“Okay,” Grace said after what felt like a few minutes. “I think I’ve got it. Or at least part of it.”
Alex looked up, surprised, and saw that it had been almost four hours.
“Really?”
“Really. Can I show you?”
“Please.”
Alex made room on the desk for Grace to sit beside him again, which she did. From this close, he noticed that she smelled a little like the ocean. She flashed him a quick smile before turning her attention to the laptop.
“Okay, here’s what I did…” Grace showed him a few lines of code. Alex asked a few questions, then nodded approvingly.
“Let’s test it.”
They ran a few tests. The first few passed with flying colors, but the last threw an error. Grace mimed slumping onto the desk.
“Oh, man. I really thought I had it.”
“You made good progress,” Alex told her. “Great progress, even. Don’t worry about it. You can always pick this up later. After all, it’s…” His eyes widened when he saw the time on his Rolex. “Seven forty-five! You should really go home.”
“No way. I’m in the zone now.” Grace pulled the laptop toward her again. “I’ll just give it a few more minutes.”
“Then I insist you at least let me feed you,” Alex said. “It would look really bad if one of my employees died of starvation.”
“We can’t have that,” Grace agreed. “It would be bad publicity.” She tore her gaze from the screen to flash him another smile. “I could eat.”
“Chinese?” Alex suggested. “I know a place that delivers.”
“Perfect. That’s great hacker food, just like in the movies. We can eat straight out of the to-go boxes to really set the mood.”
Alex chuckled. “Great. Would you like to see the menu?”
“It’s okay.” Grace’s gaze was back on the screen. “Just get me anything vegetarian.”
“Sure.” Alex placed the order on his phone, then glanced back at Grace. She was in the zone again, her eyes narrowed as she stared at the screen. Alex got the feeling that if he tried to get her attention, he’d fail.
The only person he’d ever seen work like this, with so much focus that blinking was almost forgotten, was himself.
When the food arrived half an hour later, he gently pulled the laptop away from Grace.
“Take a break. Eating and looking away from the screen will help you.”
Grace made a face, but she let him close the lid of the laptop and hand her a takeout box. She opened it and inhaled deeply.
“Oh, that smells amazing. Thanks.” She took her wooden chopsticks out of the paper sleeve and snapped them apart, then grasped a spear of broccoli. “Yum.”
“So, any progress?” Alex asked as he opened his own steaming box of kung pao chicken.
“Yes, actually. The last time, the code passed all the tests easily.”
Alex’s brows rose. “Then you’re done.”
“Well…” Grace blushed. “Sort of.”
“What do you mean, sort of?”
“I fixed the initial bug, but I’m pretty sure I can come up with a more elegant solution if I just put in a little more time.”
