31
Paul blinks awake in the grey light of early morning. The buzzing of his alarm had woken him, but now that he’s up he’s not sure how he’d been able to sleep. Parrots are sitting in the tree outside, cackling up a storm.
All chance of even five more useful minutes of sleep gone, Paul rolls over to check his phone for any early morning work emergencies. Craig grumbles something sleepily at him. The familiarity is disconcerting, even if Craig isn’t awake enough yet to articulate an unhappy comment about Paul’s work habits.
There are no emails declaring that the world is ending via script problems, deadline issues, or another war between Victor and the studio, for which Paul is grateful. There is a picture from Alex that Paul clicks open a little warily. But he smiles when he sees Alex,
