Charlie jumped in their seat as Sophie slapped them across the back.

“Way to crush the last few lines of code on the Elysium server. The rapid evolution process should finish up any day now. What are you planning on doing with your bonus once it goes live?”

Brushing tangled hair out of their eyes, Charlie spun the chair to face their too-cheerful assailant. Glowering and narrowing their eyes before responding.

“You know full well the team pulled too many all-nighters getting everything right. This world is the most ambitious we have ever put together. Separate continents devoted to cultures, gods, and environments. We had to get everything right before we pushed the button. We can’t control any of it now, just keep the wheels on.”

Sophie ruffled her co-worker’s hair and grinned. “You are such a worry wort. Always fretting over every little thing. You did an amazing job, you and the rest of the team.” She stood on her tip toes peering over the cubicle walls.

“I know you’re here Jason. I came to get both of you. The pre-release party wouldn’t be the same without you. You know I won’t take no for an answer and I will pester you relentlessly until you give in. So just do as I command and cave already.”

Jason had started filling his backpack during the monologue and was standing next to Sophie’s side before she had finished speaking. He towered over both of them, his dusty brown hair brushing some of the hanging decorations that littered the office.

“Charlie, you know she is right. Don’t make me carry you.”

Charlie would have preferred to scour the information coming off of the evolution file, just to make sure. However, Charlie knew which battles to fight, and this wasn’t one of them. Poking Sophie in the stomach, they relented.

“Okay, okay. You win. Give me a few minutes to shut everything down. If I am going to the party, I am going to party. No coming back to work tonight.”

“… I am planning on putting the money away. Maintaining everything is so much easier than getting it going in the first place.”

A nameless employee was explaining to one of the others gathered in conference room. Half of a destroyed sheet cake, bottles of warming beer, and other assorted celebratory foods occupied the large table. Small cliques of company employees spread throughout the room making small talk.

Charlie pressed themselves back against the wall towards one of the rear corners. Sophie was busy chatting with a gaggle of folks from the HR department. It never felt comfortable having to engage in these social niceties, at least not until a good buzz was achieved. Polishing off the remainder of the bottle of domestic was a chore. The least Nextlife could have done was spring for enough ice to keep the beer cold.

Until more of the programmers who, like Charlie, for the most part kept to themselves arrived, this was purgatory. Soon, that wouldn’t be an issue ever again. Elysium just had to go live and none of this would be an issue.

Jason stepped up next to Charlie and sipped at a soda, he typically didn’t drink. “I can stand here next to you. That way, no one else will try to talk with you while you drink. These things are about as much fun as a barrel full of monkeys.”

Grinning, Charlie gave the taller coder a nudge with their elbow. “Thanks. I don’t mind taking you up on that. Small talk always seems… so pointless.” Tipping back their bottle, Charlie polished off their second beer and moved on to a third.

“So, now that I have you cornered, I never promised I wouldn’t talk to you. What are your plans for your bonus? Which option did you go for?” Jason grinned, he had obviously waited for Charlie to start drinking the next beer before asking his query.

Narrowing their eyes, Charlie nudged Jason harder. “That was a dirty trick. Besides, I thought you would have figured it out by now based on my commitment to this particular project.”

Jason held up his hands defensively, a mock hurt expression on his face. “Not a dirty trick, just a trick. Besides, how else was I going to get the answer out of you. There have been whole weeks when I never saw you speak to anyone in the office. If Sophie didn’t come around and drag you off to lord knows where, I would have suspected you slept in one of the closets.”

Nursing the start of this beer morphed into aggressively drinking; Charlie’s buzz needed to progress if they were going to start talking about this in public. Charlie went for the red herring and decided teasing Jason was the best strategy.

“You know I live with Sophie. She isn’t dragging me anywhere, she’s my ride, we carpool. If you want, I can get you invited to our weekly Adventurer game. I have seen you eyeing her for the last few months. I may not talk much, but I do watch.”

Hunching over, the tall man seemed to shrink and cower against the wall. “I thought I was being less obvious than that. Did she say something? Wait… can you tell me if I should ask her out? Think she would say yes?”

By the end of of his series of questions he had grown close and a hopeful spark shone in his eyes. Charlie almost felt bad for getting his hopes up, it was a bad idea to have baited him. Might as well give him the best shot he could ever get and answer his first question at the same time.

“Sorry Jason. I don’t know, you should, and once again I don’t know. I can make sure you get invited to the next game session though, that would be a good way to get to know her. It’s going to be my going away party.”