Morningstar Manor

Robert had realized that he had no real friends left after the marriage. His and Joanna's - the ex's - long-time friend couple, however, had been luring Robert out with them for a long time now after the divorce. Suppose they took pity on him or thought it would be polite and appropriate to 'cheer him up' and spend some time with him even though he and Joanna were over.

Dan and Tina finally succeeded to get Robert out of his flat but only because he had been making so many rain checks on them already that he couldn't pull another one off anymore. Robert had gone through the trouble of ironing a dark blue collar shirt that he wore with jeans and black neat shoes. They had ended up spending the evening in the Rainbow with Dan and Tina sitting close together with Dan's arm around his wife and Robert on the other side of the table. They had been through the usual "how are you holding up" and "lets find you a lady tonight" and "it's never too late". Robert had answered mostly with grunts.

Then the discussion had steered off to another direction and was mostly between Dan and Tina. They talked about their daughter, their holiday together, how they were going to renovate the staircase in their house, and oh-my-god did you hear that Steve got a new girlfriend. Robbie mostly nodded and listened and added a few appropriate lines like "oh really?" or "mmh-hmm, yeah." Listening to them talk about their wonderful life together with their daughter really did not help to make him feel better.

Finally he saw his chance to get a breather when he emptied his glass and hurried to be the one to fill it again this time. "Right, what are you drinking?" He got the answer he was hoping for. "Oh, thanks, but I'm fine for the moment."

That gave him a good excuse to go to the bar alone and take his time with getting a new drink.

Roxy was in the gym tonight. She'd called a couple florist places and been told that without a date specific to the day, there was no way possible to make any wedding arrangements. First the photographer, then the florist... At least she had colors settled on and her half of the guest list arranged. It did look more like a sixteenth than a half though... Maybe she shouldn't have agreed to this, she thought as the treadmill beeped to tell her she'd gone past the five mile mark she'd set.

Her birthday was coming up and worrying about details made her dissatisfied with everything in general. Would it be horrible to run another five miles and see where she stood then? Punching the buttons, she reprogrammed the machine and mulled over more stupid thoughts.