Chapter 4 – Confrontation
I was up and dressed before my alarm even went off. I went over what I was going to do and say when I came face to face with Sonja again. The flight back to Atlanta was uneventful and I was able to execute my auto lease with no problem. After a quick stop at the motel, the GPS quickly directed me to the University and the right facility.
I took a long, deep breath before I entered the building. It only took me a couple of minutes to find the FBI table. I waited until there was no one at her table and quickly walked over to it. "Hello again" I said shocking Percy. "LaSalle, what are you doing here?" I came around the table so that only she could hear my comments.
"Look Sonja. I let you run away from me once. I decided on my plane ride home that I wasn't going to let that happen again. I am hoping that you have left your evening open so we can talk a little bit."
Looking stunned she managed to murmur out an "okay."
"Why don't I come back at the closing time and help you pack up?"
"That sounds fine Chris."
Seven p.m. soon came and I made my way back to the Center. As we packed up the materials, I caught Sonja giving me side eye views like she wanted to say something but then deciding not to. After loading up her trunk, I followed her back to the hotel arriving just before the last rays of sunlight disappeared.
Sonja went in to catch a quick shower after giving me her dinner order. She was back in the room just a few minutes before the knock on the door from the steward. The room was filled with the fragrance of the soap on her skin just as I remembered from sitting in my truck on stake outs with her.
"So what just was so important LaSalle" she asked defiantly.
"I have never forgotten the day you left. Actually the weeks leading up to the fact that I knew you had the interview and were considering leaving. Even though it was so long ago, I still remember asking you if it was what you wanted to do. I thought there was more to say but we were interrupted by Triple P."
"Look, I know you are tired and have an early flight out tomorrow. I know you must be surprised by my returning to Atlanta. Why don't you let me come see you sometime in the next month or two? I haven't been to D. C. for some time and I never did make to the grave of one of my high school buddies who died right at the end of the Iraqi conflict. Maybe we can do some other tourist things in addition to going to Arlington and be able to relax and catch up and talk.
Sonja looked like she wanted to say no. I had seen that shoulder shrugged at least once before in the cemetery when we finally talked out why we could have a relationship. She sighed loudly before say "alright, you win. I will need to check my calendar. Here's my business card I wrote my personal e-mail address on the reverse. E-mail me and I will respond when I am looking at my calendar after I clean out my inbox the next couple of days."
I got up and offered her my hand as if she need help getting out of the chair. "Thank you Sonja" I said as I hugged her good night. "You can't know how much that I have missed you" Absolutely no way I thought to myself.
We ate breakfast together downstairs and I once again trailed her to the airport where we dropped off our rental cars.
We laughed and talked waiting for her flight to be called and hugged tightly again before she walked down the walkway. I sighed to myself thinking that went better that anyone could have thought. She could have just said no to me coming to D.C.
Oh my. This time I caught my own self grinning. This is the happiest that I have been in a long time. A very long time.
