HEAR ME TOO!

PART FIFTEEN

A very cheerful Ben arrived work on Monday morning,  still on a weekend high. This had been his best weekend in a very long time and he hoped to have more like it. His outing with Isabel on Saturday was nothing short of awesome. They talked, laughed, ate, watched a movie and played games. It was really late when they both got home and neither of them seemed to mind. He still refused to call it a date though.
"Good morning sir," his secretary greeted when he walked in.
"Good morning Joan. How was your weekend?"
"Umm, it was nice sir. Yours?"
"Fantastic!" Ben replied and resisting the urge to break into a little dance, he headed to his office.
He should have known that something would come up to take away his weekend happiness. This had to be the most stressful Monday in the history of Mondays. His schedule was so packed he was tempted to walk to his dad's office and resign just for a day or two. He had a bunch of meetings, including a lunch meeting, and a load of paperwork to go through and sign. He didn't think he'd leave the office before 9pm.
"Whatever. I'm not letting anything ruin this little happiness I got over the weekend," he said to himself. Rolling up his sleeves, he dived into work.
*****
"What happened to this shirt?"
Tina looked up at him, wondering what the matter was this time.
"I don't understand," she finally replied.
"It's stained. I told you to be careful when washing it."
"I didn't wash it, the housekeeper did," Tina said, confused about what all the fuss was about.
"You let the housekeeper wash my clothes?"
"Alex, she's been doing that for a long time now. Why is it suddenly a problem?"
"Why should a housekeeper be doing my chores when my fiancée lives here?"
"I really don't understand where all this is coming from."
"You let her wash my clothes and now this one is stained!"
"Can you please wear another shirt? I'll try to take out the stain on this one then when she comes to clean today, I'll let her know this one got stained."
"No. You're going to fire her and take over all the chores. It's not like you're working anyway."
"No I won't fire her. I wanted to work but you told me not to. You said you didn't want me stressing myself and that you'd set up a business for me."
"Well, until I do all of that, you're just going to have to take care of the house, like a woman should," Alex said harshly.
"Alex, it's really early in the morning. Why are you trying to pick a fight with me?" She asked in a calm voice, not wanting to upset him even further.
"You're lucky I have to go to work," he said , his voice holding an underlying threat.
"Well? Are you going to go downstairs and make me breakfast? Or are you entirely useless?" He asked.
Without a word, Tina stood and went downstairs. While getting the things she needed to make breakfast, she kept resisting the urge to cry. The last time Alex slapped her, he had apologized severally and told her it wouldn't happen again. He said he would change and stop getting angry at her, but that didn't happen. He hadn't touched her again since that day but every time he got angry, she wondered if he would. She was so confused and was considering canceling the wedding. She didn't want to be one of those women who would go viral for being in an abusive marriage but she loved him, way too much to let go. The thought of Ben crossed her mind for a second but she shook her head, refusing to go down memory lane.
Not wanting to provoke Alex any further, she hurriedly prepared his meal.
When he left for the day, she gave a sigh of relief and decided to enjoy the hours she had left until he got home.