Abstinence

Chapter 22.

I shut the alarm off on my phone without opening my eyes. I feel so drained I'm not ready to be awake yet. Waking up early is not fun when you have to do it every day and try to beat the morning Seattle traffic. I roll over wanting to be closer to Hayden, only to find that he wasn't there.

My eyes open widely looking at his side of the bed. It's unbothered, the same way it was last night when I went to sleep. He never came back last night. I sit up in the bed picking up my phone to call him.

"Hello, you reached Hayden Stymest, leave me a message and I'll get back to you—" I end the call once I get his voice mail. I call him again only to get his voice mail again.

I considered calling his phone again but instead I call his office. "Good morning, you reached Adrianne Leighton at Stymest Enterprises. How can I help you?"

"Hi it's Alice, I'm looking for Hayden, is he there?"

"No ma'am, Mr. Stymest isn't in at the moment. Would you like for me to give him a message?"

"No thank you, I'll check back later."

"Okay, have a good day Miss Greene."

"Yeah, you too." I murmur ending the call. Where the hell is he?

I take a quick shower and get dressed in the closet. I made myself a bowl of granola, but forget about it as I rush out of the door to go to the office. Once in my car I call Hayden's cell phone again, but to my disappointment it goes to his voice mail again.

In the office Dr. Reece was at the receptions desk talking to Jessica when she notices me entering from the elevators. "Good morning!" She's always so chirpy in the mornings.

"Morning. You guys doing okay?"

"Perfect." Jessica replies. The next morning after I spoke with Jake, she told me that they had a long conversation where he apologized to her for the drift he was causing in their relationship. She thanked me over and over again, I was just glad that she was able to be happy and I was able to play a small role in her happiness.

"I'm fine." Dr. Reece replies the same time Jessica did. "You?" He adds.

"I'm okay, thank you." I don't join them in their conversation. Instead I go to my office, unlock the door, and sit behind the desk. I have to keep telling myself that Hayden is okay and I don't need to worry about him. He's a grown man, he knows what he's doing. I don't need to be a mother to him and ask him about his whereabouts every two seconds.

There was a knock outside of the door before Christopher walks inside sitting on the chair in front of the desk. "You know by now that I have a knack for being able to tell when you're upset about something, Alice. Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really." I mumble. "I am just overreacting, that's all."

"You're sure?"

"Yes Chris, honestly, I'm fine. I'm in my head too much and I need to be distracted with other things."

"Okay then, would you like to hear about what happened when I ran into my brother and my ex wife at the bar last night?"

"Go on." For some reason, listening to what goes on in other people's lives, like Reign and Christopher, helps me to remember that I'm not the only person in the world with relationship problems. We're all going through entirely different situations, but I'm not alone. Not one relationship is perfect and each one has their own set of problems.

"Do you miss her?" I ask him after he finished telling me his altercation with his brother and ex.

"I think I miss the thought of her more so than actually missing her. I would always tell myself I miss having her around and lying beside her in bed and all of the times we shared with one another. But I realize now that I don't actually want her anymore, I miss the thought of having her. I liked what we once were, I liked our story. Childhood lovers turned husband and wife." He explains.