Lust for Love

Chapter 58

* Third Person's p.o.v. *

It was a fresh start to the week. A bright Tuesday morning after the long weekend. Orba was on his way to the office after picking up his usual from Starbucks and he was slightly looking forward to seeing the exchange between Tyler and Carmel after he got the juicy tip on hot gossip that they both went on another date but instead he was met with a Tyler who looked dead as on the inside as he did on the outside when he didn't respond to Orba greeting him.

"Tyler! Tyler! Tyler Grant!" Orba called out to Tyler a couple of times until he finally responded after listening to his full name.

"Oh hey. Sorry I was reading through the document I got in the mail."

In fact, Tyler had been just staring at the home screen.

"That's the home screen bruh." he pointed out.

"Huh, strange I thought I had opened the document." Tyler rummaged through his email inbox after realizing he hadn't opened the email itself.

"Are you on drugs or something? And what's with that face and hand? Did you get into a fight with someone? I can't believe you came to the office looking like that. You could've taken the day off for today." Orba inquired looking worried.

"Nah. I'm good. Just need some good coffee. Believe me it's best I didn't stay at home right now." Tyler nonchalantly answered as he kept scrolling through the email messages.

Orba looked concerned and asked him, "Hey is everything alright? You really don't look well?"

"Yeah"

"Good morning." Orba heard Carmel's voice behind him and thought maybe talking to her might cheer him up but when he turned around he found her in just as bad of a shape if not worse.

"Go-good morning, Carmel. What's up?" Orba nervously greeted her as she settled in without even giving Tyler a second glance and he didn't even notice she had just passed him by.

"Nothing much. Usual Monday mornings. Not the best time of the week." Carmel was still more talkative than Tyler.

"You look exceptionally tired. Party hard? Also it's Tuesday today. Just fyi." Orba tried to sound optimistic as he sat in between two extremely depressed individuals.

"Hmm...sure. I had a girl's night out with lots of booze. Got a bad hangover."

She sounded like she was a teenager in her rebellious age who was giving her mother a report of what she had been up to for the sake of it.

"I see. Coffee's good for hangovers." Orba sipped on his coffee but couldn't fully enjoy the taste.

Tyler remained exceptionally silent as he kept losing his focus while simply fidgeting with the mouse scroll wheel.

Contrary to Orba's observation, Carmel had been observing Tyler from the moment she sat down in her seat.

"I thought he ignored me because of the way we split the other day but he seems completely out of focus. Did Vivy reject him for good? And what's with the bruise on his face and bandaged hand? Did she punch him? That's a bit too much even for her. Did something happen between them because of what I said?" Carmel kept worrying about it but she also felt a sense of satisfaction seeing Tyler down in the dumps.

Luckily Tyler was functional enough to give some updates during their meetings but otherwise, he sat there in his seat like a lost soul which worried Orba.

By the end of the day, Tyler was still working when others were getting ready to leave.

"Tyler? You still working?" Orba inquired.