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The next day, Allee walked to work, enjoying the cooler weather. At the office, she greeted others as they arrived, making her way up the stairs talking to one of the designers. Darryl was already there, as was Sammy. Minutes later, Noah entered, talking to Michael and Andre. Allee smiled at Noah, and he grinned cheekily back at her, giving her a wink as well. Although they had not publicised that they were dating, neither had they kept it a secret.
It was about lunchtime when Allee overheard Sammy bark a worried, “We have a problem with the release,” to Craig. She wondered what it was all about, but kept out of the way. She found out soon enough when Noah came to her door with a distracted look on his face.
“What's happened?” Allee asked him, hoping that it wasn't too big a problem.
“There's been a major bug reported with the release. So far, it's affected about thirty per cent of the users, and it's pretty serious.” Allee could see the tension and anxiety in Noah's shoulders. “It's made the game unplayable, and we have no idea where the bug is.”
“What are you going to do?”
“We'll have to track it down before we can fix it.”
“Where do you think the bug is?”
Noah squeezed the bridge of his nose, “With what we're seeing, it could be anywhere. It could be in the database, the back-end servers, the networking code client or server, any number of client-specific systems. It literally could be anywhere.”
“Oh, no, that’s a nightmare.”
“It's gonna be a long weekend, and not just for me.”
They ate together in silence, any plans they had imagined for the weekend disappointingly cancelled. Noah ate quickly, and when he got up to clean up, Allee gestured for him to go, that she would deal with the mess.
“I'll bring you a coffee to your desk. Let me know how things are going, and I can try and make things as bearable as possible for everyone while they're dealing with the problem.”
“Thanks, Allee, you're one in a million. Sorry about this. I know you'd been looking forward to spending some time together this weekend.”
“No, I understand. Better to lose a weekend and fix it than to have it drag on for weeks.”
Allee watched as Noah hurried back to his desk, looking apprehensive of the task ahead. Later, she quietly placed his mug next to Noah. He didn't even notice, as he was so absorbed in finding the bug. As she turned away, she noticed Darryl running his fingers through his hair, a frown on his face. She quietly took his empty mug from his desk and headed back to the kitchenette. Returning a few moments later, leaving the full mug beside him. Allee spent the next twenty minutes going around the office, refilling coffee, and removing rubbish or empty cups from desks. It wasn't much, but it was the best she could do for them.
By half-past five, Sammy was still sitting at his desk, hair sticking up in spikes from his fingers, Darryl was swearing at his machine, head in his hands, and Noah was sitting at his desk, eyes glazed over as lines of code scrolled across the screen. Charlie, on the other hand, was packing up to leave. Allee was surprised, as she thought Charlie would be trying to track down the bug as well, but she held her tongue. Craig approached, asking about the team's progress. A couple of them were still at their desks and shrugged. The others replied that they were going to try running the game from home to see if that made a difference. Yet Charlie was strangely quiet and looked uncomfortable, although nobody else seemed to notice.
Satisfied that everyone was on track and working as hard as they could, Craig went back to his office to shut his computer down for the weekend and make his own way home. Within half an hour, the only people left in the office were Sammy, Darryl, Noah, and a handful of other programmers. Wondering how she could help, Allee got an idea. Taking a calming breath, she knew she was about to disrupt work, but was doing it for the best of reasons.
“Hey, guys, sorry to interrupt. I know you're working and you want to get this sorted, but it's also getting late - so I'm going to order you all dinner. What do you want?”
Allee watched Noah stand up as the requests were shouted out, stretching his arms above his head, his t-shirt pulled tight and rising above his navel. He walked over to Allee as she finished compiling the dinner order, removing his car keys from his pocket.
“I need a break. My brain is turning to mush. I'll drive you home, and then I'll pick up the food and come back.”
“No, I'll come back here with you. I may not be able to help you with the problem, but at least I can keep people fed and their mugs filled.”
Noah seemed too exhausted to argue, “Fair enough. Let's go.”
Noah was right behind her as they entered her flat. Piddle ran down the stairs, yowling her greeting, before noticing Noah and almost tripping him up by flitting between his legs. Allee sighed, lifting the cat's food bowl to fill it with fresh cat food.
“Do you want me to call ahead while you have a shower and change?” Noah asked, almost reading her mind.
“That would be wonderful. I'll only be a few minutes!”
“No worries.”
Allee dashed up the stairs, kicking off her shoes in the doorway of her bedroom, her blouse already unbuttoned. The spray on full, it was only the work of minutes for Allee to wash and rinse away the soap before stepping out of the shower and towelling herself dry. Pulling on a new pair of jeans and a t-shirt bearing the infamous Exploding TARDIS artwork on the front, Allee finished off with socks and sneakers before tying her damp hair into a ponytail. She grabbed a knitted jacket before making her way back downstairs.
Noah was sitting on the couch, Piddle ferociously head-butting his hand, her purrs so loud they resembled a pneumatic drill. As Allee appeared, he got up, much to Piddle's disgust, before extending an arm. Allee walked over to him, under the arm, and they embraced, Noah resting his head on Allee's for a moment. He sighed deeply before releasing her.
“I needed that. Today had been hell, and I'm dreading the weekend. Let's go get that food. The others are probably starting to climb the walls themselves.”
The front light illuminated their way to the car, and before long, they were back on the road, heading towards the pizza outlet where their order was waiting.
