Just get it done. You can fix it later.
The air was like blankets that day. Closed windows made of white, metal, flimsy blinders blocked as much light as the employees could manage. Still, despite this, pinpricks of blistering sunlight plagued their cubicles. It was the harshest time of the day. It was also a convenient time for the air conditioning to shut off for most of the building in favor of dedicating to the server room. It was the end of the week, where most workers went home, and most employees could pat themselves on the back for a job well done.
For Silph Co., that was not the case. Not today.
Evan's dark blonde hair stuck to his forehead. The pits of his white shirt were gray with sweat. Next to him, Growlithe was rolling on his back, panting with oblivious joy. Of course he'd enjoy the sweltering heat. Evan gave Growlithe a bitter look, but it softened only a second later. He reached down and gave him a little scratch behind the ears. This got him excited; Growlithe sprang up and barked a few times, startling a few of the half-asleep developers.
"Shh, shh," Evan said.
Growlithe whined and nibbled on Evan's shoes.
Software developers were used to these demanding schedules, and the same went for the engineers. Crunch time, they called it. Deadlines from executives that didn't know how programming worked. Dev Ops had pulled an all-nighter the day before when one of the servers crashed for some inexplicable reason. So, it was understandable that their lead—a scrawny man in khakis and a T-shirt—leaned his back against the wall, snoring.
"Poor Ted," Evan mumbled, pulling his feet away from Growlithe. "Heard his wife was pretty upset that he's spending more time here than there."
"What, like we aren't?" asked another dev in the cubicle opposite of him—while they had their own spaces, the "walls" that separated them were only a few feet high. To encourage cooperation, their manager said. It only caused distractions. "Ugh, this heat is killing me. You sure that slobber-brain of yours isn't causing it? Maybe inherited Overheat from those monsters you call his parents?"
"I'm sure." Evan sighed. "Listen, I'm sorry, okay? I'll get my code checked in right away. Did you review Dale's?"
"Yeah, yeah, I reviewed it. Dale, you got them?" He fanned his face, but that just made more hot air waft over him.
"Fixing that line now," Dale said. "And how about you, Paul? Eh?"
"I'm done with mine. Get on my level." Paul smirked.
Dale and Evan both rolled their eyes, though they smiled back.
Growlithe tore off Evan's right shoe and bolted. Evan was too tired to give chase. He coded for the next hour with one foot wearing only a white—gray, now, technically—sock.
Evening bled into the night. Growlithe had snuggled up against the Dev Ops Lead's thigh for a nap. Two of the senior devs left for coffee and never came back. Their manager had been gone for a long time, and only said that he wanted to see it finished before they left. They weren't really sure what that meant, as they had no means to contact him if he was out of the office, nor any knowledge about how they would show their results, either.
It was just the beta, so they just had to get a full test completed.
"Can't we just go and finish this on Monday?" Dale complained.
"Sure, if you want to get fired," Evan mumbled.
"Hah! Fired. That's a good one. Who're they gonna replace me with?"
