May 11
The company of just and righteous men is better than wealth and a rich estate.
Euripides (484 BC - 406 BC), Aegeus
The embers glowed in the hearth as Jennifer Shepard stared at the soft glow they emitted. The redhead was sitting in her study, lost in thought.
Her townhouse was empty and silent. It was a house rather than a home, a place she returned to at the end of the day only to bring more work with her and to sleep in the chair in her study more often than she slept in her bed. It was an extension of her workplace in more ways than one.
At work, she was alone, aloof, the Director of the agency and unable and not permitted to form friendships with her employees. Even Cynthia, who she supposed she could call a confidant, was still an employee and there was so much she was unable to voice. At the end of the day, her assistant went one way and she went another, back to her lonely, cold house.
She longed for company. She had drifted apart from all her old friends, but not until after they had filled their homes with the pitter-patter of tiny feet and the laughter of children. Her ambition had driven her, encouraged her to make decisions and leave people in her wake, making her believe she would find happiness if she just pushed a little bit more.
But she was exactly where she wanted to be and she had nothing to show for it. Nothing except an empty house and a life full of work.