Boredom.
Even a person as accomplished and successful as Derek Haven suffered from it. It did not matter that Haven Group was a huge global company, at some point, most of its day to day running got so routine that if Derek slept, he would be doing it in his sleep.
Sign here, sign there. Authorize this project, cancel that one. Meet person A regarding a project, golf with so and so while secretly scoping them out to see if they posed a threat.
That was pretty much the gist of Derek's day to day. The only occasional spanner in the works being whenever his uncle came up with a hair-brained scheme and Derek had to thwart it.
But in between those schemes, there was routine, predictability, and worst of all…paperwork.
Derek was buried up to neck high in paperwork. Something he believed would have been physically true as well, were it not for the wonder that was modern technology making all of his work easy to store in his pc. The outside world only saw a small rectangle, with only Derek knowing of the mountain of work that lay within it.
But even so, the mountain, as tiring and unending as it was, provided a distraction most of the time. Derek could bury himself in it for hours and no one would ask why he was not at home, sleeping.
They would simply see him busy on his pc and assume that he was working on something that was due soon, which was why he was not getting any sleep. But in truth, Derek was working on things that were weeks, if not months away.
Chipping away at distant projects so that he at least had a reason to stay at the office late and not go home and sleep. He did it most nights, but ever since he had realized that Emily Molson was not like all the others. That despite her love for flat shoes in a world where Derek was only used to heels, and her tendency to talk back, and to call him by his first name instead of boss, Mr Haven, or sir, she was very good at her job. And he was reluctant to loose her.
So despite not really wanting to leave work early, Derek often forced himself to for her sake. And that night was no different.
He'd hung on until 8 in the evening, but now the guilt he would never admit to having was gnawing at him.
"Go home, Emily, unless you want to grow roots at your desk and leave," He said when he made his way out of his office. She startled, but recovered quickly, sending him a wry smile.
"If I turned into a tree, who would pretend to be your fiancée to random foreign princesses over the phone?" Derek's cheeks heated.
"That happened only once, and you were as terrified of that woman as I was," It was her turn to go beet red. To be honest, that was an appropriate response. The princess had been one intimidating woman.
Derek waited as she gathered her things.
And then the two of them took the elevator down together. It was made entirely of reinforced glass, all of them were. A construction material that allowed for a spectacular view of the city, especially at night. They passed nothing but empty floors as they moved past. With no pending projects, those with families, and warm beds had long gone home. At least most of them had, Derek thought, he cast a regretful look over at Emily and then looked away.
"Any plans for the night?" He asked, he was genuinely interested. She shrugged.
"Nothing much, I'll probably just watch something with my mom before going to bed,"
Bed.
She said it so easily. Bed was a normal part of life for her, a place where she lay down and slept. Probably for eight solid hours before her alarm clock woke her up.
A bolt of envy shot through him and Derek had to fight it down. It was not her fault that sleep came easy to her.
His good mood gone, Derek did not even say goodbye when the elevator doors opened. He simply stepped out and began walking.
Hopefully, she would take it as him just being his usual prickly self and never mention it.
On the way home, he took the shorter route. Only this time, he stopped half way there. He had gone for a car so low it nearly melded with the ground, its paint job pitch black, just like the night sky that Derek was currently staring up at.
He spent half an hour like that, sitting on the hood of his car and just looking up. Then he got into his car and headed for the manor.
This time, he came home to silence. Everyone was asleep, and there were no guests to entertain, so he did not have to worry about putting on a mask of fake politeness.
Rather than heading straight for his wing, he made a beeline for the kitchen. Sure enough, the staff had left his food in the oven for him.
Derek ate quickly, not really tasting the food, just wolfing it down with a lack of manors that his mother would have been appalled by.
His meal done, Derek headed for his room and changed. After only two laps in the pool, he was done. He went back to his room and showered in silence, letting the water from all five shower heads hit him. The water worked to relax him, and by the time he got out, Derek was almost convinced he would get a good night's rest.
Throwing on some pyjama bottoms, he pulled back the covers and got into bed.
That night he managed an hour and thirty minutes, a miracle.