Emotions were just distractions

Apollo

I stepped out of the hotel and was immediately greeted by the familiar gleam of the black car waiting at the curb.

Austin, my secretary, stood at the front of the vehicle, right where I expected him. He was always ten steps ahead. He gave a slight bow. “Good morning, Mr. Apollo.”

I gave him a single nod in return.

He moved quickly, opening the rear passenger door. I slid in, adjusting my shirt cuff and crossing one leg over the other. A cup of hot coffee sat in the center console, beside a neatly arranged folder with today’s briefings.

As the car pulled away from the hotel, I picked up the document and skimmed the first page, absently taking a sip of the coffee. It was slightly too hot.

Perfect.

“Why was Chase late this morning?” I asked, without looking up.

Normally, that boy was punctual. He would wake up at dawn. Buried in emails and spreadsheets by six. Coffee at my door by seven. Today, he’d missed every marker.

Behind the wheel, Austin coughed lightly. I glanced up. He was watching me in the rearview mirror. His eyes flicked down the moment our gazes met.

“Sir,” he said carefully, “Chase took the wrong spare key from the hotel lobby yesterday. He had to clear up the mix-up this morning, and retrieve the correct one.”

I leaned back in the seat, folding the page I was reading in half.

Austin had worked for me longer than anyone else. He was in his late fifties now, a man too sharp to be caught off guard, too loyal to ever speak out of turn. That rare, brutal competence was why I trusted him. But even he wasn’t immune to pressure. Lately, his health had been declining, which was why I’d hired someone younger to take on the smaller tasks, scheduling reminders, running errands, handling minor reports, so Austin could focus where I needed him most.

Everyone knew one thing about me, I didn’t tolerate mistakes. I paused for a moment, then calmly looked back down at the file in my lap.

“Make sure it never happens again.”

“Yes, sir,” Austin replied immediately.

My phone rang. I didn’t need to look to know it wasn’t good news. No one dared to call me this early, unless something was on fire, or falling apart. I glanced at the screen.

Of course, it was him.

I stared at the name flashing across the screen for a few seconds. I could ignore it, but the old man would just keep calling until I gave in. Tenacity ran in the bloodline, unfortunately. With a sigh, I answered the phone.

“Son,” came the familiar voice. “Where are you?”

I leaned back in my seat, already exhausted. “Wouldn’t you like to know? Don’t bother pretending, acting was never your strong suit, old man.”

“What are you talking about? I have no idea what you mean,” my father replied, feigning confusion.

I put the call on speaker and dropped the phone on the seat beside me, returning my attention to the document in my hands. “What do you need? I’m busy.”

“When have you ever been busy?” he shot back immediately. “You don’t have a life, Apollo. You are your work. I don’t even know what you do with all that money, you never take vacations, you never date, you never do anything fun.”

I kept reading. One of the reports had an error in the financials. I circled it with my pen.

“Honestly,” he went on, undeterred, “you’re not getting any younger. Don’t you want to enjoy life before your back gives out? Find a nice woman, fall in love, maybe even have a conversation that isn't about work?”

“I’m doing that right now,” I replied dryly. “And I already don’t like it.”

“What are you talking about?! This is different. I’m a man, talking to a man is never fun!”

I flipped the page. “Did you call just to deliver your annual disappointment monologue, or is there a point to this conversation?”

“You need to settle down. Find a woman, have a kid, or ten. I need a grandson, Apollo! Do you know how humiliating it is when all my friends pull out pictures of their grandkids? One of them just welcomed his fifth. Fifth! And what do I have? A son who treats emotions like a contagious disease.”

I leaned back in my chair, unimpressed. “And yet, that same son is the reason you’re the richest man in the country. Our company dominates every sector because I don’t let feelings get in the way.”

He sighed like I was the biggest disappointment in the world. “You weren’t always like this. You used to laugh, live. Now you’re just…cold. I’m afraid if this continues, you’ll become someone even worse. I know losing your wife changed you, but—”

“I’m hanging up in ten seconds if this doesn’t get relevant,” I cut in flatly.

"‘Wait! Just—don’t hang up yet. I scheduled a blind date for you next week—”

I hung up, pressing my fingers into my temple for a moment before letting out a low sigh.

“How stressful,” I muttered to no one in particular.

My gaze drifted out the tinted window. People moved like ants below. I tapped my fingers against the door, the rhythm steady and thoughtless.

Emotions.

The word itself almost made me laugh. A foolish concept, really, one I’d outgrown long ago. Sentimentality slowed people down. And I didn’t have the luxury of being slow.

The tapping stopped as her voice from the night before slipped into my mind.

"You’re no fun. You’re like an old man. Maybe all you need is someone younger to teach you how to live again."

My lips twitched before I could stop them, curving into something dangerously close to a smirk. That girl was a storm of emotions. This morning she was eyes wide and furious, clutching a blanket like armor, firing death glares as if they could actually wound me. It had been amusing, if nothing else. She was one of the first women who had ever dared to act that way toward me.

She’d surprised me, and that didn’t happen often. And last night, the way she responded to every touch, like no one had ever taken their time with her before. The way she trembled under my hands, how she clung to me like she needed me, the way she clenched around my fingers.

“What a shame,” I murmured to myself. “I didn’t get to finish what I started.”

“Sir,” Austin called from the front. “We’re here.”

A moment later, the door opened. I stepped out, adjusting the cuff of my suit. In front of me stood a tall glass and steel structure. My building, my empire.

I stared at it with indifference.

This was all I needed. Emotions were just distractions.