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Friday, May 11th, 2017. 1:35 PM. • • •
My nails clicked methodically against the plastic keyboard of my work computer. My eyes skimming the screen, as fingers lifted from the keys to scribble hastily onto a notepad half filled with badly written notes. Getting to sleep last night had proven even more difficult after the conversation with Bruce. When I did crawl into bed next to Ben, I could feel the anger radiating off of him, and so I laid there staring up at the ceiling hoping time would move just a little faster. Stifling a yawn I tore my eyes from the computer to see Perry walking my way. Quickly, I clicked out of my browser and pulled up my google doc that had my new article on it.
"Hi, Perry." I greeted him as he placed an elbow on the corner of my cubicle, his brown eyes looking down at me curiously. His glasses rested low on his nose and he raised an eyebrow.
"Annie, what are you doing here?"
"Working." I glanced back at my screen as if it was obvious.
"It's lunchtime." He deadpanned and my eyes darted to the small numbers in the bottom corner of the screen.
"Oh...I'm sorry. I got in my head."
Sighing he moved away from the cubicle gesturing for me to follow, "Come on."
• • • 1:45 PM • • •
I was sitting at Perry's desk, behind his desk, eating one half of the steak and cheese sandwich his wife made him while he sat opposite of me, eating the other half. He had given me the water opting for a soda himself, laughing that his wife would not be happy. Sitting behind his desk was odd for me, Perry was the boss, and you never got to see him as just a normal guy. As I sat there watching him sip his soda I realized I missed my dad. We would split a grilled cheese sandwich every Thursday after school and he'd listen to me ramble about my day, I could go on for hours, but he'd never tell me to stop, just smile at me proudly.
"Annie, are you okay?" Perry leaned forward mid-bite. His large stomach resting against the dark edge of the desk.
"Yeah, this just reminded me of times with my dad. He passed and I hadn't realized how much you reminded me of him until just now." I laugh, "You both even walk the same. Strong and confident." My voice trailed off at the thought that I was oversharing.
"Your dad sounds like a good man."
I looked up at him and smiled, "He was."
For the rest of our small meal, we ate in silence and I was so glad that I was distracted from my anxiety-inducing thoughts for just a short time. Once back at my desk, my cursor hovered over the article I was writing about the bank robbery that resulted in a cops death. As I stared at the blinking tab my mind wandered to what Bruce had told me and I quickly went back to what I was initially working on. The notes were of all the places of the abductions, eye witness and one name that I had scrawled down had caught my attention.
