Bobby got out of the car and waved goodbye as he entered his apartment building. Alex returned her attention to the road as she drove home. She had left her coat at Bobby's place the night before and he had kindly returned it to her at work this morning. Now it was sitting on the passenger seat where Bobby had just been.
When she arrived at her own apartment building, Alex grabbed the coat and her purse and started up the several flights to the place she called home. She opened the door, dropped the purse on the counter and went to go hang up the coat, but as she lifted it up past her face to hang it in the closet, waves of her partner's scent made her pause. She sniffed the coat in her hands; it had a very distinct smell to it—one of Ivory soap and aftershave, neither of which she used.
So Bobby had held her coat last night, probably even hugged it as he fell asleep. She wasn't weirded out by this acknowledgement; she could see how it fit into the realm of unusual. But that was her partner. It was actually kind of touching that he found such a need to hold something as simple as her old coat.
Bobby was actually a very sociable person—it was just rare that he showed it. He never wanted to get too close to people, but Alex could sense that his smile was just a little warmer and his eyes just a little more relaxed when their arms were linked. There were even times when she wondered if it would be beneficial for him if she hugged him more. She always felt as if she could use more love, why not him too? To him, love seemed to be a personal thing, something that should be done alone and in private. But it was all too obvious that he couldn't get enough of it that way.
Alex picked up her cell phone and dialed the all too familiar number. "Bobby, can I stay at your place tonight? I just don't feel like being alone right now." Let him take it how he wants too, she could always feign it off as some female hormonal thing, but she knew it was really a need to fill an emotional connection. Though most people agreed that she was his grounding rock in a sea of indignant people, she too needed some foundation in that same world.