Transcendence

25: Reunited

It had been a week since she had been back at work and she had quickly gotten back in the flow of things. She had been so excited to return. She had expected to jump right back into the meetings with Rossi but for the first couple of days, she had been assigned to desk work. It was understandable being that a whole other person had been taking charge for two months. Later that week, she found herself alternating between meeting and desk with Shelley. She was glad that he was giving Shelley the opportunity to soar. Smiling, she glanced at her pictures that sat on her desk before getting back to the task at hand.

*******

A week ago...

She stepped into her workplace. Holding her clutch she pressed the button for the elevator. Smoothing down her skirt, she took a breath and got in. She felt excitement course through her as the elevator stopped and opened its doors. She soon stood outside of the beehive. Here we go. She pushed through the frosted glass doors. As she began to walk in, mouths dropped and eyes followed her as she made her way to her cubicle.

"Marshall?" The office sleeze Peterson slurred, eying her up like a piece of meat.

"Peterson?" His gaze slid down her like a slinky.

"What is it you eatin cause damn baby girl you left and came back thick."

"You might wanna focus on what you doin fore you cut yourself there Peterson." He glanced down at the paper cutter he was using and sighed, relieved that he hadn't cut anything other than paper. She kept walking until she placed her clutch down on her desk. Leave it to him to be her welcoming committee. Pursing her lips, she glossed her fingertips across the surface of the desk. She found it surprisingly clean. A smile came to her face at all the sticky notes that had been placed in one little collective corner. Shelley. She had even been kind enough to keep her small pictures of her sister and Tre clean too. Smiling deeper, she sighed and sat down. After a while she heard,

"Rae's here? Where?" She peeked up at the voice. Shelley stood in the aisle, many stacks of papers in her hand. Peterson pointed in her direction and at meeting her eyes, they grinned at each other.

"RAE!"

"Shells!" She got up and went to grab some of the papers, meeting her half way.

"Oh my God thank you. This was killing me." Shelley exclaimed with a huff. They sat her papers down.

"Girl look at you. You went away and came back shining like a diamond." She felt her cheeks grow hot.

"Thanks Shells."

"You look different. Everything about you is different somehow." Shelley said with a grin.

"Specially those shoes." She laughed and hugged her.

"It's so good to have you back partner."

"It's good to be back." She pulled back and took her in.

"You look good Shells. Rossi been all right?" She smiled.

"Yeah! He's been great! I've learned so much by being in those meetings. It's good to finally feel as if I'm moving forward!"

"That's great! You deserved it the most out of all of us." Shelley blushed.

"Aw. Thanks Rae." She let go of her as she began to sort through the papers.

"Shells?"

"Yeah?"

"I want to say sorry." She paused and looked at her.