Tristan - Chapter 1
I know, you know, we know
You weren’t down for forever and it’s fine
I know, you know, we know
We weren’t meant for each other and it’s fine
But if the world was ending
You’d come over, right?
You’d come over and you’d stay the night?
Would you love me for the hell of it?
All our fears would be irrelevant
If the world was ending You’d come over, right?
The sky’d be falling while I’d hold you tight
No, there wouldn’t be a reason why
We would even have to say goodbye..
-“If The World Was Ending” by JP Saxe & Julia Michaels
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As human beings, we always run towards happiness. Happiness, in whatever shape or form it comes into our lives. No logic, no reason, no practicality, no constraints can ever hold us back from running towards true happiness.
For me, Tristan was that happiness. The kind that arrives like a rainbow after a wicked storm.
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I walked out of the retirement home and slowly walked towards home. Every time I said goodbye to Dad, my heart broke a little. I wish I could stay home and take care of him, but I just wasn’t equipped for the care he needed. He’s safe there, I told myself, he eats well, has friends there, the staff and doctors take good care of him. I’m doing the right thing.
But my guilt just never goes away. My Dad had always been there for me, and I wanted to do everything in my power to take care of him.
You ARE taking care of him (the voice in my head said).
You’re working damn hard to provide for his care.
You see him every week.
He is proud of you.
I wiped away a tear and walked the rest of the way, feeling sad for how life had turned out. Sometimes I wish I could just shed off all the rage and sadness I carry with me every day. Sometimes I blame God for it all, sometimes I blame destiny.
Once home, I do my usual Sunday meal prep as I listen to old melancholy love songs.
Next week was going to be a whirlwind. Blue Hour kicks off on Monday, and I can only imagine how stressful the next few weeks and months are going to be.
I sighed. Gosh, I sure hope I get the promotion after this campaign launches. It’d help me so much with Dad’s medical bills and getting the bigger apartment close to the retirement home.
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“Decaf coconut latte for S….”
“Decaf coconut latte for S….” The barista screamed.
“Oh sorry, that’s me, thanks” I said. The barista handed it over to me with a glare, obviously annoyed that she had to cry out my order twice.
Jeez, I thought. Too early in the morning to be schooled.
As I walked down the 3rd floor office cafeteria, I noticed Howard waving at me.
Gosh, not before 9 am!!
Sighhh…here we go.
“Hi Howard, good morning!” I said in my fake chirpy voice.
“Hey Sofia! Good weekend?” Howard asked disinterestedly.
“Yah the usual, thank you! How was yours?” I asked.
“Yah good, good. Listen we have a call at 10… I missed forwarding the invite to you earlier. I’m going to introduce you to the rest of the Blue Hour team.”
“Oh”, I said, taken aback. “Anything I needed to prepare?” I was very annoyed. What was this meeting now? I had no clue about the agenda and didn’t like being unprepared.
“No, no, nothing needed from you. You know Stephanie has been interviewing a bunch of people to onboard to Blue Hour. It’s such a critical campaign for us. Some of these guys are officially joining today. So, it’s basically a meet & greet.” Howard added.
“Okay, sure. I might be asking a couple of questions there then, to understand what their approach is going to be.” I said.
“Yah that would be helpful actually, thanks Sofia. See you later then.” Howard turned to leave.
“Sure, Howard. Nice seeing you this morning.” I said.
Sure enough, there was an invite sitting in my inbox. “Blue Hour- Meet & Greet”, it said.I looked at the invitee list… Howard, me, Stephanie (Howard’s boss), Florence, Jackie, a “Silvana Smith”, a “Christopher Bishop” and a “Tristan McGregor”. I stared at the name Tristan McGregor for half a second longer than the others, for no reason I could explain, then clicked out of the invite.
Honestly, I hope these people are good and add value to the campaign, I thought to myself. We’ve put so much effort into winning Blue Hour that it would be a pity if the team working on it wasn’t up to the mark.
