More than anything else in this moment, I want to go home. I'm absolutely exhausted from today. Why? I have no idea. Something about the rainy weather we're facing today mixed with the fact that I didn't get too much sleep last night, I'm sure.

I look over the codes on my screen and sigh. I know that this can be completed in the next two hours if I try hard enough, but the thought of even staying here for the next hour is exhausting. I want to go home and cuddle with Natalia on the couch. Maybe I'm so exhausted just because I've never had the comfort of Natalia in my arms before. Now, it's all I think about.

A knock on my door draws my attention. "Come in," I call.

"Mr. Parker?" I hear a soft voice call. I glance up and see Genevieve at my door with two cups in her hand. "Sorry to bother you. It's almost five and I thought I would bring you something to drink before I left." She smiles.

"Oh. Thank you. And please, call me Grayson." I answer as she walks towards me and hands me the cup. "What is it?" I ask.

"It's green tea with some raspberry flavoring. It's my favorite." She says.

"Raspberry?" I ask.

"Yeah, it's good. I promise." She beams.

I take a small sip and to my delight, it isn't half bad. It's much better than coffee, which is usually all I get offered. I have to ask the coffee bar to make me anything else. I'm sure she had to do the same.

"I didn't even know that the coffee bar offered tea." I mutter. "It's good. Thank you."

"Yeah, for sure." She smiles. "So, what are you working on?" 

"I'm working on fixing some coding issues on my latest project. It's almost done, but needs a few more hours of work." I reply.

"How many hours?" She asks, taking a seat in front of my desk. 

"Not many. Two or so. If I work this evening, then I might be able to get it down to a little over an hour." I reply.

"Oh. So you're staying here?" She asks.

"I'm pondering." I say. "Are you about to go home?" I ask, glancing up from the screen.

"Natalia said we were done for the day. Brian wanted her to hang back to go over a few things with her, I think." She replies.

"Oh." I reply with a nod. It's likely that Nat will stay longer to help Brian with the app development.

"You know, I don't mind staying a bit longer to help you if you want to work on your coding stuff." Genevieve smiles.

"That's very nice of you, Genevieve. But-"

"Gen." She replies. "Call me Gen." 

"Gen." I correct. "You don't need to do that. It'll be pretty boring." I reply.

"Maybe you could help me out? I don't know...show me what it is that you're working on? I'm just trying to take full advantage of this situation. It's not every day that you're able to work for one of the best computer engineers in California." She laughs.

"You're more than welcomed to stay if you want to." I shrug. She smiles and pulls her laptop out of a black case. 

"Let's get started." She smiles.

-

"So if the glitch is occurring in the homepage, shouldn't we check the coding that only deals with the homepage?" Gen asks.

"Normally, yes. However, this glitch occurs only after switching from the overview page to the homepage. This means that the glitch is occurring somewhere in-between those two pages. So, we need to check that first to save time." I explain. 

"Oh." She says with a nod.

"It's a lot to take in, but after you spend hours and hours on a simple issue, you'll quickly learn every time saving effort there is. When I first started this, I spent seven hours on an issue that only took five minutes to fix." I laugh at the memory, forgetting how inexperienced I once was.

"And now look at you." She smiles.

"Yeah. Now look at me." I add.

"Can I try and find the glitch first? You know, to see if I can notice it?" She asks.

"Of course." I say. She smiles and pulls her chair closer to mine and leans over to view the screen. A small bell rings on my desktop screen, indicating a text message. 

"You have a text message from a...Nat?" She says, rolling her chair away from the screen. I quickly exit out of the notification and check my phone.

Where are you? I thought we had dinner plans? 

I completely forgot to tell Natalia that I was going to be staying late. She's probably left the office and already back at the apartment. I remember telling her that I had to hang back a little longer, but after I check the time I notice it's been three hours.

"Shit." I mutter to myself.

"Is everything okay?" Gen asks.

For a split second, I completely forgot that she was in the room. 

"Uhh, yeah." I say, quickly gathering my things together. "I'm sorry. My girlfriend is at the apartment. I forgot that we had dinner plans and didn't tell her I was still here." 

"Oh, that's fine." She says, gathering her own things.

"We'll finish this up tomorrow." I tell her. "We'll pick up right where we left off." 

"Perfect! It's dark out, so can I walk down with you?" She asks.

"Of course." I say. "I take an Uber, but I'll walk you out to the parking lot." 

"You take an Uber?" She asks. "Why?"

"I'm not a big fan of driving." I say.

"Do you know how to drive?" She asks. 

"Yes. I have a car and everything, I just don't like driving." I shrug.

"I love driving. Want a ride?" She asks.

Honestly, I don't really want a ride from Gen. Something about this seems like a bad idea, but I know that if I wait for an Uber then it'll just take longer to get home.

"You sure?" I ask. 

"Of course." She smiles. "Come on. Let's go." 

And with that, we leave.