Tied to a Castillo I 18+

sixteen

* calculation: it was around winter time when Natalie started working at the bar. Nearly a year later, they broke up fr fr. Giuseppe got shot in September. She had a baby after nine months.

Should be almost 2 years of them, split and all.

Time Makes a Difference...

Natalie stood up from the chair behind the desk to guide a client to Miguel's office. It felt a little weird to smile at him when she knew he was in the middle of her parents separation. It might not have been his fault, but it felt a little strange nonetheless.

Knocking at the door that had his name plastered on it, Natalie knocked and earned a shout from Miguel, "come in!"

Natalie twisted the door knob and made her presence known: "Mr. Garcia, you have a client here for his ten-thirty appointment," stepping inside against the door so the man could enter.

"Thank you so much," Miguel said to her before asking, "doing well today?"

Natalie sent him a head nod, "yes. I hope you are, too."

Being nice was crucial here. This was an office—a professional work space. She didn't need to sit down and have lunch with the man.

Natalie just wished she knew the full story, contemplating asking her father about it. She figured he wouldn't be ready to talk about it just yet, not wanting to make him emotional. She wanted to give her father time to mention it because if he was ready to talk, he would've said something.

If Natalie wasn't working here, she was sure she wouldn't even have known until the papers were signed by both parties.

She understood, though. A breakup was not something you wanted to announce, certainly a divorce. Serena has been married to Carter for twenty years. There was a lot that came with them, and letting go after all this time would raise feelings within themselves and unwanted opinions. This wasn't something to deal with overnight, and privacy was best.

As Natalie turned to return to her desk to finish going through the mail, there was an incoming call on the work phone. She sprinted over to answer it.

She greeted the woman on the call and eventually transferred over to who she was looking for, Jade rolling her eyes as she dealt with a difficult client on the line. Natalie watched with a smirk as Jade stuck her finger in her mouth to fake vomit, annoyed with the back and forth.

Natalie grabbed her pen off the table and started scrolling on the computer to check and respond to emails. It seemed easy because she sat behind a desk, but it was time-consuming and draining at points.

So many words a day. Clicking. Reading. Greeting. Getting up and down. Clicking and reading again. Faxing, faxing, and making copies over and over.

Repetitive, but it pays the bills.

"This doesn't look like emails to me," a finger came over and tapped the screen.

Natalie looked up and slapped Paxton's hand away, "shut up. I was just taking a look at something."

The other tab that was open had a wide variety of bottle racks for babies. Natalie's been meaning to get one, but she kept forgetting to, and it caused her to leave Luca's bottle out on the counter. It was no issue with the air drying method, but she needed to make sure that the space was tidy because it was starting to get to her.

Yesterday, while preparing the meat for the taco bowl, she dropped two bottles into the sink that had a few unwashed dishes inside. She had to clean the bottles again before exiting the kitchen. She knocked them in again when she went back in the morning to make breakfast.