*alarm rings
Beatrice was woken up by her 2nd cell phone alarm. She immediately opened her eyes and looked beside her bed.
'I forgot that Kai has a business meeting again…', she thought to herself.
She checked her phone for an update but her last message, which is good night, was just read by her long time boyfriend, Kai Ashford.
'Is he that busy?', Beatrice thought to herself then she got up and sat on their bed.
Her mind is nowhere near the work that she was about to do that day. Today is Wednesday and her boyfriend will be back on Saturday, just in time to prepare for their 9th anniversary as lovers.
Kai's business trip/meeting started on Monday. Their company is very generous, Beatrice always thought to herself because of the frequent business trips his boyfriend is attending to.
After washing her face and taking a quick bath, Beatrice wore her dress and decided to go to her work. She works as an Admin Officer at the same company she has been working at since she graduated.
Unlike her boyfriend's company, her company is not really friendly to its workers. She even sometimes works during weekends which made her miss a lot of dates with Kai. She is very thankful that Kai has become understanding of her schedule. He used to whine whenever Beatrice would cancel a date with him.
The home they're currently staying in is an apartment paid by both of them. All of their expenses are split in half with agreement from both of them. They actually used that to negotiate with Beatrice's parents to allow them to live with each other.
Before Beatrice left her home, she checked her phone again. She checked her phone much more than she checked how she looked.
When she saw that Kai still hadn't responded to her morning greeting, she just shook her head and stared at the mirror.
As usual her work is very stressful and she barely managed to stand up and take a break. When their co-worker tapped her shoulder for lunch, Beatrice was able to breathe again.
While walking to the cafeteria and chatting with her colleagues, Beatrice was checking her phone.
She saw that Kai responded and sent a selfie photo of his breakfast with his co-workers. Beatrice smiled after she zoomed at Kai and saw his smiling face.
One of Beatrice's colleagues, Dahlia, saw her smiling face and teased her, "You just received an update from your hubby right???"
Beatrice just smiled and pushed her back.
"Hubby? You're already married, Ms. Beatrice?", their new hire, Lilia asked.
"It's just a pet name…", Beatrice said while scratching her head.
"Oh but I heard they're celebrating their 9th anniversary next week?? What if he's planning on putting a ring on your finger already??!" Dahlia exclaimed while slapping Beatrice's shoulders and doing a small excited jump.
"Oh come on!", Beatrice said, then she blushed.
After all, they haven't talked about being married although their setup is like they're already settling down.
Dahlia saw the photo on Beatrice's phone.
Her eyebrows furrowed.
"They're eating breakfast in their room?", Dahlia said.
"Oh must be room service. I heard their company is really generous.", Beatrice said.
"So they're eating in their room? These 2 girls are in the room with them?", Dahlia asked.
Beatrice suddenly paused. She was able to breathe again when she felt Lilia tugging her sleeves.
"They must've just gone to the boys room to eat breakfast together? Do you know them Ms. Beatrice?", Lilia worriedly asked, sounding like she doesn't want Beatrice to crash out.
Beatrice smiled at her.
"I know them, they're Jess and Rose. They are also his friends at work.", Beatrice said.
Dahlia became silent for a while after that but she returned to her usual noisy self after seeing the food in the cafeteria.
The cafeteria is usually flooded with employees and their noisy chatter , however, today is very unusual since they're all gathering in one place.
The three girls decided to snoop and check the commotion. Dahlia saw someone she knew from another department and she asked him what's happening.
"You know that our company is just renting this building right? The landlord's son is here.", he whispered to the girls.
The three girls nodded their heads and decided to move on with the long line in the food counter.
"But why is he eating at the cafeteria? Is he an attention seeker or something?", Dahlia annoyingly asked.
Beatrice and Lilia just laughed then they all took their company provided lunch.
While they're looking for a seat, Beatrice sees the person at the center of all the commotion. Her eyes widened when she saw a familiar face.
That person also saw her and nodded and smiled at her. She just smiled and moved on with their lunch.
The girls usually finish their lunch within a few minutes and the rest of the lunch break was either spent chatting with each other or by themselves.
Today, Beatrice decided to stay at their floor's smoking area. She doesn't smoke. Actually no one smokes on their floor that's why she gets to enjoy the area by herself. She usually did video calls with Kai back then in this area but now…
"No call again..", she whispered while staring at her phone.
She doesn't know when this started but Kai is not the same as he was before. Or perhaps, something was wrong with her? Perhaps she is the problem? However, Beatrice doesn't even know what it is. It's not like she argues a lot with Kai.
Back then, Kai would call her every time she finished her lunch. They would spend their extra lunch break talking about random things or updating each other.
Now, sometimes it feels like she's the one begging for Kai to spend time with her. For her, it feels like Kai is no longer–
"Who? Kai?"
Her train of thoughts was stopped by the question from a familiar voice.
The familiar voice came from the person she saw earlier. Her high school classmate and seatmate…Louis Astor.