A/N: The image above does not belong to me. It belongs to the person who uploaded it on the internet.

Tul's POV

I was starting to nod off to sleep when I heard the front door squeaking open and then squeaking close. I have been telling myself to oil the hinges but I had always gotten distracted by other more pressing stuff. And then again maybe it was best to let the squeaking remain.

I shifted my lying position so that I was facing the wall and let Max assume that I was already asleep. I was not in the mood to ask him what took him so long to come back from his work. I was not in the mood to listen to his usual lame excuses.

I felt him moving about in the room and then half of the bed sank as he climbed into bed to lie down beside me. Ugghhh... he was smelling of some strange perfume again. He did not even bother to take a shower and put on some pajamas.

I felt him move up closer to me and put an arm around me.

"Tul... baby?"

I did not respond. I made the usual regular breathing sound to indicate that I was asleep.

I heard him sigh. Then I felt him leave the bed. I heard him walking towards the bathroom. I could hear the shower because the bathroom is just right beside our bedroom.

After a few minutes I heard him come out of the bathroom and heard one of our dresser drawers opening and then closing. He must have taken out a pair of pajamas.

After a brief moment I felt him climb into bed again. He was smelling of the Seaberry shampoo and conditioner that I had just recently bought for both of us.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to climb into bed with wet hair?" I turned around to scold him.

"You're awake!" he exclaimed happily.

Shit, I had forgotten that I was supposed to be pretending to be asleep. It was an automatic reflex. I had always been telling him not to sleep with wet hair because it usually caused him to wake up with a headache.

I turned my back on him once more and closed my eyes.

"Baby, talk to me, please," I heard him pleading softly. "I missed you throughout my work day. You did not even bother to pick up my calls or respond to my text messages during my lunch break."

"Blow dry your hair before coming to bed," I said in an upset tone. "I will be going back to sleep in the meantime. I was already asleep when you first came in. I will try to go back to sleep now. Please try to move about quietly so that I don't get awakened."

There was a brief period of silence. I heard him stifle a sigh.

"Good night, love," he said in a hurt tone before going back inside the bathroom to blow dry his hair.

Max's POV

As I walked away from the bed to go back to the bathroom to blow dry my hair, I could not help feeling sad about how Tul had been slowly starting to change in his behavior towards me in the past few weeks.

He had always been the most loving, the most caring, the most affectionate person that I had the great fortune to know. My courtship of him took a long time. He tried so hard and so long to ward me off but I wasn't the type to give up easily. He was the one I wanted to hold in my arms forever and ever and nothing and no one was going to stand in my pursuit of him. He eventually realized that I was sincere in my intentions and that my intentions were for a lifetime.  

He had always been the perfect lover. He was my best friend above anything else. I could talk to him about anything under the sun. I was at my most comfortable feeling when he was around me. We never got tired of talking to each other or listening to music together until we fell asleep.

In short, he was my lover, my best friend... until last month when I had gotten home from an after work company dinner. It was the company's golden anniversary and the owner and his family had thrown a lavish party at a grand hotel in an adjacent city.

To this day I continue to kick myself for forgetting to let him know that I wasn't going to come home at the usual time. And then for some reason the champagne that flowed during that night got me pretty drunk. I'm not a lightweight but I do believe that the alcohol content of that particular champagne must have been high.

The only person available and willing to take me home was our receptionist Debbie. Tul had met us at the gate and had taken over supporting me by placing my arm across his shoulder and then putting his arm around my waist. That was all that I could remember, and hazily at that.

From the following morning and onward, his interaction with me had never been the same. And he had never given me an explanation as to the change in his behavior. He always changed the topic whenever I tried to talk about it. He was not aggressive in his behavior in any way but he just stayed passive and indifferent. He always found an excuse to avoid being in the same area of the house as me.

On my part, I never changed in how I interacted with him. I was always pleasant and loving towards him. I always only suppressed the hurt that he inflicted on me every time he turned a cold shoulder on me.

I wondered how long he was going to keep up this behavior. At the same time, I wondered how long I would be able to sustain my loving feelings toward him.

Should I continue to stay with him and suffer his cold attitude towards me? Or should I just turn... and walk away?