That day at work Elizabeth had made a decision. She had been spinning her wheels for two weeks waiting for Robert to call. But now, she was ready to take the rocket by the horns, so to speak. Frankly, he was being selfish. Elizabeth's bruised ego and pride had had enough. Despite his argument to the contrary, he hadn't wanted to come in that night on her door step, his actions have shown that clearly. She didn't care. It was too late for posturing concern for his health at this point. Too late for rationalizing he needed space. She was mad. And today she was going to let him know.
Elizabeth pounded hard three times on Romano's front door. She was determined that he hear her, even if he was down in the basement. "The basement," she said to the door, "another example of how blindingly egocentric you can be. I offer my help, 'anytime' I told you, but no. You have to do it yourself. You cocky, ignorant man. No one is that…"
The door opened and Elizabeth abruptly stopped her monologue. Seeing Roman answer the door with a smile on his face had caught her off guard. She cursed herself for suddenly being at a loss for words.
"Lizzie!" he blasted looking like a doe in headlights. Confused, scared, flustered, and embarrassed all at once, he slammed the door shut. "Oh, shit!" he spat and slowly reopened the door having not removed his hand from the knob.
Those few seconds were all it took for Elizabeth to regain her voice. As the knob turned and started to pull into the home, she threw both hands against the door and shoved it open. Romano stumbled, caught off guard, and fell to the floor. Red with rage darkened as Elizabeth added embarrassment to her mix of emotions. She thrust her right hand forward to help him and didn't recognize immediately that he took it with his left hand. Feeling the prosthetic Elizabeth's eyes widened and she released his hand, dropping him back on the floor, "Robert!"
"Ow! Geez Lizzie, I know it's been a while, but are these bruises necessary?"
Elizabeth smiled despite herself and Romano took her hand to stand again. "So Lizzie," dramatically dusting himself down, "did you come here for more than the corporeal assault?"
"Actually," she froze in a Rodin-esque thought pose, "no, that pretty much takes care of things." She refused to feed his ego by thinking she came here to have a pleasant conversation about rehabilitation with his new prosthetic arm. She was curious. Prior to amputation Elizabeth was kept abreast of most parts of his recovery. In addition to missing him on the personal level, she was seeing now that she had been kept in the dark, with his medical progress as well.
Romano looked at her perplexed. Granted he hadn't planned this exact scene in his mind, but never once when he thought through their first meeting post attachment, would she ignore the conversation completely. His brows furrowed and his eyes went to the floor.
Elizabeth took a step towards the still open door. "Uh… goodbye Robert."
"What? No. Don't hit-and-run," he said without making any physical effort to stop her.
She passed through the doorway and briskly turned at the end of his walkway, heading down the street. Romano stood firmly in place in complete bewilderment.