As the days and weeks went by, sometimes Mark would let me go earlier back home or other times a bit late, while apologizing for that and even increasing my pay for it.
The job has getting more busy this last week as well as more customers began to emerge, there were three large departments built recently near the mini market, so there are hundred of new people that moved there, this means more clients in need for a place where they can quickly buy groceries. Mark has felt forced to employ a few more people as well, so we got a few newbies at work.
Meanwhile, these last weeks I barely played much in the game, doing little things and attending my Farm mostly. The Mushroom Brigade has been of real help, but I've mostly told them to do little jobs because I don't want them to be my slaves or something, that just feels wrong to me.
And well, I've been also practicing my Skills and Magic, seeking new forms to combine them, all while learning more Alchemy from Acorn, who became something like my teacher in those things, there's also an Alchemist Mushroom named Alice, so we worked all three of us into investigating and learning more alchemy together.
I've expanded my farm little by little, and have fought the little, low-level monsters that sometimes appeared around the forest and so on, but aside from that, I've had little time to play.
Rita sometimes didn't logged in the game for continuous days as she was busy with her family and ended too tired, but the weekends we made sure to play together a bit, although she just lazed around for most of the time.
Titan… well, Mark, is the same, just like me he got little time in the week, and the last weekends he was busy with his own family or something as he said in the game, so I've been mostly advancing bit by bit on my own… and like that, it has been three months since I started playing the game. The cold was quickly reseeding and temperatures were getting warmer, spring was getting closer.
My daughter and her friends had been doing alright at school and I've been slowly talking more and more with her about stuff.
I think even without meeting her in the game, I am slowly reconnecting with my girl… Nonetheless, I've been delaying a lot of things in the game due to not having enough time to sit down and decide them, but thanks to things stabilizing and there being more workers at the job, I finally have proper time every week to play a bit each day, and the weekends as well!
I've been playing for so little each week because I came from work so exhausted, I barely played like a single hour and a half and then quickly went to sleep, even though it has been weeks, it felt like I've advanced very little aside from things that advance by themselves such as the fields I've bene slowly expanding with the help of the Mushroom Brigade and some helper Squirrel-kin that were told by the chief to come aid us.
Today was the end of the week and I was just finishing things at job, it was about to be 5 PM and Mark quickly told me to go early back home. It has been weeks since that happened actually, so I felt a bit of nostalgia… Oh, it even made me remember that time we went to eat at Burger King.
We had gone to other places to eat lunch too, but this time he had invited other coworkers too to not make it obvious he's being friendly with me.
He's so nice with me that I always feel like I owe him a lot. in the game I've tried to help him learn stuff he didn't, but still, we had so little time to play that we had not advanced much. Work can really get in between gaming… Being an adult is indeed tough, and not having a job at home makes it worse.
But now, as spring approaches, things are getting freer and we got more time for ourselves. I remember that Mark had spoken about inviting me to go out with me, but that ended being forgotten by both of us due to work, and I am honestly fine if he forgot about it anyways.
"Elayne, you can go back home for now, I'll handle the rest."
"Are you sure, Mark?"
"Yeah, yeah, go rest, you're our most hardworking employer here, you deserve a good rest."
"Next week is spring break, so you don't have to come through the rest of the week."
"Oooh? So soon already?!"
"Yeah, yeah, that's how things are… Anyways, what are you doing in the week?"
"Hmm… I will probably go visit my family then my mother and my father, and perhaps Elena's grandparents, the parents of my husband…"
"Did you… wanted to do something?"
"Ah, you guessed it."
"Well, I've known you for a while so I can tell when you want to ask me about stuff."
"Hahaha… I feel like you're reading through me so easily now…"
Mark laughed slightly nervously, as he smiled and then readied himself to ask.
"Wanna go out with me?"
"Oh, sure! But where?"
"I am still thinking about it… I really don't want to bother you with your family and all…"
"I'm most likely moving to the countryside for a couple of days… Oh! I do remember that I said you could come three months ago… How about you accompany us?"
"Yeah! Why not? Don't worry, my parents are very nice people! We got a big farm too, you'll know a lot of animals, hehe."
"Well, that sounds great. Sure, I accept."
And like that, I ended inviting Mark to my parent's house at the countryside for this spring's break.
…Wait, Elena is going to get furious! Uwah… I am so stupid. But I can't… back down now, I already invited him. Sorry, Elena, I hope you can forgive your stupid mother…