Narrator
The evening fast approached and it was time to go home. Isabella wanted to ride with Tristan back home. So she knocked on his office and he told her to come in before she pushed the door open.
Emily sat on the couch in his office, pressing her laptop. She looked so immersed in her work that she didn’t turn immediately to know who it was.
“What is it, Isabella?” Tristan said in a tired tone, without raising his head to even stare at her, and that was when Emily turned to look at her, fixing her glasses.
“How did you know?” She looked surprised, but Tristan could tell she was by the way the whole room was filled with her scent.
“Well I wanted to have a ride with you,” She said nervously, but kept a smile on her face, and chose to completely ignore Emily’s presence.
“Well, I’m already having a ride with Emily,” He finally raised his head to stare at her.
“Right,” she nodded her head and stared at Emily briefly who smiled at her.
“Yes, but my driver could drop her at home,” She hurried to say because she knew her driver was one of Tristan’s oldest so there was definitely trust there.
“Right, but Emily is going to be scared and alone,” He immediately declined.
“Scared? Is she a child?” Isabella scoffed and thought in her head, eyeing Emily.
“Then she could join us,” She hated that she said it. She even hated that she thought of it. But if that’s what it takes to spend time and be around Tristan, then that’s what she’s going to do.
“True. But the car would be crowded and it would be suffocating for all of us,” He said nonchalantly…
“But, we could open the windows and let in some air,” She quickly suggested
“Just take your ride, and we will all see at home,” His eyes gleamed as he told her that, like that was the solution to the problem. But it wasn’t the solution Isabella wanted. She felt defeated and turned around to leave when Emily’s comment made her halt.
“I could take a ride with you, Isabel,” Emily said, in a sweet voice, and kept a smile on her face too.
“That’s a good idea too,” Tristan seemed pleased with it and gave his approval to it.
“No, there will be no need for that,” Isabella quickly said.
“You two need to catch up, plus I have to be somewhere,” she lied on the last part. She had nowhere to be and had pushed away Micah who wanted to hang out, because her head was clouded with Tristan Dominic.
“I’ll leave you guys now,” She added and walked to the door, hoping that Tristan would call her back, stop her, or do anything. But none of that happened. She was outside his office, she gazed at his door and released a deep breath tiredly.
She concluded the work she was doing, before starting to pack her bags to leave, and conveniently that was the moment, Tristan and Emily walked out of the office to leave too.
“Heading home?” He said to her, and she didn’t know whether to respond or not.
“Yeah,” she said.
“Good, same. Let’s get into the elevator,” Tristan told her, while Emily still had her hands wrapped around his arm.
“Sure thing,” Isabella gave a small smile and joined them in the elevator. They got out of the building, and their car was just parked in front of the company, a little distance from each other.
“See you at home, Isabella,” Emily waved her hands at her, as she held Tristan and got into the car.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” She scoffed at the comment Emily said as she watched their car drive off before she finally got in.
She could hear their laughter as she got into the house. She groaned inwardly and started to take off her shoes when Rose rushed towards her, taking her bag from her.
“Welcome ma’am,” She said. Isabella sighed too tired to argue with her about the name and just nodded at her as they both walked up to her room.
“Your bath is ready, and dinner will soon be ready,” she explained and Isabella thanked her before dismissing her.
She stretched and yawned, then started to take off her clothes for her bath. She was starving, which made her recall the incident at the cafeteria. She just sighed and quickly bathed and did her skincare.
She left her room in the pink pyjamas she wore and held her phone going downstairs. She was already in the kitchen, walking to the dining room, when she noticed Emily and Tristan coming down the stairs together, while Emily pointed to something on her phone which she was showing to Tristan.
“I can’t believe it. Today he wants to eat together?” Anger fueled her entire system as they approached her. Before Emily’s arrival today, Tristan would eat upstairs in his room and completely avoid her presence. But here he was today, coming to the dining room just because of her.
She sat there, watching them have their seat, with Tristan just sitting next to her as he looked so interested in whatever Paris trip she was telling him about.
“So that restaurant was the best and the highlight of that day,” She laughed.
“Highlights of the day, or just excited about the attention you got?” He made a face at her, and she smacked his shoulder at the comment he made, but let her touch linger a little longer.
“Well don’t blame a pretty girl for that. But I guess it was a bit of both, the attention and the vibe,” She said smiling…
“Yeah, whatever. I stick to what I said,” He laughed and she gasped at him feigning hurt.
