65 It's Hard Being the Boss

Justin spent the rest of the week finishing as much of Emily's website as he could, scattering interviews for the next batch of interns in between. Building websites were child's play for him at this point but he labored over every detail in a way he never had before because he wanted it to be perfect for her. For the first time, he poured love into his code.

Rachelle called him on Friday to finalize the details about the two new interns. Business was booming so there were still spaces for new interns each semester even though there were now ten regular employees participating in the website. It was a straightforward process that they had done several times before so the call went by smoothly until the end of it.

"Mr. Costa, a customer has specifically requested you to complete a project for them."

"I can't."

The semester was about to start and even if he dropped Emily's website (which he would never do) there wouldn't be time to work on it before he was too busy with school.

"He got a recommendation from a regular client of ours, sir. Charles Marshall? We've done more than a dozen projects for him. I'm afraid if we offend this new client we may lose Mr. Marshall's business."

He sighed and rubbed his eyes tiredly. Bureaucracy could be such a headache. If he didn't do what this client wanted they would risk losing a long-term satisfied customer and potentially getting future negative reviews or even blacklisting from his business associates.

"How long do you estimate the project will take?"

"For anyone else? Ten weeks. For you I'm sure it would only take six," she said bluntly. "There are a lot of trial runs that need to be completed with various debugging programs. I'm sure you already know this but you would need to have one constantly running in the background. He wants you to fix his existing software, not build a new one from scratch, unfortunately."

Justin really didn't have time for this. He would have to run home and check on it every few hours between classes and had no idea how he would keep the programs running on his home computer and still complete his coursework.

There was a fair amount of software on his laptop but not everything he would need. Would he have to spend time in the dreaded computer lab until the project was done?

"I understand. Thanks for letting me know of the situation," he said flatly.

"Mr. Costa, not to pry into your personal business but...you've been available much less often the past two years. Is there something going on preventing you from doing your work?"

In a tone that clearly indicated he wasn't serious, Justin spoke the truth. "Would you believe me if I told you I was a college student who only had summers off?"

Rachelle actually laughed. "Very funny, sir. I understand, you don't need to tell me. Once this project is done I'll tell anyone else asking that you're out of the country for the next few months on business."

He appreciated her efficiency. "Thanks, Rachelle. Your work is top notch, as always."

"Thank you, sir."

After the phone call ended Justin had the urge to laugh hysterically. Partly because of the nightmare he would be facing the next six weeks and partly because it felt ridiculous every time a mother of three eleven-year-olds called him 'sir.'

The urge passed eventually and he returned to working on Emily's website. The timeline to finish it was even more rushed now and he had to make sure he did it right.

By the time Sunday rolled around he was completely exhausted, missing out on sleep to finish the rough outline of the website. Emily frowned at him when he showed up on her doorstep.

"You look half dead. What happened?"

"Annoying freelance project I can't get out of," he mumbled. "I told them I wasn't available but in the end I had to take it and now I'm stuck dealing with it on top of the semester starting. I'm almost considering dropping my classes this semester and taking them during the summer session instead."

She gave him a look of concern. "Haven't you already paid tuition though?"

"Yeah."

"Will they refund it if you drop your classes before the add/drop deadline?" she asked, worried. "Don't overexert yourself if you don't have to."

It warmed Justin's heart to see Emily fretting over his well-being. He gave her a soft smile. "I'll be fine, don't worry. I just might have to spend more time on campus because this project will be running in the background on my home computer for a while."

Emily pursed her lips but didn't respond. She gestured for him to sit down on the couch and he pulled out his laptop to show her what was done so far.

The background, links to the photo gallery and order form, and basic layout were already done. What he needed to continue was fonts, exact wording of the text to include, descriptions of each type of cookie, and prices.

She pulled out a notebook she had jotted down ideas in and Justin nodded in approval. Her ideas were solid. He could incorporate them in less than a day and the website would be complete so he told her so.

"Are you planning on starting this during the semester?"

"I don't see why not," she said with a shrug. "It's making money. If orders came in I'd make it work. Like you are with your unfortunate freelance project."

He smiled at her logic. "Good idea." His stomach growled loudly and he looked at her sheepishly. "Do you know when the food will be ready? I haven't exactly eaten today."

Emily shook her head at him in disbelief. "You really need to take better care of yourself. Do I need to start packing you lunches or something?"

Justin's brain short-circuited. Did she really just offer to feed him regularly?

"You're kidding, right?"