A Well-Defined Interface

This story was originally written for the April 2024 "On The Job Challenge 2024" event.

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real places, people, companies, products, etc. is purely coincidental.

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"By the way, a fun fact," said a tall, sandy blond man in his late thirties, with a narrow face and a long, aquiline nose. "Did you know that some people commute to this office by kayak?"

He pointed outside, through a window of the cafeteria, towards a small pier jutting into a river that was no wider than maybe a hundred feet. Sure enough, there was a kayak stand nearby, and it looked like it could be seeing some use from time to time.

"Cool," Tom said, slicing away a piece of crispy bacon on his plate. "I suppose that's not your method, though?"

"I wish," the other man said with a laugh. "It's just plain ol' traffic for me, half an hour each way."

"What about you, Lingyun?"

"Same as James here, I'm afraid," an older, lightly wrinkled man spoke in a slight Cantonese accent. He had wispy, salt-and-pepper hair that gave his prominent Asian features a look of timeless sagacity. "Only about fifteen minutes, though. My wife and I live in the city, so I usually just take the bus."

"That's not too bad," Tom said, smiling wryly at the two men. It was all idle chit-chat but also a very familiar theme — one that he had heard many variations of, over several years that he'd been working at this company.

Tom couldn't really complain, of course. Straight out of college, he managed to land a great job at a multi-national IT corporation, well known for a friendly yet challenging work environment and lots of generous perks for its talented employees. Fast-forward to now and he was a well-paid software engineer with a few years under his belt, having worked on quite a few projects in his time and visited many of the company's numerous offices.

Anywhere he went, the work environment he'd seen was always tastefully and colorfully arranged, and it also included tons of unusual and amusing features. Their alleged purpose was to stimulate the brilliant minds who worked there on a plethora of very difficult problems, and to foster serendipitous collaboration between them that could leverage all possible synergies — or, uh, something along these lines. But if there was one thing Tom had learned during his tenure here, it was that all those pool tables, climbing walls, onsite gyms, free meals, tropical gardens, well-stocked snack stations, and all the other attractions really had one primary purpose to their existence.

They were there to keep the employees in the office as long as possible, so that they devoted bigger chunks of their lives to the company than they otherwise would. Most people didn't actually use those gimmicks very much, at least if they wanted to receive a half-decent performance rating. Still, if one were fully aware of the associated caveats, Tom thought, working here wasn't exactly a terrible deal.

"Hey guys," said a new voice, much younger and more feminine. Tom looked up and saw a glimpse of two shapely legs clad in navy denim pants, just as the woman set her food tray on the table and gracefully sat down next to James. "Sorry, I'm a bit late. People are always slow at the breakfast burrito station."

"No worries," he said, pointing at Tom. "You are just in time to meet our visitor from the Bay Area."

A beautiful, smiling face of a brunette in mid-twenties turned to Tom, regarding him with a friendly curiosity from behind her black contoured glasses.

"Hi, I'm Julia," she said in a pleasant voice, extending her hand over the table. "Well, I guess you've seen me before, over VC..."

"Tom," he said with a smile, shaking her hand gently. "Yes, but it's always much nicer to meet in person."

He lingered just for a moment, noting how the corners of her lips rose almost imperceptibly, as if in a smirk.

"Julia here will be your main point of contact," Lingyun said. "She has basically taken over maintaining the API microservice, at least for now."

"Really?" Tom asked, a bit incredulously. "I thought you were an intern?"

"Uhm, returning intern," she corrected him, a slight blush coloring her cheeks with a healthy shade of pink. "It's my second time here. And that service is just a simple proxy, so nothing too complicated, really..."

"She doesn't give herself enough credit," James chimed in with a chuckle. "Julia practically wrote the damn thing, because I've been way too busy with user privacy stuff to really contribute much."

Julia's blush deepened, making her cute face even more lovely. "Aaaanyway," she drawled back to Tom, "since your frontend will be talking to this proxy, I guess you'll need to deal with me if you encounter any problems."

Tom found himself totally unopposed to the prospect of collaborating with Julia. Her obvious aptitude, sharp mind, and playful demeanor would definitely make the job easier and much more pleasant than he had expected.

