"Driving in DC is pretty much one of the levels of hell, I think," he said with a wry smile. "Not quite the worst one, but sometimes it's a tough call."
And yet, there were a lot of times he missed it. All the insanity, the terrible work hours, feeling of actually doing something with his life. As much as he had wound up enjoying life as a teacher, it'd never been the same. Between the couple years as a policy advisor and then his short tenure in the Bureau, government life was where his heart had been.
But his father had ended that for him quite thoroughly.
"And there's mine," he said a moment later as a barista called his name. He stepped up to the counter -- and promptly retrieved a coffee the same size as Sydney's own.
She wasn't the only one with a caffeine problem sometimes.