139 A Wake Up Call

Justin had been ignoring all of Rachelle's calls and emails for nearly a month. The only reason she ended up catching him was because Sam was annoyed by the phone ringing when she was home and answered it herself before shoving it into his hands and stomping off.

"Mr. Costa, is that you? Hello?"

"It's me," he said dully. "Sorry for not answering sooner. I…haven't really been capable of handling things lately."

She heaved a sigh. "In all honesty, I thought you died. I've kept things going as best I can without you—Adam and Tiffany have been taking on extra duties—but we need to hire a few more programmers and I didn't want to do that without involving you. Um…if you don't mind my asking, sir, are you…okay?"

"The love of my life left me," he said in an emotionless voice. "Would you be okay?"

Rachelle clearly regretted asking. "I'm so sorry, sir. That must be really…I mean you…I—uh—would you like me to handle the interviews for you?"