Page 29 of Death Wish

“Perfect. Thanks.”

A head shake. “I’ve never had an employee beg for work. You’re an anomaly, Simone.”

Good or bad? Had she overemphasized her skill? Overplayed her hand? In truth, she had finished everything for the day unless Trina gave her something else. She needed to catch the attention of the person who commissioned the computer program she and Jesse were targeting. The only way she knew to do that without putting herself or the medic at risk was to work at her natural fast pace.

Once Trina was gone, Joy peered around the edge of the cubicle wall, her eyes wide. “Holy smoke, Simone,” she murmured. “You’re bored?”

“Come on, Joy. I must have driven you crazy yesterday, asking for more work.”

“I thought you were just trying to impress me with how fast you were churning out the assignments but that’s your natural pace, isn’t it?”

“Actually, I was holding back yesterday. I decided this morning before I arrived I needed to work at my normal speed. Otherwise, I’ll be bored most of the time I’m employed here. I came to DA to stretch myself. I know it’s early days in my career here, but so far, I’m not stretching myself at all.”

Joy shook her head. “Girl, you’ll be lucky to stay in this division with me if you keep up this pace. The supervisors in the special projects division are always looking for more talent. They push their workers pretty hard, so they burn out fast.”

“Oh, yeah?” Simone scooted her rolling chair closer to her friend. “What kind of work do they do?”

“Very hush hush programs. Programmers in the cubicle farm dream of working in that division. I don’t think I’ll ever reach that level.”

“I don’t know. You’re pretty good.”

“I’m not at your level. I’m so far back in the pack, I doubt the special divisions supervisor even knows my name.”

“That would be his loss.”

“Are we still on for supper tonight?” Joy asked, changing the subject.

“Absolutely. Jesse and I are looking forward to spending time with you.”

Her friend beamed. “I really wish he had a single brother. He’s a special man.”

“I agree.”

“You should put the man out of his misery and say yes, Simone. You don’t want to lose him to some other woman. Guys will only wait so long before they move on.”

“Believe me, I’m aware of that. I’m thinking hard about his proposal. He’ll have my answer soon.”

Simone’s computer dinged with an email alert. She glanced at her screen. “Oh, yeah. More work.” She rubbed her hands together and scooted back to her station. “Time to shine, Joy.”

Her friend laughed. “Let’s do it, then have some fun after work.”

“Deal.”

Simone dove back into her work, relishing the extra assignments. The first few were a continuation of the simple things she’d worked on for the past two days. The last four assignments were more of a challenge. Better. Again, she breezed through the work and asked for more.

Trina was as good as her word and assigned even more challenging assignments.

By the end of the day, Simone had cleared the assignments in her email and still had thirty minutes to burn before she could clock out.

This time it was her turn to peer around the edge of the cubicle wall. “Hey, you have anything pending?”

Joy swung around to stare at her. “You’re finished?”

She nodded. “Can I help you with anything?”

“I have a couple of issues with two programs that I haven’t been able to find. I finally had to give up and move on to something else. I planned to come back to them but I’m stuck on the Tidewater program.”

“Send the programs to me. I’ll look at them while you finish with Tidewater.”

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