Richard sighed, and when the whiskey he ordered appeared, he sipped it carefully. He studied the liquid in his glass.

“I’ve worked my whole life to amount to something great. I’ve done it all right, by the book. After everything I did, I’m not half the man you are.”

“I don’t get it,” I said. “What does that even mean?”

“It means you are everything a man should be, and you’re not even trying. You do what you should, no matter how hard it is, and you keep marching on, and it’s fucking tough to know that your little brother has bigger balls than you do.”

I shook my head....