Not to mention that she was absolutely gorgeous.

When the whole group stood up and shuffled itself into an orderly file, lining up to drop the dishes before they left the cafe, Tom was finally able to check out the cute intern properly.

Julia was maybe five-foot-seven, a bit shorter than Tom's own five-eleven. She had a seemingly slight build with dainty features, but upon closer look Tom noticed that she was no stranger to exercise. Her body was trim and tight in all the right places, and it was difficult for him not to stare at the delightful pendulum of her peachy, swaying butt. For some reason, probably to make it even harder on himself, he recalled the few glances he'd managed to steal down her open jacket and upon the white blouse she was wearing. Inside, the enticing swell of her breasts stretched the material and molded it around two cantaloupe-sized globes, quite a bit bigger than you'd expect from a girl of her stature.

Thankfully, Tom would eventually find a few distractions on the way to his temporary working area. The onsite coffee shop was one, where he considered grabbing another (free) cappuccino to ease the slight timezone adjustment after his flight yesterday. For now, though, he decided against it. Everyone else, including Julia, was already heading back to their desks.

"Here's your guest workstation," James pointed at the pristine computer desk, two large monitors plus mouse and keyboard sitting on the spotless white surface. "Julia's got one right next to you, which should be quite convenient. If you happen to need help getting the API calls right, you can always just ask her."

"Very nice," Tom said, dropping his backpack and adjusting the height of his new desk. In the corner of his vision, he saw Julia take a seat and practically attack the keyboard with her dexterous fingers, typing what had to be a mile-long password in a blink of an eye. Almost unconsciously, his gaze drifted to the tantalizing curve of her bosom, and he had to deliberately press his eyelids together to stop staring and focus on his work.

Right, work...

Tom was a frontend software engineer. It was a fancy name for a guy who makes websites that both look nice and work correctly, or at least do so most of the time. There was something of an art to it, especially if you didn't have a dedicated designer to mock-up the look & feel of the final product, but most the job was just a specific flavor of software engineering.

And like all such flavors, the job was mainly about code. It meant writing code, running code, testing code, debugging code, fixing code, reviewing code, committing code, and trying not to curse too much when looking at someone else's bad code. Never mind that "someone else" could often be Tom himself, from anywhere between three months to several years ago.

"So, is this the UI prototype?" he heard Julia's voice, next to the sound of wheels rolling on the carpet as she slid her chair next to his. "It looks great."

"Yeah," Tom said, feeling it was him who was blushing now. "With fake data, of course, but it has pretty much all the features. This is the overall route view," he said, gesturing to the screen that showed a map with several pins and a crooked line going through them, "and if you click on any of the points of interest, you get detailed info about the place, the activities you can do there, the pricing, and so on..."

"It's really nice," she said, and for some reason it was making Tom's heart flutter. "Can't wait until we plug the actual data sources in there. Let me know if you need anything, like if the docs are unclear or outdated. I'll be delighted to help!"

He looked at Julia then, and saw her beaming a wide smile. 'Delighted,' huh? What a curious choice of words...

"I... I won't hesitate," he said, not entirely sure why he stuttered.

"Alright, let's see if you can get this to work!" she said, still smiling, as she put on her headphones and concentrated on her own tasks.

Tom let out a quiet sigh, lingering for a moment while he admired the curvaceous profile of his beautiful co-worker, then immediately focused his full attention on the job.

After all, Julia was counting on him.

***

Tom's project — or rather, the project that his home team was working on, in collaboration with the server crew he was visiting now — was a kind of entertainment / travel app.

You'd give it an area, like a city or a national park; a particular time frame, like an afternoon or a week; the maximum amount of money you were willing to spend; and some short list of categories, like sightseeing, hiking or clubbing. It would then build you a route that hits as many affordable places of interest as it could fit, all matching your criteria.

In theory, you could make it act as a guide through the most interesting monuments of Rome from the times of Julius Caesar, or as your virtual wingman while you hit the trendiest clubs in Ibiza.

This was the elevator pitch at least, or a short summary that a product manager could hammer into a feasible app design. But to someone like Tom, who was far removed from the nitty-gritty of gathering and organizing all the billion pieces of information that made it possible, this was basically an app like any other. It took input from the user, fetched the necessary data from the server, and displayed the output in some predefined fashion.

