Chapter 1

Brian woke up to the sound of the annoying buzzer of his alarm clock and quickly reached over to silence it. Squinting as he turned on the light, he sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes before looking at the clock to see his usual five o'clock wake up time glowing in red back at him. He sighed as he stood up and walked to the bathroom to start his normal morning routine.

He took stock of himself as he combed his blonde hair, looking at himself in the mirror as his blue eyes stared back at him. He thought he looked ok, nothing spectacular but not hideous either. He was in decent shape but probably too thin for his height of a couple inches over six feet. It wasn't a face or body to inspire swooning by the ladies but at least he didn't have a weight problem as he could basically eat anything he wanted and not gain weight. His overactive metabolism was passed down from his mother, who at 45 as still as thin as she was when he was a child. His height was passed down from his father, also a tall man, but more bulky.

He dressed in his usual business casual attire after having his customary bowl of cereal for breakfast and left his fifth floor apartment earlier than usual to take the stairs down to the garage. He got into his two year old Malibu and drove through the mostly empty streets, having avoided the usual rush hour traffic and parked the car in the outside parking lot, as he wasn't deemed important enough to park in the underground parking garage.

Brian was usually one of the first ones in the office, always arriving there much earlier than his colleagues' normal eight o'clock start time. He enjoyed the quiet and solitude which allowed him to get a lot of work done without being bothered by customers or colleagues. His work as a program engineer got hectic once eight or nine rolled around, so it was nice to get caught up on emails and paperwork before the personal interaction portion of his job kept him busy the rest of the day.

Brian walked into the headquarters of the Prescott-Simon Automotive Group and took the stairs up to the third floor, opening the door to the Engineering Department. He unlocked his office door and threw his lunch into the small bar fridge, grabbing out a diet coke in the process. He turned on his computer and had a swig of the coke while it booted up.

The office was pretty small but was better than the cubicle that he originally had when he was a CAD designer. The office didn't come with an outside window or any fancy furniture, but it was relatively private and quiet, especially when he shut the door and the blinds on the window facing into the open area. Other than a desk, a book case and the fridge, it was pretty bare, except for the table along the left side wall, covered with part prints. The wall above the table also had assembly prints as well as program timing charts half-hazardly taped or pinned to it.

Brian quickly cycled through all his new emails and started to respond to them where he could or forwarded the rest on to get answers from other departments, suppliers or customers as warranted. He was involved in two major programs for the company at the moment, handling engineering issues with the customers' engineers while also following up on progress of suppliers making the tooling, welders, fixtures and gauges that would produce the final assemblies that his company was to then supply to their customer.

Even with the major downturn in the economy and specifically in the automotive sector, Prescott-Simon still had new work that had been awarded last year and had to be finished for the customer's upcoming new model year. Brian was lucky he still had a job, but his supervisors liked his hard work and extra time put in so they kept him on and assigned him the program of the other engineer that they had let go. So he was busier than ever, trying to keep track of two major programs. Slowly the rest of the Engineering Department showed up and started their day while he kept working away inside his office.

"Working hard already as usual Brian, did you even go home last weekend?" asked a voice from the open doorway.

Brian looked up to see his friend Terry at the door and replied with a smile "Hey man, you actually made it on time this morning."

"Well, I can't have you showing me up by coming in early while I come in late. I'll be the one they let go in the next round of cuts" he said with a grin.

"I think your job is secure Mr. Simon" Brian retorted wryly.

"Well, you know Dad, he doesn't like to play favourites" Terry said. "So, how was the weekend? Did you have a wild date with a tall blonde hottie or did you work all weekend as usual?"

"Well, someone has to get this stuff done, and now that they dumped the P790 project on me I never have enough time to get everything done during the week. So yes, I was in all day Saturday and worked some more on Sunday at home" Brian replied.

"So you had not fun at all? Man, you got to try and enjoy life more. I need to set you up with some friend of Cynthia's" he said.

"I couldn't afford one date with a friend of Cynthia's and you know it, let alone actually get them to go out with me. They are after your other rich friends dude" Brian told him.

"You're probably right. I'll think of something though, we need to get you a girlfriend. Maybe I'll ask Heather if she can help, she's good at that type of stuff. Ok, got to check in, I'll see you for lunch ok?" Terry said as he quickly walked away.

"Ok Terry" Brian replied, shaking his head as he had already walked away without waiting for the answer.

Terry was the son of one of the partners, Dale Simon, who along with Peter Prescott owned the manufacturing company where they both worked. Brian had gone to engineering school with him and they had become friends, while Brian suspected that Terry was a friend with him mostly so he could have access to his assignments and help on tests. It worked out in the end as Terry was able to get Brian in as a CAD designer at his Dad's company when they both graduated. Now Terry was a program manager, one level higher up than Brian and actually his direct supervisor, but they both knew that Brian did most of the work on the programs for him.