Asteria's Chronicles, Part 3

There weren't any clocks that hung on any of the walls in Howard's office. In more ordinary times, I wouldn't even be batting an eye at such a less-than-peculiar choice of wall decor but considering prior experiences with those ticking round circles, I couldn't help but keep that detail in mind… 

He drawled on and on, and since time-telling could only be done through phone on-ing, I flickered open my own and saw that a full hour's worth of progress had just been wasted on a literal standstill - like for real, three of us just standing, listening… I don't know where we got the patience.

Hearing him talk, hearing all that remorse and self-pity grew in prominence with every new sentence after the other was pure torture to the ears, and it wasn't as if it was worth the time or the pain either, cause by the half-hour mark we already knew everything that he had to offer.