Let's Give it a Year

Chapter 27

The journey to work the next morning was eerily quiet, neither Hiccup nor Astrid spoke a word in the car ride over to their office building. The only words spoken by Hiccup that morning were to ask Astrid whether she still wanted a lift to work, with which she replied with a nod.

Hiccup felt uncomfortably awkward sat in the car that morning, no words being spoken to soothe the tension or to ease his awkwardness. Nothing. Not a word was spoken between them, and it was starting to annoy him. At the next traffic lights, he looked over to Astrid who had her head in her hand and looking out the window to the side of her. It seemed as though she was avoiding Hiccup's presence, despite how close she was to him.

"Astrid," Hiccup called out but got no answer. Groaning slightly, Hiccup turned back to the road in time to see the light turn green. Driving away, he gripped the steering wheel tighter. "Astrid..." He growled, desperate to hear her voice. "We can't keep ignoring each other Astrid, we have to talk together at some point. Please." Hiccup pleaded.

But he continued to get no response.

The silence was killing Astrid too. She did want to speak to ease the unbearable tension within the car, but her mind begged her not to. The fear of embarrassing herself or letting herself be vulnerable before Hiccup terrified her, and so she continued to keep her mouth shut and stared out of the window.

"Astrid, please." Hiccup groaned, wanting to hear anything from his wife, but nothing.

Soon, they arrived in the parking lot of their building and Hiccup found a parking space relatively quickly. However, before he could open his mouth and lock the doors, Astrid was already away and out of the car, storming over to the elevators.

Hiccup hopped out of the car, locking it on his way away, and raced over to the elevator doors. Yet, as he reached them, he only had time to see them close before his eyes and Astrid's figure disappear behind them. He had lost her. Slamming his hand against the elevator in annoyance, Hiccup growled under breath and cursed Astrid to the heavens.

"Why are you being like this?" He cursed quietly, the question seeming more threatening than curious as he balled up his fists and waited impatiently for the elevator to arrive.

Having finally escaped from Hiccup into the elevator, Astrid let out a heavy sigh and collapsed her weight onto the back wall of the elevator. Her gaze looked up to the numbers counting up from -2 on the screen and waited for the short ride to the ground floor.

The day before, Astrid's father had told her that she would be needing to show around a new employee for their floor and his department. All Astrid needed to do was show him around the most important parts of the building and then bring him to her father's office at noon.

Glancing at her watch, Astrid knew she had plenty of time to take him around the office building as she realised she had around 3 hours to show him around. She had no idea what this new employee would be undertaking, or who he will be replacing. But Astrid had to follow her father's orders, despite their absurdity sometimes and took in another deep breath.

"It's just like any other day," Astrid told herself as the elevator doors pinged open and slowly revealed the grand entrance hall to the office building.

The ground floor entrance hall was one enormous room with many elevators coming off of it, there were only a few that went from the underground parking lot to the rest of the building. But as Astrid stepped out of the elevator, she made her way over to the front desk which was the central piece to the hall. It was a circular desk that had around 4 attendants manning it at any one time and each side had specific requirements.

Astrid strode up to the desk facing away from the door and smiled at the attendant behind it. She had known this woman when she had first started working, but both of them had grown apart as her father became higher up in the company. Astrid smiled at the woman, but she didn't smile back.