Caspian did come to find him; the Omega had been in so much of a hurry that he had forgotten to take his apron off.
His pale blond locks peeked into the movie room at the same time that Jael turned around.
"Come take a seat," Jael invited.
The room was dim save for the big screen, but it was enough to see the exhaustion on Caspian’s face.
The Omega brought the scent of kitchen spices as he came closer, his sweet scent muted underneath the warm scent of food.
"Asher had to go on a business trip?" Caspian asked with hopeful eyes.
"Yeah," Jael replied, feeling the guilt return.
"How long will he be away?" He fiddled with his apron, still not realizing that he left it on.
"A week at most," Jael said and rose to his feet, "You should go get some rest, you look wrung out."
Caspian had been staring into space, but he shook himself out of it when Jael stood up, taking the Beta’s offered hand.
He did feel wrung out, but he didn’t really feel it until right then, Asher’s absence made the exhaustion sink into his bones.
He wanted to ask Jael why Asher hadn’t come to say goodbye before leaving for a week, but he didn’t, letting the Beta lead him to the bedroom.
"Goodnight, Jael." Caspian muttered, his shoulders drooping.
"Wait, let me have that." Jael gestured with a hand, pointing right at him.
"Have what- oh," He mumbled at the sight of the apron. "Thanks."
Caspian slipped into the bedroom, and he really should go shower, but he was just too tired.
Having something to do was nice but being so occupied that he missed Asher leaving for a trip wasn’t.
There were no thoughts to plagued him because he fell fast asleep as soon as his head touched his pillow.
Caspian woke up on Asher’s side on the bed, a frown on his face at the distinct lack of the Alpha’s scent.
He had worked harder than he thought because he had slept for a long time, waking up late in the morning.
He started at the time; all his thoughts of Asher’s sudden absence pushed to the side as he dashed to the bathroom to clean up.
It was late morning, which meant that breakfast should have been long over.
Caspian hurried to the kitchen to find the staff lounging around, Katya beaming at the sight of him.
"You look well-rested," She noted.
She had been the one to send him off the night before that they could handle everything left.
Caspian didn’t feel that way, more worried about the breakfast he had missed than his appearance.
"Went great!" Roy quipped from where he was playing cards with another kitchen staff.
"We’re taking it easy before the lunch crunch." Katya tagged on, walking forward.
"And the records?" Caspian asked, following her.
The kitchen had adapted really quickly to their new workload, he could even go as far as to say that they looked livelier.
"Scott is finishing up in the study right now," She said as she put together a breakfast tray for him. "I was even thinking that we should hire an accountant for that."
"Oh," Was all Caspian could say.
He had expected that every day would be as hectic as the day before had been, but with every word Katya spoke, there was less for him to do.
Not only was it calmer now that they had more than enough groceries to last a while, it was clear that they no longer needed to run to him for everything.
Because not a single person had come looking for him that morning.
"I think it’s something that should have been done but there was no one to handle the matters of the mansion..."
Katya spoke as she walked, and distracted, Caspian followed her.
"I’m really so glad that you’re here to help out with that," She kept saying, opening the door to a living room.
"I’ll interview some accountants and have you make the final decision. Usually, Jael would be the one to do that but there’s no need for him to."
Caspian listened to himself get relegated to a position where he would be doing next to nothing, and he found it hard to be upset.
If he still wanted to be busy, he could decide to get more involved, and he knew that the kitchen staff would let him.
But all he could think about was how now that he had free time, Asher was busy.
Katya quickly picked up on the fact that he was distracted, slightly worried that they had overworked the delicate Omega the day before.
But his presence had been so reassuring to kitchen staff, he was really the only reason the day before had been such a success.
"I’ll let you know when we are about to begin lunch," She smiled to him, leaving for the kitchen.
Caspian tried to focus on his breakfast after Katya left, putting on a movie to help with that, but he still found his thoughts drifting.
He wasn’t thinking about anything in particular...
He just missed Asher.
The fact that the Alpha had gone alone meant that it was probably not something dangerous, maybe he would try calling at the end of the day.
Hopefully at a time when Asher wasn’t as busy.
Caspian reached for his phone, paying zero attention to the movie playing in the background and even less to his meal.
Texting Asher felt so odd... He drafted up a message and deleted it, wrote out another greeting and deleted that as well.
Caspian just sighed and closed the messaging app to try and focus on breakfast.
After breakfast, he decided to keep himself busy by going to the kitchen to ask to be taught how to make iced tea.
He got his request without a single complaint, and Caspian couldn’t help but be proud at how quickly he had gotten the kitchen staff on his side.