Short Story: Starting Over Part 2

Barbara sat staring at the manila envelope on her laptop.  She had come home determined to finish what she had set her mind on, but it was easier said than done.  Could she really muster up the strength to do this?  Just throw all those memories away after all these years?

"Stop laughing!"

"It's funny though," Michael said, clicking on the mouse to zoom in closer to a picture of Barbara, so he could see her teeth clearly. "Look at those amazing set of rabbit teeth!"

"You know I feel insecure about them," Barbara pouted, folding her arms across her chest, "You're such a jerk."

Michael continued to smile, zooming in even closer, "Definitely Facebook worthy." 

He maneuvered the mouse over to the Explorer icon.

"No!" Barbara shrieked, pushing his hand off the mouse, "I won't talk to you anymore if you do that."

"Hah! You say that, but you'll be calling me as soon as you leave here.  You're too weak." Michael said, flashing her his devilish grin again as he closed up the picture and turned off the computer.  He then got up from his chair and pulled Barbara in his arms, "But I don't like to try my luck with you being so stubborn sometimes."

Stubborn.  That's what Barbara was.   Yet, Michael put up with her because he had cared about her.

"Do you love me?"

"You know the answer, so why do you have to ask?"

"I just like to check sometimes, just in case you don't love me anymore," Barbara said puling the car into the parking lot at Harold's, the local grocery store.

Michael sighed.

Insecure.  Barbara was that too.  She tried not to be, but after being cheated on by her last boyfriend, she had never been the same since.  He had broken her heart and she felt as though she could never love again until she met Michael.

"Do you remember when we first met?"

Michael tapped his fingers on his chin for a few seconds and looked up from where he was sitting at the dining table, "Oh, I remember that day.  Man, you were pissed with me!"

"Well, besides that part where you offended me by saying I had an old lady's name," Barbara said as she swatted him  with her left hand, "Do you remember anything else?  I remember you wore a blue dress shirt with stripes and you had a black backpack on.  You wore glasses that day, those old big black round ones...you looked so cute then."

Michael's face cringed up, "I hated those glasses! They were so big and bulky. I can't believe I used to leave the house with those on.  And you found them attractive? Hah! I'm surprise you remember what I even wore then since you didn't seem to like me at all."

"Oh," Barbara responded, "Don't get me wrong, you annoyed the heck out of me.  I noticed you coming from afar though, before you opened that mouth of yours!"

Michael laughed as he moved his eyebrows up and down, in a twitching motion, "So was it love at first sight?"

Barbara never admitted it to him, but it was.  There was something that drew her to Michael the moment she saw him.  Something she could never explain.  Glancing once again at the manila envelope, Barbara took a deep breath and moved it away from her laptop.   Might as well look this up on the computer and get it over with, she thought. The local post office in her area had closed due to budget cuts and she needed to find the next closest one to her.  If Barbara was going to send this envelope, then she might as well have it sent there as fast as possible...before she changed her mind.