Cian had a meeting at two that ran long, and by the time it finished he had four things to do before five and he did them in order: revised the proposal, called the contractor, answered the three emails that couldn't wait, started the fourth and saved it for the morning. He forgot to eat lunch. He ate an apple standing at his desk at four-thirty.
He took the train home. He was thinking about the proposal. It was a good proposal but the timing was wrong, and he was trying to work out whether the timing could be changed without changing the budget. He was fairly sure it couldn't but wanted to be sure he was sure.
At home he made a simple dinner and ate it at the kitchen table reading the news. The news was the usual. He put the dishes in the sink. He sat in the chair in the living room and read for a while. The book was something a friend had recommended months ago and he'd finally started; it was better than he'd expected.
He went to bed at ten-thirty.
He thought, as he was falling asleep, that the proposal might work after all if they moved the timeline by three weeks and took the risk on the budget. He would look at the numbers in the morning.