Chris ended the call the way he ended most crises lately, by not throwing his phone across the room purely out of spite and personal growth.
He set it down very carefully on the desk, like it might explode, then stared at the urbanistic plan in front of him as if the proposed 'community lake' had been written by Caelan himself. His pen was still between his fingers. The red ink on the margins looked suddenly too tame for the kind of rage simmering under his ribs.
He tried to go back to work.
He lasted nine seconds.
Chris pushed his chair back and stood so fast the legs scraped the floor. The sound was ugly, final, and for a moment he just stood there with one hand on the desk, breathing through his nose like he was trying to remember what it felt like to be a reasonable person with a job.
'Caelan called Ethan an experiment.'
Chris's jaw tightened until it hurt.
He walked out.
