Robin pulled her rental car into the parking space and turned off the engine. She felt nervous and excited in equal measure. This was it, her one chance to make up for what she had done. She sighed and leaned her head on the steering wheel. She was shaking slightly she was that nervous and unsure if she was doing the right thing.
She breathed deeply, sat up and tilted the rear view mirror so that she could look at her reflection. Her make up was perfect, hair too and she smiled wanly, noticing her reddened eyes and the dark bags which betrayed her recent lack of sleep. Reaching over, she lifted her purse, pulled out the small bottle of eye drops and dripped a couple into each eye. Blinking rapidly, she touched up her lipstick, satisfied to see that the whites of her eyes looked white once more.
She sat for a few moments, imagining how this might go. He would probably turn her away without even opening the door. He had told her that he never wanted to speak to her again, but she couldn't do as he asked, she couldn't stay away, even though she knew that it was what he wanted. "Okay," she thought to herself, "Let's do this." She got out of the car and noticed that her hands were shaking slightly as she locked the door.
She stopped at the door to his building, her hand frozen inches from the call button. "Is this the right thing to do?" She knew the answer, she knew that she shouldn't be here but she closed her eyes and pressed the button. She heard a click, "Hello?" She said weakly expecting to hear his voice, but instead the door simply buzzed, allowing her to enter.
She took the elevator to the sixth floor and nervously walked to his door. It opened as she raised her fist to knock and there he was. She drank him in, memories flooding back and for a moment she feared that she might burst into tears. "Don't," he said in a cold voice. "You can come in. I have a way for you to apologise. If that's what you're here for."
"Matt..."
"I don't want to hear it," he cut in. "If you're coming in, do that. If you want to leave, go." He didn't even look at her, staring six inches to the left of her face.
"I... I'll come in. Thank you," said Robin, hurrying in through the door. She boldly leaned towards him, putting out a hand to touch his arm, but he moved it away and shook his head. Robin looked down embarrassed as she passed by. She walked towards the living room but stopped as he coughed and turned to see him standing by the kitchen door.
"In here," said Matt flatly. "Sit down."
She pulled out a chair, grimacing as it scraped the floor and quickly sat down. Her eyes rose to meet his and he looked away and cleared his throat. "Okay, here's how this is going to happen." She looked at him, but he never paused. "You were a heartless bitch and I told you never to contact me ever again and yet here you are." This time he did look straight at her and she couldn't meet his gaze, her eyes studying her hands as she twisted her fingers together.
Matt carried on, "So, since I knew that you would probably show up at my door today, in fact, I was certain that you would. I took the liberty of organising something, a way of punishing you. Now, of course you are free to leave at any time, but then your punishment will be incomplete and I would never be able to even consider forgiving you."
Robin looked up hopefully. "He's going to forgive me," she thought to herself, allowing hope to creep in. "I'll do whatever you want, Matt. I'm sorry and I love you, I want to make things right."
He waved his hand dismissively and continued, "Before we go through to the living room, I should tell you that you can say no and you can leave at any time. Are you ready?"
Her eyes searched his face, looking for a sign, something to encourage her, reassure her, but there was no emotion to be seen. She didn't know that he could be so cold, before, when they were still together, he had been so warm, so loving, so attentive. How had it come to this? What had she done that was so very bad to deserve such a freeze. Then she remembered how incensed he had been when she had questioned him, when she had dared to suggest that he might not love her as much as he said, it had seemed like such an overreaction at the time, but now she felt truly wretched, knew she was in the wrong.
His cough brought her back to the present and he regarded her with cold eyes.
"I'm ready. I'll do whatever you ask," she said standing up.