The Project

Julia arrived in the office bright and early on Monday morning. She opened Outlook and immediately noticed a new email from Steven. It was time-stamped 10pm on Sunday. She frowned. Why was he emailing her on Sunday night? She opened the email.

I've finished and submitted everything to the testers. Confused, she typed a reply: What did you submit exactly? I'm expecting a time estimate from you. She hit the send button. The reply was almost immediate, Steven must have had his email open already.

I mean I finished developing the interfaces. I haven't done my timesheet yet but it will be about 12 hours total. Julia stared at the email. Surely he couldn't have done it all in one weekend? She checked her watch; it was still only ten to eight. When the testing team got to work she would check and find out what exactly Steven sent them.

***

Julia approached Steven's cubicle. He had headphones on and seemed to be completely engrossed in his work. She stood there for a few moments, reluctant to disturb him. Faint sounds of music escaped from the headphones. His hands flew over the keyboard and as he coded and compiled. The contents of the screen changed so fast it made her head hurt just looking at it. Steven paused momentarily when an progress bar appeared on the screen and she took the opportunity to tap him on the shoulder. He jumped, startled, and pulled the headphones off.

"Sorry to disturb you."

"No, it's fine really," he said, looking flushed.

Julia looked around for a spare chair and pulled it over so she could sit down. "I got your email this morning."

He swiveled around to face her and looked apprehensive. "Are you annoyed because I didn't send you the estimate before doing the work?"

She quickly shook her head to reassure him. "No, that's fine. I just can't believe you did it so quickly. It was supposed to take a week at least," she said in admiration. "The testers had the quick look and they said it looks great."

Steven seemed to be uncomfortable with the praise. "It wasn't too hard," he said modestly. "I just followed the specification. Although, I did log a couple of small changes. I think there might be some errors in the document. But if you really want it that way I can change it back easy enough…"

"I wouldn't," piped up an invisible voice from the other side of the partition. "Steven knows what he's doing."