number. For a few minutes, they talked pleasantly, and he forced himself to pretend that nothing had happened out of the ordinary this afternoon.

Bobby was sure everything was going well, when he mentioned the book club, there was an awkward silence for almost a full minute.
She suddenly blurted out, "I don't think we can be friends anymore."

Bobby dropped the phone, and landed on the receiver hanging the phone up. He picked up the phone to call her back, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Impatiently, he yanked the cord out of the wall, and tossed the phone across the room in frustration.

He and Victoria had been friends for three years, and it was true that he had fallen in love with her, but he had never imagined she would act like this because he asked her out on a date. She had just tossed him away like a dirty napkin. Maybe if he gave her a few days, she would apologize, and they could go back to before.

Maybe not.

Bobby didn't realize he had sat down on the carpet, till he heard the extension ring in the kitchen. He pushed himself up and went to answer it, half-hoping it was Victoria.

The call was his mother, and he listened patiently as she talked to him for an hour and a half about her day. She complained about his not coming to see her lately, and he didn't correct her on the fact that he had just been last week. It was possible, she didn't remember him coming to see her, it had happened before.

Before she hung up, his mother said, "You shouldn't hang out with that Victoria, she is trouble."

Bobby hadn't even said to her anything about Victoria; actually he had barely been able to get in a word like usual. The comment made him wonder if he should take her advice, or as one of his mother's random out of context statements.

Bobby decided he would sleep on it, and maybe in the morning he wouldn't feel like opening his heart up in the first place had been his mistake.