~ TRISTAN ~

I watched Hazel as she dressed up for work, speaking to someone over the phone. 

“Yes… no, not like that… yes… no… okay… you know what? Never mind, I’ll be there soon… bye.” She finally dropped the phone, pulling the zipper of her skirt up and tied her long dark brown hair into a ponytail. 

I resumed typing away on my laptop to finalize the work I had to do before leaving for the office. 

“Hey Tristan, I’m leaving now.” She announced and grabbed her bag. 

“Okay,” I replied, trying to hide my pain— the pain from missing her too much. 

She stared at me with squinted eyes and opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by a call from her phone once again. Checking the screen of her phone, she said a quick “goodbye” before heading out while speaking to whoever it was over the phone.

I let out a sigh and set my laptop aside, brushing my hair away from my face. 

I was so damn worried about my marriage with Hazel. Everything always seemed to be going well, but since she started working at the restaurant, she hardly ever had any time for me. I had always thought I was a busy working man, but Hazel was an advanced workaholic. I just hoped nothing goes wrong. 

*** 

Now that I was finally free from work, Hazel wasn’t around. She was still overly busy and hadn’t picked my calls. Worry was an understatement to what I was feeling at the moment.

 I felt incomplete without her. Though we still shared a bed, she or I either came back late and she’d either already be asleep or would just go straight to bed; no hugs, no kisses, nothing— maybe just a short kiss and a “goodnight”. It felt like we were far apart. 

“Hey dude.” Kye said, strolling into the room. 

“You’re here? What a pleasant surprise.” I didn’t mean to sound sarcastic, but I did. 

“Whoa, what’s wrong?” He pulled the vanity chair out and sat beside me. 

“Tristan! Kye, you’re here too?” Charlotte said, walking into the room as well and sat beside me on the sofa. “Where’s Hazel? I've been searching everywhere for her and the workers don't know either.” 

“That’s the problem. She's never around.” I frowned. 

“What’s wrong? Why?” Charlotte asked, furrowing her eyebrows in concern.

“Hazel is never around. Since she started working at her restaurant, she's always unavailable. She never pick my calls or respond to any of my texts.” 

“Really? Why?” Kye frowned. 

“I don’t know. She’s always working. Even when she returns home, she never has my time. Whenever I try to talk to her at night, I might be super excited to finally speak to her, until I realize she’s fast asleep or has slept off while I'm still speaking. Though I don't want to, I’m starting to regret the fact that I made her have the restaurant.” 

“Tristan!” Charlotte gasped. 

“Don’t say that.” Kye added. “She’s genuinely busy. We were at the restaurant for about an hour. She was trying to spend time with us, but was constantly interrupted by urgent work.”

“Is working at a restaurant that hard and time-consuming? Isn’t it just something she can—”

“Tristan, please don’t say such things. How do you think Hazel would feel if you say things like that?” Charlotte asked. 

“You’ve got to speak to her about your concerns. I remember when there was a big misunderstanding between me and Charlotte when we weren't spending quality time with each other.”

“Of course, you’ll remember.” She huffed. 

“I tried to speak to her about my concerns, but there hasn't even been time to speak to her. I don't know why, but I think she’s trying to avoid me. What if she doesn't want to speak to me? What if she doesn’t want to—”

“Stop it. She's only busy, I’m certain. If you continue having thoughts like this, you might start to have ridiculous thoughts that she’s probably cheating on you or something like that. I know…” he trailed off with his gaze fixed to the door. 

Charlotte and I turned our heads to the door and Sherri was standing there, her expression was as blank as ever. 

“Tristan, ¿Crees que nos escuchó? (do you think she heard us?)” Charlotte asked. 

“No sé (I don’t know).” I replied. “What do you want?” I asked Sherri. 

She cleared her throat, walking in. “I’m sorry for interrupting, but I have to bring something for Haz— Mrs. Hendrix, if you don't mind?” 

“Sure.” 

“¿Qué pasa si le dice a Hazel y Hazel se ofende? ¿Y si la lastima? (What if she tells Hazel and Hazel gets offended? What if it hurts her?)” 

“Crees que ella será (You think she’ll be)?” 

“Sí. Si fuera yo, estaría herido u ofendido. (Yes. If it were me, I’ll be offended).” She shrugged. “Sherri?” She called. 

“Yes, ma’am?” Sherri turned to her, maintaining her blank expression. “Is Hazel still busy at work?” 

“Oh, yes, extremely busy.”

“Do you have any idea of when she’ll be free?” 

“Uh…not today, not tomorrow…”

“When will she be?” I cut her off. 

“I really don’t know. We’re still trying to train the other workers.”

“Can you tell her it’s compulsory to take a day off soon?” 

“I’ll tell her, but I doubt if she’ll listen to me. There’s really a lot that still needs to be done. I'll take my leave now.” She shoved something into her bag then scurried out of the room. 

“Don’t worry, Tristan. I'll try to talk to her. And I was so interested in seeing her today. Kye, should we go to her restaurant for a nice meal?” 

“Wouldn't that just make her more stressed out?” Kye quirked an eyebrow while Charlotte heaved a sigh of agreement. 

*** 

~ HAZEL ~

I hadn’t been able to focus at work properly today. I had been thinking of Sherri’s words about Tristan’s conversation. 

I knew I wasn’t spending enough time with him because I was too occupied with work and was worried about my life. 

Mike came to pick me up. Sherri had excused herself to leave earlier because she felt sick, making the workload heavier for me and Mrs. Anderson which made us work extra time. 

“Uhm… is everything okay?” Mike asked, staring at me through the rear-view mirror. 

“Okay? Yeah… uh… everything’s fine.” 

“Okay… because you've not responded to the last two calls you’ve received. You seem like you’re lost in thoughts.”

“Two calls?” I picked my phone up. As always, there were multiple texts and missed calls. The last two calls were from Charlotte, so I decided to call her back first. 

“Hey Char,” I greeted with a tired smile. 

“Hey. Where do you always keep your phone?” She scolded angrily. 

“I’m sorry.” 

“Chill, I’m just kidding.” She chuckled. “By the way, how are you?”

“Good.” 

“I’d like to speak to you about something important, if you're not busy.” 

“Go on, I'm heading home now.”

“Great! It's about Tristan. He feels really bad and lonely again. He claims that you're not spending enough time with him. I love you both together and don't want anything bad to happen to your marriage, so please, try to spare time for your husband; don’t let work come before family. That dude loves you and will literally die if you don’t spend time with him. He’s as good as lifeless without his wife beside him.” She said the last sentence as a joke.

I chuckled, sighing. “I’ll definitely work on that. Thank you so much for your concern.”

“It's my pleasure. Anyway, goodnight. I’ll make sure to pay you a visit soon, just let me know when you’re free from work. Of course that’s after you’ve spent enough time with Tristan.” 

“Okay.” I smiled. 

“Bye.” She said and hung up. 

The rest of the drive was quite silent. Though Mike was trying to bring conversations to life, I was just too tired to be involved in long conversations with him. 

When I returned home, Tristan was fast asleep, so I did my morning rituals before crawling up to bed beside him. 

“I promise to not let any work interrupt the time we spend together anymore. I love you.” I promised and kissed his forehead before drifting to sleep. 

A/N: Heyo. An update. I’ll upload another chapter or two today. Don’t forget to let me know your thoughts on this chapter and this book in the comment section. 

By the way, sorry for the long update break. I was stuck with an annoying mental-disturbing writer’s block, lol, but I think I’m back now. Hallelujah!😄😂

Bye.

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Bye, for now.