Friday January 16th

After her shower, Minmei slipped into a pair of Rick's sweats and went into the living room expecting to find Rick where she left him.

"Rick, are you in the kitchen?' After she didn't get an answer, she went to look for him and found his note.

"M

Went to the airfield – Need to work on my plane. Will be home late. Don't wait up for me.

R"

She was a little perturbed that Rick had snuck out on her like this, but wasn't completely surprised. He had been behaving a little strangely the past few days, increasingly distant, especially physically. Maybe he was a going a little stir crazy. It was winter after all and they spent most of the last few weeks at home. Maybe he really did need to go do something to that airplane of his. She didn't understand that part of his life at all.

Since Minmei had the entire day to herself she decided to go shopping. A new mall had just opened in one of the other nearby suburbs. She was dying to go to the salon get her weekly facial, massage, manicure, etc., but she couldn't risk being recognized. At least she could go shopping safely with her hair up and sunglasses on.

After having some cereal and tea, Minmei went back into bedroom to get dressed. She decided to put on the new sweater she bought a few days ago, but she needed to cut the tag off before she could wear it. She remembered seeing a pair of scissors around, but couldn't remember where Rick put them, so she began looking around.

After rummaging through the kitchen and desk drawers with no luck, she found herself looking in Rick's nightstand. When she opened the drawer the first thing that caught her eye was not the scissors, but a birthday card. She didn't remember sending Rick a card.

Wasn't his birthday in March? Oops. I always forget.

She pulled the card out and several smaller items fell out onto the floor. Before bending down to pick them up, she looked inside the card.

The printed inside read:

"May all your birthday wishes come true."

It was signed

"Happy Birthday, Rick, Love Lisa"

P.S. For your birthday I.O.U. dinner. I'll cook (okay, I'll try to cook. Ha. Ha.)

Lisa, again. Why did she keep popping up? Just last week she found a picture of Lisa as a teenager in Rick's desk drawer. And didn't she give him that hideous picture of a stealth bomber in the living room. That has to go. And dinner? She made him dinner? Just how close were they?

Minmei stood there for a few moments, not knowing what to feel before bending down to pick up what had fallen out. On the floor among the items she found were two pieces of paper. She sat down and read them. The first one was in Lisa's handwriting, and had her new address and phone number written on it. The second was, again, in Lisa's handwriting and said, "Welcome home! Your mail is on the kitchen table. I finally got my new cell phone, here's the number. Call me when you get home. Lisa" She could understand why he kept Lisa's contact information, for work of course, but was Lisa taking care of his place while he was gone?

She looked around her and picked up the remaining items. There was a picture of Rick, Lisa, Claudia, Max and Max's wife, (what was her name?) all sitting together in a restaurant with their arms around each other smiling at the camera. On the back was written, again in Lisa's handwriting, "Rick & Lisa's birthday, 3/11/14."

Minmei stared at the photo for a long time.

I guess Lisa is kind of pretty, I guess. I wish I had her body. I wonder if they ever slept together. No, I doubt it. She's definitely not Rick's type. She always seemed kind of…bitchy. Uptight. I bet she wanted him, though. Too bad. Too late now. Didn't she a have a boyfriend that died or something like that? That is kind of sad. Well, at least she finally stopped calling Rick, even if it was only about work stuff.

She also found a key, similar to Rick's house key, but not quite the same, and gift receipt dated 3/9/14 for a CD from some other singer.

She sat on the floor in the bedroom most of the morning thinking and realizing she had some real doubts about her future. Could she be happy giving up her career and living the rest of her life as a housewife? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe she won't have to give it up. Maybe she just needed a break. What about Rick's career in the RDF? This was no 9 –5 job. Sometimes he was gone for weeks at a time, doing who knows what. She couldn't deal with him being gone and worrying about him every time he went into harm's way. Couldn't he fly commercially? She decided that he would have to resign if they were to be together, and planned to talk to him about in the next day or so. And, besides, once he did resign from the service she wouldn't have to worry about Lisa Hayes and her feelings about Rick anymore.

She put the items back in the drawer, finished getting dressed, and left for the New Macross City Mall.