One should never choose a song one liked for a phone alarm clock, or so Adrien was reminded every morning after he had to press the stop button for his ‘Wake Up’ tune.His eyes slowly adjusted to the light, and Adrien noticed he was alone in the bed. The woman he’d slept with, Tasha, had left at some point before sunrise. Ah, another day of work ahead.After a shower, he made himself a sandwich and opened his laptop to start checking the material Luca and Joy had sent to him. The girl was good at her job, much better than the idiot that came before her. Maybe because she was short, maybe because she was that kind of person who still lived with her parents, but Adrien could only think of her as ‘the girl’. Still, he reckoned she was diligent, talented and enthusiastic.He was also enthusiastic about his job when he was that age.Thinking about youth made him subconsciously think about the ‘growing up’ part, too, as his eyes went for a second to the wedding portrait hanging in the living room. Most of the time he didn’t even notice its existence, and even forgot it was there.Of course, Adrien wasn’t a mad man still crying over the disastrous end of his marriage. He was just the kind of person who decided to take advantage when possible, and learn something when it could be learned.For example, when trying to keep things casual with the women he met. Most of the time they would be honest and agree to clarify he didn’t do relationships, or leave right before it started. However, there had been some that said one-time sex was okay, only to try for a relationship later. To avoid that, what would be better than having his wedding portrait right in the living room for all of them to see?It could be taken as a preventive measure. No one wanted to have something with a crazy man who wasn’t over his ex.Adrien laughed at his own joke and went back to look at the photos. “This one. This one will do for our cover.”Luca had screwed it up, but this time the newbie’s work would save the day. Otherwise Adrien would have resorted to his plan for the next month's issue and called an illustrator. He was satisfied that she understood pretty well what he had in mind before. Now he just had to check the layout once more before handing things to the chief editor.If there was something he’d never imagined himself doing, it was working at something like this and for so long. Until now, his friends were still bewildered and blamed Allison.There was some truth on it. At first he felt responsible for the way his marriage sank down so soon. ‘If I just didn’t go away all the time’ or ‘I made her feel alone’, such thoughts did exist. It was too late to fix things, but it still made him want to stay in one place for once.He also lacked any inspiration or motivation to start another artistic project.Then Nora presented him the small magazine she was about to launch, and he just went along with it for a lack of a better thing to do. Thanks to his friend’s vision, it did not take long before Zoom gained recognition.Overall, he was pretty comfortable with his life as it was. Why would he change anything?“Boss, I bought coffee for you.” He looked down to see the girl who greeted him like this as soon as he got to the office. He took the cup in his hand, it was still hot. Did she just know the exact time he’d be arriving?She really put attention to details.“Thank you.” He smiled. Clearly she had gone exclusively to get coffee for him, because she didn’t drink any. Adrien also paid attention to these things, and in the three days she had been here, Joy was the only person who didn’t walk once to the coffee machine.The girl was too nice for her own good. He wondered how many times people had walked all over her.However, contrary to his expectations, the nice gesture came along with a request.“Boss, I was wondering… when you are not so busy… could you give a look to some of my work?”“Uh? Didn’t I already do that?”He sat at his desk and grabbed the copies of the drafts Nora had left for him. It was already that time of the month?“I mean, my portfolio.”“I also took a look at that before we called you for the job interview.”She sighed.“I know. But there’s something you look at when you think about a magazine photographer, and something else when it comes to fine-art photography, right? I’d like to know your honest opinion about it.”These words made him raise his eyebrows. His honest opinion? Was she for real? Yes, he thought she had talent, but he wasn’t known as the most sensitive person when giving input to others.“The last time I gave my honest opinion to one of the photographers here, he resigned and cried crocodile tears all the way to the parking lot.”The girl was still holding his gaze, unfazed.“But that’s what I need if I want to improve. Besides, boss, I’m a big fan of your old days. Even if you criticize me harshly, it’s my good luck to hear it from you.”He coughed, taken aback for a moment.Then he reminded the kind of person she was, who just until the beginning of the week lived with the parents who hated her career. “Don’t you have an appointment today?”“Only in the afternoon. I’ll go with Beth to her interview.”“Okay. Let me finish reading these and I’ll have some time for you.”“Thanks, boss.”She was about to walk out when he called her back.“Hey, Joy.”“Yes?”“Have you resolved your living arrangement problem?”Her smile faded for a second, that was enough for an answer.“No yet. I’m staying with some friends for now. So if by chance you know about a cheap place that I could pay with my salary, please let me know.”“I see. Good luck with the apartment hunting.”Not having a place to live was a big problem, but she still kept smiling all day. Adrien found out that he envied her a little, which was ridiculous.Or perhaps it wasn’t.He usually didn’t think much about his co-workers lives, but it was also true that he didn’t ask and therefore they didn’t speak to him about these matters. Joy, however, had practically spouted all out the first day, understandable due to the stress she was feeling at that moment.As a consequence, he knew a little about her conflict with her parents, just enough to dwell on parent-child relationships in a way he didn’t do in a long time. It was bad that someone had to live according to her parents wishes in the 21st century, but at the same time, didn’t it mean they cared?Adrien tried to remember the last time he spoke to his father over the phone, but he couldn’t.Was it one or two years ago?It wasn’t that he felt any desire to talk to the old man, but he envied those who had so much attention from a set of parents.After decades of estrangement, the only thing with some real worth his father had ever given him was the apartment in which he lived now.When he came back from work in the afternoon and opened the door, Adrien had a sense of deja-voo to the first time he came to live here.‘I’m pretty comfortable with my life as it is.’Even if he’d let her have the beach house and came back to this place. Even if it was too big for one person, in a way that made him feel pathetic.He sat on the couch and poured himself some whiskey, and when he looked up his eyes stopped on the portrait again.