The Project

4 months later

Alcohol flowed freely and the catering was top-quality when Gensoft threw a party. The whole company celebrated the completion of the big upgrade. The CEO gave a short speech and personally thanked Julia for managing the project.

"I'm very pleased to announce the project came in on-time and under budget," he stated. The project team cheered but that was probably more due to the alcohol than any particular love of budgets. Then a DJ took over from the CEO and the party really started.

Julia mingled with the Gensoft employees. She was glad that the project was finished, but also a bit sad that it was over. She had got to know the rest of the team quite well. When she wasn't chasing them down for status updates they were generally a good bunch of people.

Steven appeared at her side, holding her drink. He looked good in jeans and a smart black shirt. Smiling, she took the drink from him. "You know," she said softly, "as at this moment I am no longer a Gensoft employee. Do you know what that means?"

He looked somewhat confused. "No, what does it mean?"

"It means I can now do this in front of your colleagues." She pulled his head down and kissed him. At first, no-one noticed. But then he wrapped his arms around her and deepened the kiss. She heard a couple of wolf-whistles and the conversation around them stopped. When they finally broke apart Steven grinned at all the astonished expressions.

One of the other developers approached Julia. "Hey, I logged more hours on the project than Steven. Do I get a kiss too?" he teased.

"Get lost Richard, she's mine," Steven growled good-naturedly. He kept one arm possessively around her waist and Julia didn't mind one bit.

The only person who didn't seem surprised was Derek. When Julia talked with him later in the evening she asked how long he had known. "Oh, you were very discreet," he reassured her. "But when he stopped following you around like a lost puppy and started looking so damn happy all the time I figured something must have changed."

"Oh," was all she could manage in reply.

"I'm happy for you both," Derek added. "Don't be a stranger now, we expect to see you at the company Christmas party if not earlier."

Julia smiled and gave him a friendly hug. Then she went to find her boyfriend. She suspected she's find him engrossed in conversation with the other developers about his modeling software again. They were just starting user-acceptance testing of the beta version and everyone was really excited about it.