“But PP is making us miss deadlines.” Antonio hated to point that out in mixed company, but it wasn’t a secret anymore.
Justin glared. “Whose side are you on?”
“Yours. Always yours.” Antonio poured more emphasis into the assurance than he meant to, and he hurried to cover it. “It goes beyond pushing our people past their limits; our customers are starting to notice. If Mercy can’t see past those fuckups, what happens when we give either beta to someone who doesn’t know us? Doesn’t trust us? Doesn’t have the kind of coding experience she does, to help us troubleshoot? What happens when it brings the next site down?”
“I can’t keep putting this off.” Angry frustration propelled Justin’s words.
Antonio didn’t have a reassuring counter. “All the delays—the noes? They eat at me as much as they do you. But something has to give, before this all breaks.”
Emily cleared her throat, drawing attention. “I still don’t think I should be here for this, but since I am, may I make an observation?”
“Please, enlighten us.” Justin’s tone was half a step from sarcastic.
She rolled her eyes. “You’re a stubborn jackass. Anyone ever tell you that?”
And the conversation was deteriorating again. “Could the two of you not, with the drifting off topic?”
“I’m done.” Emily leaned in and rested her forearms on the desk. “But here’s my point— unless you want board-approved contractors, you’re under a hiring freeze until said board is happy with your work? What’s stopping you from bringing in a third party, off the books? If you want this, and you’re willing to foot the bill, pay them out of your own pocket. Even if you only get an extra ten hours a week, it has to be better than the fractured time you’re pulling from your people now.”
Justin shook his head. “I’m still waiting for your word that news about PP doesn’t go back to Grant until it’s ready.”
“One more time, for those of you in the back.” She looked between them. “On the record, all I care about is that you meet your beta with a working product. If you’re on track, there’s nothing for me to tell Grant. Lie about being on schedule, do something like pull a UI developer for a two-day focus group they shouldn’t be running—things like that, and you’ll crash and burn at release time. We all fail if that happens.” She furrowed her brow while she chewed her bottom lip. “And you should know Grant already suspects you’re working on something else. He put the doubt in my head, not the other way around. You need to keep a lower profile.”
This wasn’t the best news, but given the circumstances, Antonio would take it. “Everything is out in the open now, and we’re all on the same page? No more secrets?”
Emily looked at Justin, who raised his brows before turning to Antonio. “None,” Justin said.
“Wonderful.” Antonio wasn’t in the mood to wonder if he should analyze that exchange. “We wasted half our night, but at least someone got laid and we got something accomplished.” He turned to Em. “When you come in tomorrow, we’ll be good?” He softened his tone. “No awkward pauses or not looking me in the eye?” It was going to be a long time before he let the image of her straddling Justin fade, but he didn’t need that interfering with everyday life.
“No promises, but I’ll try. Do you need anything else from me?” she said.
“No. Thank you.”
“Ditto here,” Justin chimed in.
“’Night. Both of you.” She stood and crossed the room, but paused in the doorway. “Sorry. One teensy, tiny thing.”
Justin almost looked amused.
“What’s that?” Antonio asked.
“PP is based on your standard engine, isn’t it? Same data structure but enhanced algorithm?” The shyness was gone, and she stood a little taller.
“That’s correct.” Antonio was curious now.
She nodded toward Justin’s desk. “That query doesn’t return consumer results. It’s calculating at the vendor level.”
Antonio’s eyes grew wide when he realized that one, Justin had been careless enough to leave a print out of PP code on his desk, and two, Emily was right. She must have read it upside-down and only seen two-thirds of it and absorbed it while talking to them. All without neither Justin nor Antonio noticing.
“How do you know we want consumer trends?” Justin snatched the printout and tucked it into a folder.
“I don’t.” Emily leaned her weight against the doorframe. “But anonymous vendor info filtered by user buying habits doesn’t return the kind of data I’ve seen you chart.”
Christ, she really was sexy. The code she was talking about had haunted Antonio for several days. His version worked, but it was too slow. Justin was a second set of eyes to help him optimize it. “How would you do it?” Antonio wanted to know. “That is, if you’ve got another five minutes.”
She seemed to consider the question, then stepped back into the room. “What the hell. I’m not billing you right now anyway.”
“I appreciate that,” Justin said dryly.