Blue Sapphire | Bob Floyd

Chapter eleven

"Your father is a dick" Natasha tells me as we walk across the base. She joined me and Robbie at the apartment this morning and insisted on an explanation about yesterday. "I can't believe he did something like that. And his excuse of 'it was to protect you' is bullshit." Yep, she is furious.

I don't say anything, not wanting to add more fuel to her anger. Yesterday, I was feeling the same anger as she feels right now. This morning, it had passed, only leaving behind the pain of the betrayal. As we get closer to our class, Natasha keeps complaining about my father and calling him bad names. Maybe she hopes that he will be nearby and that he will hear her.

When we enter the classroom, Natasha, Robbie, and I realize that no superiors are there yet. It's only the pilots and the WSOs. As we head in direction of our seats, I can feel the stare of the others on us, but I don't quite understand why. We are halfway across the room when someone finally decides to talk.

"Am I hallucinating or is Sapphire holding Baby On Board's hand?" I can hear Hangman asking the others. Then I understand why everyone looked at us with such weird faces.

Shit. I didn't even realize that we were still holding each other's hands.

I look at my boyfriend, and I see the same realization crossing his face. Our first reaction is obviously to panic, but I squeeze his hands, as a way to tell him to not worry about this. Our superior discovered our relationship two days ago, and my dad probably already informed all his colleagues of the situation. This means that the only people that still don't know about us, are our friends. And they just saw us together, so there is no point trying to hide it anymore. We can be honest about our relationship as long as we stay professional at work.

"I wish I could tell you that you are crazy, Bagman, but no. You are not hallucinating." I confirm.

"Wait, so you mean that you and Bob are together? Like 'dating' together?" Payback wants to clarify, obviously not wanting to make any wrong assumptions about our relationship.

"Yes. We are dating. We've actually been together for three years." It's Robbie then answers the question this time. He doesn't speak very loudly, still a little shy and uncomfortable to have his relationship that has been a total secret for the last three years being the new center of attention.

"Why does it make so much sense" Fanboy whispers softly from his seat. His mouth is wide open, and he looks like he has a hard time processing the information.

"Well, well, well... That's interesting news" Hangman decides to talk again. "I need to admit, Bob. I didn't think you had it in you. It's –"

"Can you stop being a dick for one second, Hangman?" I am surprised to see that it's Halo that interrupted Hangman. I don't know a lot about her, but I deeply appreciate that she defends Robbie like that. "This is their personal love life. They share this information with us because they want to. They don't need you to insult either of them. So, seriously, just shut up." Hangman doesn't look happy about the WSO's intervention but decides to stop talking.

I send a silent 'thank you' in her direction, to which she simply answers with a nod. On a different note, we get more positive reactions from our other friends. They all congratulate us and tell us that they are happy for us. We thank them as Robbie, Natasha and I split up to go take our respective seats.

"Does anyone have an idea of why no officers are here yet?" Omaha then changes the subject of the conversation.

"Don't know, but it's true that it's weird that no one is here yet. The training was supposed to start like 5 minutes ago." Coyote adds. "But Maverick had a rough day yesterday, so it might be normal that he is a little bit late today."