Labors

Although it was a national holiday and not a work day, the emails started arriving as early as 8am - with "new month, new focus, success, productivity, better faster extra more" themes. Every single message came tagged with an action to confirm that it had been read; Ari clicked on nothing. "Are you blowing him off?" Dylan asked, impressed. "Bold move." "It's neither a move nor a statement or stand," Ari responded with a smile. "I have a lot of compassion for him; the spiral winds upward and disintegrates downward, but never relents. He creates a lot of suffering for himself. I don't want to give that a dopamine hit. I'll read everything thoroughly tomorrow and respond appropriately." Dylan whistled between his teeth, and Ari laughed. "That," they added quietly (gesturing to the computer screen), "is attachment, and it's part of his life curriculum. I do him no favors reinforcing it and it would be disingenuous to give the impression that I care about running in those circles for exercise." "DANG, YOU ARE GIVING ME 'WORK SPOCK' AND I JUST GOT THE CHILLS," Dylan shouted into the room. "I bet they love you and hate you there." Ari laughed and shrugged before adding, "Irrelevant."