I woke up at dawn. That was when the workday begun. When did it end? When my head hit the pillow, that was when. That was the price of success. That was the price of this life I led.

I reminded myself of this as I ate my breakfast in the car that was taking me to my office. Today was the same as all the other days, the days since her. I would be productive, complete each task, go to sleep with the help of a few pills. Wake up, work, sleep then repeat.

Today, Carla was on the phone.

“It’s your brother,” she said and I went to my office to pick it up.

“Clark, it’s Eugene,” he said. He paused.

“Yes?”

“I’m outside, come meet me.”

I glanced at the window. It was sunny out, but I really wasn’t in the mood for another one of the biannual familial reprimands.

“I’m afraid I’m terribly busy, Eugene. Can’t get away, little brother.”

“Okay, I’ll come up,” he said and then hung up.

I glared at the phone, then, with a sigh, I leaned back in my chair with my hands behind my head. What could be up with Eugene? He’d never demanded his way into my office before. In fact, I hadn’t spoken to him at all in months. A knock on the door, then Eugene was inside my office.

“Shut the door behind you, please,” I said and he did so. Whatever the hugely big deal was, I didn’t want Carla taking notes to use against me when I finally got around to firing her.

“I know,” Eugene said, striding up and stopping at my desk. I couldn’t make out what kind of expression he had on his face. “Clark, I know,” he said, more forcibly this time.

I stared at him evenly.

“You know what?”

“I know what you did for that girl.”

I chuckled, and then cocked a brow at him.

“Which girl?”

“Kristin Blair.”

My smirk fell and I turned my chair so that it was facing the window. It had been two months since my last conversation with her; two months since she’d blocked me from her life.

“What do you know?”

“I know that you gave her a million dollars and went out with her for a few dates. I know that you messed up again, missed her family dinner. And I know that you’ve regretted it ever since.”

I addressed my answer to the impassive rectangles of buildings outside.

“You don’t know anything.”

Now, it was Eugene’s turn to laugh, a jarring, high-pitched sound. I could almost see his wide nose scrunched up with it.

“Clark, I saw you.”

I wheeled around to rise and face him head-on.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“That night, at prom, I saw you. How you came home all hollowed-out like. How you spent weeks in your room, made the family phone bill astronomical because you were nonstop calling a certain girl who wouldn’t answer, how you snuck out with the family car to try and get her to see you. I remember, Clark. I saw you.” His face was defiant, insistent, but I only shrugged.

“That was a long time ago.”

Eugene shook his head.

“That was a long time ago, but I saw what it did to you. How you threw yourself into the work even more, how you haven’t let anything come between you and it since. No, not since…”

I strode over to the door, ripped it open.

“I don’t want to talk about it, Eugene. I don’t know what you heard—”

“I talked to Billy.”

“I don’t care. You can leave now. I don’t have time for this.” But Eugene didn’t budge.

“I don’t care either. I’m going to say what I came here to say. And what I came to say, Clark, is that I’ve been quiet—we all have—as you’ve slipped further and further away from us, as you’ve thrown yourself into work so deeply, we’re lucky if we get a text every six months. But not for this girl—this woman. She’s different and you know it. I’m not going to sit here and say nothing while you mess this up too, Clark. You probably already have, who knows. But I just wanted to say, that me, that none of us agree with this, with you using work to avoid feeling, with you pushing everyone else away.”

Now, Eugene strode up to me, staring into my face, his bulging eyes insistent. I didn’t meet his gaze. His words were stupid, ridiculous, clasping at me with sticky hands and pathetic grasping fingers. I wouldn’t look at him, wouldn’t answer him—couldn’t.

“Just think about it,” Eugene said before he strode away.

I slammed the door behind him and stormed back to my chair. Too bad Eugene had come for nothing. Because I wasn’t going to think about it. Not for a second.

I opened my laptop to the article on a Sacramento news site that had caught my eye: Local IT Whiz Makes It Big, with a picture of Kristin smiling oh-so-happily underneath. My gaze hovered over her beautiful face and then, slowly, I closed my laptop.

I had an idea.