The Workaholic

Chapter 6

"Are you alright?" asked Nathan when Karen entered the staff restroom looking lifeless.

Karen had been dragging herself around at work recently and Nathan couldn't help but notice and worry.

"Yeah I'm fine," she reassured as she poured herself a cup of coffee weakly.

He frowned. "You sure? You don't look too good," he pointed out unable to stop worrying. "you're pale and I've noticed that you haven't been eating at lunch."

Karen chuckled weakly and turned to him. "You sure pay attention," she said drained.

Nathan averted his gaze embarrassed. "I guess, sorry if that freaks you out."

Finding his reaction cute, Karen smiled and sat down with Nathan across from her.

"I wasn't saying it was creepy," she reassured. "it's nice to have someone pay so much attention to me unlike..." she trailed off, not wanting to voice her thoughts.

"Unlike?" he urged curious as to why she stopped.

Karen looked down into her mug defeated, sighing when all she saw was her sickly reflection.

"Unlike my husband." she continued, sorrow clear in her tone and expression.

"Have you not been getting along?" he asked cautiously, not wanting to be too invading.

"Something like that," she replied, giving him a half-smile.

"I see."

Not knowing what else to say a silence fell between them, and Nathan went to fill his mug.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" she eventually asked, shocking Nathan.

Nathan turned around to give her a puzzled look. "No, why?"

Karen shrugged. "I just figured a nice guy like you would have one."

Nathan became strangely fidgety. "...I had a wife." he eventually admitted, surprising Karen. "We had been dating for forever and eventually got married only to last just 5 years."

"What happened?" asked Karen unable to keep her curiosity to herself.

Nathan just smiled a little as his gaze became reminiscent. "Well since we had been dating for so long, we figured that marriage was the logical next move, but sadly we just weren't meant to be married," he replied seeming to have come to terms with his reality. "the more we tried to make things work, the more we drifted apart, and eventually we decided to end things."

"I see. Sorry for asking," said Karen feeling bad for making him talk about this especially when she understood how painful it was to voice things like this.

She hadn't divorced Eric and never dreamed to, but currently, they might as well be.

Nathan shook his head his smile never vanishing. "It's alright. There were no hard feelings; we are still friends, we just weren't meant to be married, that's all," he reassured. "our main flaw was that we lacked communication. When we were dating, it was alright for certain things to happen, but being married meant that it wasn't alright anymore and that was when we realised that there were a whole lot more commitments we didn't sign up for."

At his words, Karen went silent and her heart began to pain for reasons she understood too well.

Is that the case for us? she wondered fearfully. Are we simply not meant to be married?

Noticing that she had gone silent and had a complex yet pained expression plastered on her pale, thin face, Nathan spoke up, snapping her out of her thoughts.