“You devil,” She laughed and playfully punched him on his shoulder, while they continued to laugh.
Isabella just sat there feeling like a third wheel in their whole conversation. She wondered if she was invincible or something because they didn’t notice her throughout the talk, until they served their food, causing them to look across the table to find her sitting there all along.
“Oh hi Isabella,” Emily said with enthusiasm
“Hi,” Isabella responded in a void.
“How was your day?” Emily asked her, picking up her fork and knife.
“We practically spent the whole day together, so there was that?” Isabella was mean with her words. She looked at Emily without an ounce of expression on her face even after giving such a response.
“Right, that’s true?” Emily started to cut her steak, unsure of what else to say to her, and just kept quiet.
The room was silent, but Emily and Tristan still had a little conversation, leaving Isabella completely out of it.
“You know I still haven’t unpacked because you refused to show me my room,” Emily said to Tristan.
“Oh fu*k,” He groaned and rubbed his forehead as if he remembered something he was supposed to do.
“Language Tristan,” She warned him.
“Now what is it?” She asked and stared at him.
” I forgot,” he sighed.
“You forgot what?” Emily questioned confused by his abstract words.
“I was supposed to instruct them to clean the guest room while you stay in the office with me, but I didn’t,” He said in a low tone and gave her a sorry look.
“So I have nowhere to sleep?” She frowned at him.
“Yes, you do,” He rushed his words, and Isabella just sat there listening to them.
“Where then? Cause the guest room is dirty,” Emily’s voice pitched a bit, and Tristan rubbed the creased line on his forehead.
“Relax, you could sleep in my room,” he said like it was nothing, and Isabella almost choked on the glass of water she was having when she coughed out they turned to her, but she took her face away from theirs quickly.
“What!”
“It’s not like it’s the first time we’ve slept together,” Tristan shrugged his shoulder at her, and she looked at him like he was mad. Isabella on the other hand clutched onto her fork looking furiously at him.
“We are not teens anymore, Tristan” Emily turned to look at him now and took her face away from Isabella.
“I know that. We are adults now, so?” He added causing her to gasp.
“I’m sorry okay, just for one night, and tomorrow I’ll get your room fixed by tomorrow,” He pleaded and held her hands rubbing her Pam’s when Isabella called his name.
“Can I speak with you, privately” She fought the urge to yell at him and managed to say it in a controlled voice.
“Can we talk later, we are kind of in the middle of something,” He said to her and took his gaze back to Emily while Isabella scoffed.
“It can wait,” She responded, her voice had changed a bit. Tristan wanted to tell her off, but Emily insisted he go.
“Go hear her out, I’m still enjoying this steak,” She said to him, and like a good child he obeyed and stood from his seat walking towards the living room behind Isabella.
“What’s so important?” He said and sighed, sitting at the arm of the couch.
“Am I a joke to you, and is this some kind of game?” Isabella asked him frustrated. She wanted to scream and yell at him, but Emily was just a distance away from them and would hear them if she yelled.
“What’s this about?” He looked so nonchalant, that Isabella thought he didn’t care about her. So she stuck her feelings up and raised her head taking back all the tears that filled her eyes.
“What do you mean by Emily would be sleeping in your room?” She said calm now and looked at him.
“You heard that,” He breathed out.
“Well I forgot to ask them to organize the guest bedroom, so she is staying in my room,” He responded with the same tone of her voice.
“How could you forget that, ” She half yelled
“How could you forget that,” She repeated, this time calmer as she used her hands to demonstrate and released a deep breath.
” I don’t know, what do you have me do then? It’s not like you’re going to let her share your room,” He furrowed his eyes at her and she didn’t know what to say.
“That’s not my point. We are married and then your best friend stays in your room, instead of your wife,” She explained to him, also shocked by where that came from.
“Yeah but the marriage is a fake like you said, so I don’t see the issue here,” His countenance changed immediately he said that as he responded dryly to her.
“Right. But then,” He cuts her off
“What is it, Isabella? What do you want?” He walked towards her and asked her frustrated by the way things were between them.
“Nothing, just do as you please,” she snickered and walked away from him going to her room.
“Argh,” She stomped her foot and screamed immediately after she got to her room. She was furious, she was mad, and the fact that he didn’t even care made it worse.
“I hate you, I hate you first making me feel this way, for making me feel things,” she whispered and fell on the bed, punching the bed with so much aggression.
“I hate you, Tristan,” she said as a tear dropped from her eyes.