Thinking of that moment now as she rode the escalator, Marta's stomach growled with hunger, but it was the absence of Him that she most keenly felt. He was not there to take her by the hand and his last message early this morning had been disappointingly brief. "Can I trust that you're still being a good girl, like we agreed?"
In their early chats and when they were together, he had soon assessed that Marta was a somewhat typical type A woman: she worked too hard, took too little time for herself. But Marta took this trait to another level entirely. She was passionate about the charitable foundation she ran, but that somehow manifested to her translating every single minute of her time into whether she had made a difference or not. Her end of year budgets weren't just a chore, she lived and breathed the fact that those digits translated to life saving help for thousands of people. Every success just drove her to needing to reach more people in need. Every failure she took personally, blaming herself when funding didn't come in as though she herself had had not cared enough for all those the charity now wouldn't be able to reach. Her work was so frantic she confessed she often missed breakfast and lunch and 12 hour days seemed to be her norm. He'd laughed at her when she'd said quite seriously, "But sometimes it's more intense and I have to work late." She had no notion of her own value and how to make sure she wasn't going to burn out.
He'd noted the worrying signs already and resolved, that even if she ultimately rejected him as her Dom, he would first teach her to eat right and sleep well. She'd bristled when he'd first broached the topic with her. But in the end, she had promised that as work was on an even keel for once, and to please him, for one whole week, she would eat three meals a day and leave work by 6pm at the latest.
She smiled ruefully. Well that was a failed experiment! He couldn't possibly have been serious though - he knew how important her work was. Walking across the gantry, she felt her phone vibrate and her heart flipped when she was it was Him! It must be after midnight in Abu Dhabi.
"How's my babygirl?" He said and at the sound of his voice, emotion flooded her that he would care enough to call so late. "Are you being good?"
"Of course I am!" She said instinctively.
"A whole week of looking after yourself well. Don't you feel better for it? Are you at home on the couch relaxing? Watching one of your crappy shows?" He asked.
Immediately Marta went cold. She didn't know what to say. She was programmed to please and she wanted to please Him more than most. She didn't want to lie but she didn't want to admit the truth.
"Mmm" she said, non-committantly. "How are you anyway? Is everything going to plan? It's so good to hear your voice!"
"Are you sure you're ok Sweetsub? You sound stressed?"
Now travelling on the down escalator and suddenly conscious that at any moment an announcement in the station would catch her in a lie, Marta suddenly wished she'd left work when everyone else had at 6. She'd promised herself she'd only stay for an hour at most, and though that was a promise to herself she had broken more often than not. This time it was different, she'd promised him.
Through the barrier she stopped and leaned against the wall, suddenly the lack of energy from a stressful week catching up with her all at once. The desire to be on this call and really be at home with her comfy bed socks on, on the couch and able to just talk with her Sir brought her to the brink of tears.
"Marta?" She heard from the other end of he line. "Are you definitely all safe and warm at home like my good girl promised?"
She had no words. She just shook her head mutely. Knowing her Sir, those thousands of miles away in Abu Dhabi, could not see her. But too scared to speak the word out loud in case it meant he would never see her again.
