Silence | Book 1

2-4: Work Work

Tristan shook out his umbrella on the doorstep of the side door to an old, victorian era house that had been restored on the inside a few decades ago. Inside there was a small hall, with a narrow, crooked stair leading up to the second floor. In past times it had probably been a service stair, but now it led up to the office. A pinboard on the wall contained a few posters for the Greens, a fact sheet about vegetarianism and veganism, pro-LGBT pamphlets and some promotions for charities. He put his umbrella in a stand, and then took a glance over the board, but found nothing new since the week before, so he continued up the stairs.
Once he reached the top, he saw the familiar sight of Liz. She smiled and handed him a mug of tea. Gratefully he took it, warming his red and shaking hands on it.
"Hey, thank you." he said with a nod toward her, causing her to smile wider.
"No worries, the weather is so awful. Did you have the meeting schedule?"
"Yeah, wait, er..." Tristan looked between the hand holding his umbrella, and the other with the cup of tea. "Could you hold this for me?"
Liz did as he asked, taking his cup of tea, while Tristan dug through his bag and plucked out a green folder. He quickly flipped through it and found the points they were to address this meeting. He took his cup of tea back, exchanging it for the folder.
"We need to discuss a few important points on funding, especially with the headquarters, so this might be a long meeting." He added, taking a quick sip of the sickeningly sweet tea. Liz nodded as she looked over the schedule.
"It's best we get this all figured out in one go, leave no loose ends."
"Well then, let's gather everyone." Tristan said, as he rolled his neck and straightened his back out, trying to appear more ready for this than he really felt.

The meeting took up the entire afternoon, save for a short break in-between. It was an endless discussion about financial points and the goals that had been set for them that year. As per usual there was too little funding, and too much to do, leaving them in permanent conflict about what to sacrifice and what to maintain. Eventually compromises were made, probably for the sheer reason that nobody wanted to stay any longer – except perhaps Tristan.
When everyone had left, he stuck around to finish typing up the last mails and documents. But once he was done with one thing, he found another that needed to be done, afraid that if he let it wait he would forget, or somehow get scolded for not doing it in time. Gone in the flow of emails, reports and planning, he didn't take note of the time. Until he heard a knock on his open doorframe.
"You're still here?" Liz asked rather surprised, her woollen coat covered in tiny droplets from the rain outside that sparkled in the dim office light. Only then did he notice that it was already past eight.
"Oh, yeah... I wanted to make sure everything was taken care of?"
She sighed a little, then walked over and leant on the desk beside him. He tried to avoid her gaze, feeling like a child about to get scolded.
"Hey Triss, let's talk for a moment." She said with a smile, trying to catch his gaze but he just looked the other direction, not sure how he felt about talking. "It's only a moment, I'm not mad, just worried?"
Finally he looked up and nodded, but he couldn't think of any words to say.
"What happened Saturday? After the speech?"
For a moment Tristan searched for words, and Liz gave him the time to do so.
"I was afraid that you would be mad at me, because I lost the cufflink? I just panicked a little, that's all."
"You know I wouldn't be mad at you. We would've gone and looked after the presentation. It wasn't as if you did it on purpose."
"I know that I was just... I didn't want to disappoint you? And your father."
"Trissy," she sighed softly, before giving him a long, unexpectedly intense stare. He looked at her for a moment, but inadvertently his gaze drifted down again to look anywhere but at her. "Is that really everything? You know you can tell me, right? And, you don't have to work yourself to death to impress us, or impress your professors."
"No, that was it. I'm sorry if I scared you." He apologised with a slight smile, that quickly faded again. "I was just very stressed and it got to me. But everything is fine now, thanks."
"You sure?"
"Mhm." He nodded. "I'm fine."
She smiled, but then gently took both his hands and pulled him away from the computer.
"Come on, you've done enough for today, Prime Minister." Her smile widened into a grin, and he couldn't help but smile back a little, knowing that she was right.
Should I've just told her? ... am I really fine? ... I don't want to worry her... yeah, I'll be fine... eventually...
"Why did you come here, by the way?" He asked as she let go of him and he began to pack his documents and pens up in his bag.
"I forgot the notes from the meeting, so dad brought me here to pick them up. I'm sure he can bring you back home too."
"Oh no, it's,-"
"No, it's not fine. Tristan – it's frigid, it's raining, and I don't want to sit through another debate session of you sneezing and wheezing because you've got a cold, just because you won't take anyone's help. Got it?" She said, raising and lowering her finger in time with her words. Tristan just lifted his hands as if she was holding him up.
"I got it, I'm sorry."
Liz sighed again and deflated a little, but then straightened her back out and smiled. Meanwhile Tristan looked on somewhat cautious, afraid to get scolded again. When she smiled, so did he, not because he felt like it, but as a ward against disappointing her.
"Come on, let's go. It's late."