It's Just Work, Right?

Anonymous Corrupted Rebel #160 · General

I've been with Sarah for five years now, and we moved into this apartment together last year. She works in a local office downtown while I'm a freelancer from home. We both work hard to make ends meet but have always made time for each other after hours. Lately though, it's like she's always on her phone or working late shifts. When we do spend time together, she looks exhausted and wants nothing more than to crash on the couch. I tried talking about it a few times, but all she says is that business has been booming at work, and there isn't much downtime. Yesterday was different though, while we were supposed to have dinner and catch up, her phone started buzzing with notifications during prep. As dishes bubbled away in the background, I saw emails piling up on her screen. She kept checking it but never put down a finger to swipe or reply until an hour later when she finally did. When I asked about it again after dinner, we had this big fight where I accused her of not prioritizing me anymore. Her defense was that work is demanding and there's always more paperwork piling up late into the night. The truth is though, I don't know how to make time for both our jobs when everything feels like a competition. I'm just starting to wonder if all this pressure on us from work is making me question whether we can actually make it work in real life anymore. Maybe being together isn't enough without the effort. We've both been so busy, I don't even know how she's feeling right now.