Disclaimer: I do not own Divergent, Veronica Roth does.
Tris' P.O.V.
Aden parked the car a couple of meters from his boss' house; it was the only vacant parking place closest to the party.
"Your colleagues sure love parties." I told him, indicating the many vehicles in front of the house.
"What can I say, they sure appreciate free food and a perfectly good occasion to get... tipsy." My fiancé comically informed me.
I let out a genuine laugh and he flashed me a bright smile before getting out of the car at the speed of light. I glanced at him with an eyebrow lifted as he ran in front of the car and stood by the passenger's car door. He opened the door and offered me his hand. Resisting the urge to reply something concerning his gallantry, I simply rolled my eyes and got a hold of his hand. It was a complete and totally waste of time to ask him to stop, I had tried for the past four years and it never worked because Aden knew that I liked when he did so.
"Do you think I'm dressed properly for the 'party'? Is it too much or not enough?" I asked, pulling on my red, loose, button up blouse.
I had tucked it in a pair of black, tight jeans. I was also wearing a pair of high heel sandals and silver loops earrings. I had brought my blond hair up in a bun on top of my head. I probably - certainly - was not over dressed, or under as a matter of fact, but I had never been to a barbecue party held by my fiancé's boss and certainly not to one where my soon-to-be-husband's co-workers will be present.
"You look mesmerizing, no need to worry. Now come on, let's go get you introduced to people!" Aden exclaimed himself.
He entwined his fingers with mine as he walked up the sidewalk and the small concrete alley leading to the wooden door.
"So what do you think?" He asked me, talking a sip out of his bottle.
"Not bad. I seriously didn't think I'd enjoy this party." I looked around at Aden's boss' backyard.
It was certainly big. There was a lot of green, something I clearly taught was missing from my life. At the border of the property rested a large and vast forest where probably nestled many birds, squirrels, foxes, rabbits, etc. I had a nice view from where I stood next to men and women, all working for the same employer. I secretly wished to one day own such a cozy house with beautiful surroundings. And hopefully, one day, the house of my dreams would be inhabited by Aden and our kids.
"And I think you have really nice work friends." I mentioned truthfully.
During the presentation, they congratulated me for our engagement, wishing us a great future together. I was completely pleased to hear them say so and so was Aden. His colleagues were all friendly though some had a little bit of a rough attitude. I was happy to see that Aden had a good entourage at work while enjoying doing his job. I watched him as he talked to a few of his close co-workers and I internally smiled. I came here today to make him happy, which he was, and I wasn't regretting my decision. Now, we were standing apart from the others, talking.
Aden grinned at me. I leaned forward and planted a light kiss on his lips while snatching the beer out of his hand. I took a good swing out of it before handing it back to him.
"I'd really like you to meet my boss though I can't seem to see him nowhere." He surveyed the backyard, in search of this employer. "It's weird considering he is the host of this barbecue party."
"Yeah, it is." I said.
"You keep looking out for him and tell him to wait here while I go to the bathroom; I really have to pee." I confided.
My fiancé let out laugh and asked, "Do you know where it is?"
"Yeah, I think I do; I saw when we came in." I told him.
I walked through the crowd and into the house. After much more trouble than expected, I managed to find the bathroom. After doing what I mainly came here for and washing my hands, I rearranged my hair and reapplied a thin coat of gloss on my lips before heading out.
Right when I turned a corner, I ran into someone with full force. Because of the impact of the hit, I fell down with an 'Ouch!'
"I am extremely sorry!" A man's voice said. "Here, let me help you up!"
A hand extended itself in front of my face. I took a hold onto it. He lifted me up as easily as if I were light as a feather. I passed my hands over my clothes, wiping off any possible dust. I lifted my head and said, "Thank you."
As soon as the words were spoken, my eyes widen and so did the man's.
"Tris!"
"Tobias!"
The shock is completely and utterly visible on both our faces. But it probably shouldn't have been there considering I had seen him only a few weeks ago, in Paris, when we hadn't met for the past 5 years. I don't know if it's a coincidence or not and I would rather not find out.
"What are you doing here?" I questioned angrily, even though I didn't want to.
"What are you doing here?" He echoed, surprise evident in his voice.
"I asked you first." I stared at him, unstartled and calm, though every part of my body was trembling in the inside, about to collapse anytime now.
He held my gaze, knowing I wasn't going to back down and answer the question first.
"Fine!" He let out a sigh. "This is my house, my party."
Again, I didn't enough power or control in me to hide my interior emotions; astonishment was written all over my face. Now, I was seriously starting to regret coming here. This was one heck of a night!
"Now, you tell me. Why are you here, at my house?"
