Howard could feel the 

cortisol

seep into his veins. He could feel the walls of his arteries stiffen. This was supposed to be his easy week. He was taking a vacation the next, a rescheduled 

honeymoon

... as he had sacrificed his actual honeymoon because Greg had asked him too... there had been a big deadline back then. But that had been an important project.

This new deadline they were throwing on him wasn't even important. The project was a joke, and the client an even bigger one. Thoughts of just quitting came to mind... but then he remembered how much they paid him. It was just too damn good. He clenched his fists and wished that they were exploiting him financially so that he could actually have the balls to quit, but who was he joking? He got paid like he was living in 

Silicon Valley

, and yet they were out in some no name, yet decently sized city in the middle of

America

. No, he couldn't complain.

The door opened and in came a face that made him almost okay with the pile of shit that had just been dumped on him. Not that it wasn't a pile of shit still... but it was a pile he could share with someone now.