Young Adult

Chapter fourty seven - Burnout

I hate to admit it, but Ezra was right; I caught something.

Saturday started with me being sick and having to be carried back into bed, Ezra freaked out and tried to get me admitted to hospital. But it was probably just the result of pushing my body past it's limits working with Olivia then Lyn without any breaks.

Sunday was a bit calmer though, I only had some mild body aches and nausea. Ezra decided to stay in bed with me despite my cold, saying that he had a stronger immune system than me. So we watched movies in bed all weekend.

"Are you sure you can work?" Ezra asked me as I got ready for work on Monday morning, I nodded "I still feel a bit fatigued but I'm only helping Kelton with his backgrounds for the book, I'm sitting down all day but if I feel worse I'll tell you and go home." He sighed but reluctantly agreed as I had slipped into the car when he wasn't watching.

"Remember, if you can't work anymore because you feel worse, tell me straight away and don't distract my employees." I rolled my eyes and smiled over the top. "Yes Mr Reed I won't annoy your employees in their labor hours." He sighed once more before helping me out of the car in the parking lot.

"Lyn do you want to grab some lunch?" Kelton asked me after we finished our morning tasks, "sure" I agreed. "What are you getting?" He asked me as we sat down in the cafeteria.

"I want to try out the fish dish, I normally don't eat fish unless it's prepared at a Michelin star restaurant, but it actually looks really good." Kelton agreed and got the dish aswell.

"Do you want coffee?" He asked me as we sat down to eat, I shook my head telling him that I only wanted water.

"Is Lyn still shut in working?" I started a conversation with Kelton as we ate, "yeah, when she first started to work here Ezra almost fired her because of her intense work style, so they comprised with Lyn not being the primary on a project that often. She normally does a months work in two weeks then takes those two weeks off to recuperate."

I sighed "no wonder I felt ill all weekend, and I've been barely doing the same amount of work that Lyn is doing." Kelton laughed, "I tried doing a project I had in her style once as I wanted the two week vacation to travel, but I ended up in the hospital for indigestion." I giggled at his mishap.

"What's your work schedule like this week? Ezra told Lyn this morning to not let you do anything too straining." Kelton asked as I rolled my eyes at Ezra's unprofessional attitude, "not much, I think just assisting you and a couple others on the team, but I'm helping out at an art school on Friday." I added.

"Oh yeah Lyn said that you stupidly accepted that position." I glared at him "no I just like helping others." Kelton burst out laughing
"A couple weeks ago Dave asked you to help him restock the pens and you told him to quit if he couldn't do his job." I rolled my eyes "when I said others I meant humans, he's not human." I huffed.

"Do you know how many times Dave has gone and complained to Ezra about you?" I smiled mischievously, "exactly zero times, he has to make an appointment with Ezra to talk to him and to do that he has to call Ezra's receptionist to do that. Luckily Sydney and I have become friends, and she redirects him to me with my great Ezra impression that takes down everything he says."

Kelton stopped walking and looked over at me "you know sometimes I'm really scared of you even though I'm mentally nine years older than you." I giggled again "as long as you don't mix up designers in front of me you have nothing to fear." Kelton took my words into consideration as we went back to work.

Kelton left early to meet the writer with Lyn in my place as her assistant, so I didn't have much to do after three. I must've drifted off to sleep at some point as I woke up at seven on a couch in Ezra's office. His blazer was wrapped over me, I sat up to see him still working at his desk.

"Did I fall asleep somewhere?" I asked as Ezra looked up at me and sighed, "you fell asleep at the break room, are you tired from work? You have vacation days that you can use." I shook my head, "I'm sorry, as your employee I feel like I should be reprimanded. I guess I've just been feeling really tired, I even got a couple body aches from working today."

Ezra came to sit beside me, "you should take a break, it's common for artists to not know how to take a break, a lot of my employees have fallen asleep from trying to finish their work before art block." He wrapped his arm around my shoulders.

"I think that it's just not getting used to not be able to pull all-nighters for work, when I was eighteen I could party all night then go to school fine the next day if I had some coffee. I guess I can't do that anymore." Ezra grinned at my remark.

"I guess you're right, sometimes I look back at how I could build my franchise without taking a break for eight years." My eyes widened at shock, "eight years?" He smiled and nodded. "It's not like I had anything else to do, all my friends were busy with university work and I didn't have anyone to go home to." I kissed him on the forehead.

"Now you do, so don't overwork yourself, I don't have to lecture you ten years from now to stop working like you're a teenager." Ezra nodded and grinned, "and hopefully in the near future there will be more people I can cone home to."

I rolled my eyes, "actually that might be bad, I already want to stay home all day with you. If we have kids I might want to quit completely." He added, I tilted his head onto my shoulders.

"You want to quit? You can if you want I have a lot of money." We both burst out laughing before falling asleep on the sofa.