I opened my mouth to reply, but I got cut off by a very familiar voice.
"Tris! There you are, I've been searching for you everywhere." Aden came up to us and draped an arm around my waist.
"Oh, and I see you've met my boss too." He added on, smiling at Tobias, who returned a forced grin.
"Tris, this is Four and Four, this is Tris, the girl I constantly talked to you about and she is also my fiancé." He turned his smile towards me and I reflected back to him, though it wasn't as genuine as I wanted it.
But you can't blame me after all. I just discovered that Aden, my soon-to-be-husband, worked for my ex-boyfriend, that I was in his house and that my fiancé had mentioned me to him many, many times, which augmented the shock I was currently floating in.
But I couldn't say the same about Tobias. He was of course surprised of his employee's announcement - I had been his girlfriend then again - but the emotion vanished away after a blink of the eye. That would certainly not be my reaction if our roles were inversed. But with him, you never knew what to expect; trust me, I had a lot of surprises with him and the majority wasn't good ones.
"Well, it's nice to finally meet you. I have heard a lot about you." He held out a hand in front of him.
I reluctantly shook it, not wanting Aden to have any suspicions about me and Tobias, and said unwillingly while putting on a fake smile, "Good things I hope!"
"Only," He responded.
I was getting more and more anxious as time went on and as I stood longer and longer next to Tobias. I needed to get out of here.
I leaned towards Aden and whispered, "Hey honey, I'm not feeling to well; my stomach hurts. Do you mind if I leave? I'll simply call a cab."
"Are you fine?" He asked, concerned.
"Yeah, it's... girl problems." I murmured very quietly.
"Oh, okay! I'll come with you then."
"No, no, there's no need."
"I don't mind and it's getting late, I might as well come."
"Okay."
"Four, we are going to be leaving, we've had long day and we're tired. Thank you for inviting, it was really fun." Aden told his boss, who had been intensely watching us talk.
"No problem, I'll see you Monday."
They man-hugged and I forced myself to grin at Four, in ways for goodbyes. Aden walked in front of me as I followed him. Right when I was about to walk through the door, I looked over my shoulder and stared back at Tobias.
"Hum, I'm just going to be in the bathroom, taking off my make-up." I informed.
Aden nodded from his seat on the couch, eyes on the TV. I subtly grabbed my phone from the counter and entered the bathroom.
As soon as we came home, I pretended to take an Advil, so that I could act normally afterwards and not pained. The events of the evening were too big for my brain to hold, I needed to confide myself to someone and there was only one possibility.
I pulled the faucet's handle, letting the water run, making my words inaudible from the other side of the door. I put out the cover over the toilet seat and sat on it. I dialed a number and waited. I heard the ringing tone at the end of the line while I begged, "Come on, pick up, pick up."
"You have reached Skylar Smith's voicemail. Please leave a message after the 'beep'." Said my best friend's voice.
"Hey Sky, it's me. Hum, I need to talk to you about something, it's really, really important. Call me as soon as you can." I stated.
I closed my eyes and put my head against the wall behind me.
I can't just do nothing about it. I can't live on knowing Tobias is Aden's boss, it will bring out too many memories and I wouldn't be able to bare that.
Things got out of hand and I needed to get back in control, no matter what it meant or what I had to do.
The next morning
I walked up the walkway I had marched on only yesterday, the sun rising up in the sky. I knocked on the door once, before doing it three more times. I could not be nice at the moment, I needed to be rough for him to understand what I was going to say to him was serious. I waited for a whole minute before knocking again. A few seconds later, I heard heavy footsteps on the other side of the door. Tobias opened it. Before he could pronounce a word or show any emotions, I demanded,
"We need to talk."
I am extremely sorry for my lack of writing and I have no other excuses than being lazy and having no imagination, which you probably noticed from reading this chapter. Many of you had half-guessed what was going to happen in this chapter and I hope you liked it even though it wasn't as good as I expected it. I would like to thank LoveIsOneCrazyWord, sushi8162, FourTris4ever, dauntlexx, Guest, Udementium, greaterinfinities, 123, FandomFreak1, Guest, Guest, jabc4, Lillygreen, cheyenne, Guest, Divergent1315, Lucy, booksforbreakfast, bookworm1027 and PipersDivergent4life. I was really happy to see that many of you trust me, believe in true love or/and in FourTris; you guys won't be disappointed! And from now on, I will try every, every hard to update on regular basics.
(Sorry for any mistakes on this chapter, I didn't really have time to edit it.)
Thank you so much for reading, you guys are awesome and you bring me happiness!
Until next time :)
MeTwoCat