The Project

"Actually, I am really tired," she apologized, disentangling herself from his body.

"Are you sure?" he asked in disbelief. Julia suspected he was used to getting his way. But she was suddenly adamant she didn't want him in her home. "Maybe some other time," she said non-committally.

He acquiesced to her wishes and left, driving off into the night. He didn't promise to call and Julia suspected he probably wouldn't. But that was fine by her.

***

Steven's meeting with the senior managers was scheduled for the following Friday. Julia met him a couple of times to practice his new presentation. He wasn't the world's most confident speaker but she thought he would be fine so long as he remembered not to talk too fast. As she expected, his new look caused a bit of a stir. She made sure he didn't tell anyone she took him shopping though, that would provide far too much fuel for rumors.

Julia wasn't invited to the management meeting on Friday, seeing as how she wasn't one of them. She waited impatiently in her office to find out how it went.

"They liked it!" Steven appeared in her doorway grinning broadly.

"Of course they did," she replied happily. She stood up and gave him a hug. He stiffened in surprise but then hugged her back. "Congratulations."

"They want me to do a demo in two weeks, and the marketing manager said it has real potential."

"Hmm. You'll want a contract for the IP before you get too much further."

"IP?" he asked curiously.

"Intellectual property. Your idea might turn out to be quite valuable and you don't want to just give all the rights to the Gensoft."

"Oh. I'm not sure how that works." He looked concerned and Julia felt bad for bursting the bubble of his success.

"Don't worry about it," she said quickly. "I know some good lawyers. We should go out and celebrate first!"

"Great idea," he said happily.

Julia offered to take him to a good bar she knew, later that evening. It was one of the places Mark used to take her. It had a tasteful atmosphere and usually a good crowd of patrons, young professionals rather than students.

She got home from work around six, then had a shower and tried to decide what to wear. She was tired of the restrictive skirt suits she wore to work and wanted something a bit more feminine and floaty.

Fifteen minutes later the entire contents of her wardrobe were dumped on the bed. Julia finally found what she wanted, a green chiffon dress. It came to just above her knees and swished pleasingly. She added a sleeveless cardigan in case it got cold. Having second thoughts, she switched it for a cardigan with sleeves. Having more second thoughts, she grabbed a cashmere jacket instead. Wellington weather was notoriously unpredictable even in late summer.