Liam dropped his phone onto the nightstand with a soft clink, exhaling deeply as the last call ended.
His face was still fixed in the polite smile he had worn for the past half hour, though now it melted into something of a grimace.
The Investor Relations department of the latest company whose shares he had received had just finished their courtesy call.
It had been the same as all the others before it: warm congratulations, polite probing questions about his intentions, carefully phrased suggestions about engaging their private client services.
He had also said the same thing which at this point seems to have become his rehearsed lines. He laughed at their carefully moderated jokes, and deflected their questions with the kind of bland professionalism that gave them nothing while leaving them satisfied enough to report "positive engagement" in their internal memos.
It was boring, monotonous, redictable, but necessary.
