Technical Difficulties

It was now around a week after the fire had occurred, the office building having had just undergone a bunch of repairs, and now in perfect order for the next day, as it was currently a Sunday. Barry had got significantly better over the past week, now not really experiencing any major side effects from the incident, which was rather lucky considering the circumstances. All the employees had been given the week off due to firstly having nowhere to work, and secondly to give time for people to get over the shock of the fire. Barry and Caitlin had met up a few times over the prior week, three times to be precise. They had bonded quite a lot over this time, purely because of how Caitlin felt about the incident, however, Barry constantly assuring her that it wasn't her fault. An email had been sent to everyone to alert them that work started again tomorrow, Barry being given the option to stay off for a few more days, however denying it due to wanting to continue working as before the fire, somewhat good progress had been made, and not only that, a lot of things would have to be re-written or reprinted, etcetera, so work was to be done the next day as a lot of it would be best completed as soon as possible. 

Barry was currently sat in his apartment's living room, watching a few movies as he sat on the sofa, not particularly doing much besides resting himself for the day ahead. Despite most of his injuries being healed, some still offered a bit of pain towards him, so as a result, he wanted to make sure he rested up well enough for the day coming. It was a rather peaceful environment, not too much chaos or anything, just a nice atmosphere to be able to relax in. That didn't affect the small feeling of loneliness, however, that is relatively expected when living on your own.

It was around this moment that his phone next to him buzzed, resulting in him turning it over to see a text message from Caitlin.

'Hey, it's okay if you don't want to but if you would like, would you like to meet up today? I thought that we could go to the coffee shop fairly near here, Jitters." The message read, Barry unlocking his phone to reply.

'Yeah, sure, when about?"

"How about in about an hours time?" 

"Sure, I will see you there,"

He rested his phone back down, before standing up to get ready to leave as he was still in his pyjamas, it still being fairly early morning. Whilst the burns still stung slightly, it wasn't big enough a problem to hold this off, especially as he felt somewhat lonely, and loved spending time with Caitlin all the same. 

After around half an hour or so, Barry had showered and was now fully dressed, sitting back down for ten minutes or so, before it was time for him to leave. As he did so, he quickly whipped out his phone to message Caitlin, telling her that he was on his way. It only took a few seconds for a reply to come through, telling him that she was as well. He locked the door before proceeding to head down the few flights of stairs he was faced with.

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Roughly ten minutes later Barry walked into Jitters, seeing no sign of Caitlin so as a result went straight to the counter, ordering himself and Caitlin a drink, being the one she had previously told him that she loved. Finding a table, he sat down, waiting to see her walk through the doors of the coffee shop. This also didn't take much time at all, Caitlin walking through the doors and looking around, seeing Barry and smiling, walking over to him and sitting down. Barry couldn't help but notice how nice she looked. It wasn't something he particularly thought he would notice, neither something he thought he wanted to notice, but he did all the same. As she sat down, she greeted him with one of her eager 'hey's, Barry replying with the same.

"So, how are you doing? How are you feeling?" she asked.

"I'm okay, and the injuries are all getting better. They are still a bit of an annoyance and sting a little, but it is much better than before. You?"

"I'm actually feeling pretty good, a lot better than usual weirdly. So that's good," 

"How come?"

"I don't know, I just feel happy today," she smiled, looking over at Barry.

"I got you a drink, I hope it's okay,"

"It's my favourite, thank you," she smiled back.

"So, we are back at work tomorrow, huh."

"Yeah, however, I don't think it will be too bad. We have most of our work saved to our laptops anyway, so reprinting any lost work shouldn't be too big a problem. Plus we were doing really well, so it shouldn't be too hard to pick up from where we left off."

"Yeah, that's true. So, how is life at home? Are you getting along with your dad?"

"It's okay. We don't talk particularly much but nothing bad has happened so it is okay at the moment."

"Good," Barry replied, taking a sip of his drink."

"What's been on your mind recently?" Caitlin asked, starting a new conversation.

"Wow, what a question. A bit of everything really," Barry replied, in a tone that implied that he was keeping something to himself.

"Such as?" Caitlin gestured.

"Well, it's nothing really," Barry laughed, the laughter possibly being nervous.

"What's up?" Caitlin asked, laughing whilst saying it slightly to make it come across as more friendly than serious.

"Well, it's really nothing much. Just a few thoughts about my future and the such. Relationships, careers, etcetera. You know, just a few natural worries."

"Worries? I really don't see how you should be worrying about any of that. I'm sure that the way that you are working now will lead you on to a great career, and with the relationships part, you are an easily lovable guy, I'm sure that you will easily find someone," she said, the tone in her voice trailing off slightly at the end, for a reason she couldn't pinpoint, but didn't think much of it.

"Thanks," Barry replied, feeling reassured by the comment.

The pair spent the next few hours together, talking about different things, just simply spending time with each other, both enjoying the moment. As it reached the time which Caitlin needed to leave, she surprisingly hugged Barry goodbye, living up to the fact that she was very happy today. They proceeded to depart, walking down opposite ends of the street as they left one another's company, heading back to their respective homes, both smiling from a nice day out together, as each enjoyed the other's company a surprising amount.