Chapter 2: The next day

The next day Hellen woke up letter in hand in an empty bed. Her head was thumping and she felt dizzy. She had cried herself to sleep. She grabbed comfy clothes and walked into the living room where Mark was sitting sipping his coffee while reading something on his phone. Hellen strolled into the kitchen and loudly grabbed a mug of thee Mark had already set for her.

“Hey honey, how are you feeling?” his voice dripped of concern and pity. She would normally chastise him for it and toughen it out. However for once she didn’t have the energy to do so. She crashed her ass onto the couch next to him feeling a rolled up blanket beneath her. her groggy mind started figuring out why until she put two and two together.

“Wait, don’t tell me you slept here?” She exclaimed.

Mark stayed quiet avoiding her gaze.

“Mark?”

“I called your work to get you leave, they reluctantly agreed.”

“Mark, answer me.”

Mark went quiet again before admitting defeat. “You needed some alone time, I decided to look up some information on the firm. I didn’t look through the files, it wouldn’t have felt right to do so without you.”

They sat there in silence not knowing what to say. She knew he did what was best for her yet she couldn’t help but feel sad to have slept alone, that only happened when they had just had a fight.

“Why did you call my work? You do realise that might cause problems down the line?” Hellen started.

“I told them your father passed away, if you need the time to grieve I want you to take it, job be damned. And you might want to go to the firm to at least listen to what they have to say.” He said feeling Hellen glare at him.

“Plus the lady I spoke was quite understanding, so I don’t think you’re in trouble.” He tried to salvage the situation.

“I’m guessing you got Barbara on the phone, considering she still owes me one and she had a similar situation a few months ago I think you got out of that lucky. Anybody else and I might have gotten fired.” Mark noticed how tired she sounded at the end of his chastising.

“I’m sorry…” he whispered.

Hellen sighed, “Don’t be, you did what was right for me. That’s what’s important. Let me call for an appointment at the firm. With luck they can fit me in during this small leave you managed to get me.”

Mark looked away and she could immediately tell he felt guilty about something. “What did you do?” she grumbled.

He looked back with a goofy grin while scratching the back of his head. “Well you see…”