193 Alone Together

“I’m sorry...it’s going to be another late night. You don’t have to wait for me...” I spoke on the phone.

“Hang in there. We’ve all been through it. Drink or eat something sweet...” Ace suggested as he tried to cheer me up in his own supportive way.

He was my boyfriend now, but it didn’t feel that way at all. We had almost no time together now that just getting enough sleep was becoming a challenge in my daily life. Thankfully, we still had our weekends to ourselves, although I spent the majority of that time catching up on my sleep and making sure that I ate properly. I wondered if Ace would break up with me if I didn’t find time to spend with him soon.

We’ve been heading back separately for more than a week now and that meant that we’ve been sleeping separately as well. I preferred to travel back to my apartment to get whatever rest that I could when I still had the time while Ace stayed mostly at his place. Despite my personal struggles, the commercial was progressing quite well. The production team was determined to finish shooting everything ahead of schedule so that we had more time for revisions if needed.

I made a silent vow to myself that I would get off work early enough to spend some time with Ace at his place this week. No matter what, I’m going to find a way to make it happen. Even if it was just for dinner, I wanted to spend some quality time with him. Ace never complained about the fact that we hardly had any time for each other. I didn’t know whether he was just understanding or if he was also very busy as well. Most likely, it was a combination of both.

Back then, I didn’t know that when the day came when I got off work early, things wouldn’t quite go as I had expected.

...

“Why are you working extra hard today, Karina?” Jeremy asked teasingly.

historical

I wasn’t surprised that he realized it. Nothing can slip by unnoticed when it came to Jeremy, and I had been working with him for a while now that he was aware of how I normally operated.

.....

“I want to get off work early today. Wait, I don’t mean like earlier than the official end of the working day, but you know, not like midnight...or after...” I admitted as I continued typing out the email that I needed to send.

“I get what you mean. Maybe we try to aim for an early evening kind of hard stop today?” Jeremy suggested.

“Don’t we all need a break sometimes?” I asked hopefully.

“Sure. This is a good day to have that break too. The meeting with the production team is tomorrow so we have a bit of a breather today. After the meeting tomorrow, things will pick up for us for sure,” Jeremy told me before he sighed.

Work had taken its toll on Jeremy as well and he looked visibly tired as his fatigue accumulated over the weeks. I didn’t even want to comment on myself. For most days, I walked around looking and feeling like a ghost. The only person who seemed to look presentable at all times was Julianna and I had no idea how she managed to keep her eyelashes and hair curled perfectly every single day.

“Let’s stop chatting and get to work so we can meet our hard stop. What about 8 PM?” I suggested before I smiled at Jeremy with pleading eyes.

“Make that 7:30 PM,” he replied before he walked away laughing.

7:30 PM it is!

By the time that 7:30 PM came along, I felt so exhausted and drained. Sprinting through the work saved up time for sure but it drained out a lot of energy at a much faster rate as well. Regardless of the suffering that we went through, we made it in time for our agreed hard stop at 7:30 PM.

Jeremy even went as far as to set the alarm at that time and when the alarm went off, we both lifted our hands off of our keyboards and turned to smile knowingly at each other.

“I’m off!” I announced proudly as I stood up from my seat and began stuffing my things into my handbag.

“See you tomorrow!” Jeremy announced proudly to everyone.

He made it out of the door even before I could finish packing up. Honestly, I was impressed.

This was sort of like a surprise, so I didn’t tell Ace beforehand that I was planning to spend time with him. The only challenge standing in my way was whether or not Ace was free. Being his personal secretary truly paid off at times like this because I could check his schedule directly on my phone. I had no idea if he had other work but according to his schedule, his last meeting already ended at around 6 PM.

I quickly made my way to his office where I was sure I would find out. Inviting him out to dinner might be good or maybe just heading to his place to spend some time together would be great too. My lips curved into a wide smile as I made my way to his office. I think I haven’t smiled this carefreely in a long time.

Wanting to surprise him, I decided to quietly slip into his office. Technically speaking, I also worked here so I didn’t think too badly of myself for not knocking. I didn’t see Ace right away because he was in his personal office. It was very quiet as I tiptoed toward his door.

“Ace...” I murmured softly as I slowly opened the door.

It was unlocked the door began opening when I pushed against it. I slowly peeked in while expecting to see the regular sight of Ace working at his table. I was partially right about him sitting behind his desk, but I was completely off about him working. Unless the definition of work had changed, and I wasn’t quite aware of it.

–To be continued...