Input and output. In, and out.

"You are giving it an invalid category_id," Julia said, frowning at the long list of labels and values where each pair was separated by a colon. "It has to be something you get from that other request."

"Oh, I see," Tom said, a little flustered. "So I can't just assume that those category IDs don't change..."

"Nope, sorry," she replied, flashing him a quirky, half-apologetic smile. "I can't make it too easy on you now, can I?"

"Ahem, right," he responded, letting out a slightly nervous chuckle. "Where would be the challenge in that?"

"Mhm," she agreed, giving him a playful wink. "But wait, don't start on this now; I think we are going for lunch," she added, pointing at the two other guys who were already standing up and getting ready to leave.

"Sounds like a plan," Tom said, once again following Julia's perky butt and sensing a rather uncomfortable tightness growing in his boxer briefs. He figured it'd be safer to catch up and walk side by side, allowing perhaps for a bit of idle conversation.

To his pleasant surprise, Julia was very amenable, even when Tom's questions followed her answers rather deeply into her personal life. He learned that she was soon to start her final year of Computer Science at the local university; that she was living in a dorm with a slightly annoying roommate who had a penchant for hooking up with random guys and being way too loud about it; and that Julia herself was sort of in between relationships right now, and not actively looking.

"I don't think a girl like you would ever need to actively look," he blurted out, then realized it might not have been the most appropriate comment, though definitely in line with the tone of their conversation. "Uh, I mean..."

"Why thank you," she said simply, giving him a cute smile. "I'm sure you don't suffer from lack of attention either."

Tom stifled a gasp, trying not to show how elated he was at her compliment. While he was by no means ugly, and he spent enough time in the company-provided gym to maintain a decent physique, he was never really a ladies' man. Right now, for example, he was sort of in between relationships as well, and the prospects for a change in this area didn't look all that great either.

"Well, you know how it is with us nerds," he replied with a chuckle. "The 'attention' you speak of doesn't come quite as easily as we'd like..."

"Really? I wouldn't have guessed," she teased him, "because you definitely got mine..."

Tom wished he could replay what Julia had said there, without the din of the cafeteria they have just entered. What was that tone of voice, exactly? Was it just a friendly tease, or was she perhaps... flirting with him?

As he stood in the noisy line for food, Tom tried to clear his mind of the naughty thoughts he now had about Julia. What kind of panties was she wearing? Her denim trousers didn't give any hints there, even though they were tight enough to nicely accentuate the shape of her butt. And was it a push-up bra that made her breasts look so captivating? Tom hoped it was just a regular one, and that her awesome boobs were just as soft and squeezable as he was imagining them...

"Eww, steamed kale again?" James's voice knocked him out of his reverie. "This place is really going to the dogs!"

"I know, right?" Lingyun concurred. "Back in my day, they served a choice of filet mignon or salmon in saffron sauce, pretty much every day!"

"Must have been a magical time," Julia quipped, laughing at their half-serious complaints. Yes, the food as of late may have leaned too much on the healthy rather than hearty side, but it was still fresh, tasty, varied, and free.

While the four of them ate their lunch, they talked about the project's minutia, Tom's trip here, his home team and office, and about other safe and generic topics like that. Tom tried to maintain his focus on the conversation, but with Julia sitting close to him on a crowded bench it wasn't particularly easy.

As more people streamed into the cafe and started looking for any free seats, they all eventually had to huddle even closer. Julia's thigh was now touching Tom's, and his nostrils sensed the delicate floral scent of her perfume. The proximity to his gorgeous colleague was affecting Tom in a big way, and it was gradually getting even bigger. Every once in a while, he had to take a deep breath to calm himself a little, and he managed to brush it off as the food being slightly too spicy for his palate.

It wasn't long until they all finished their portions, no doubt chewing faster than they'd like, just to leave the uncomfortably crowded cafe as soon as possible. After a short stop to grab some ice cream, they returned to their desks and picked up the tasks that their grumbling stomachs had them abandon an hour ago.

Tom got to fixing the category selection, like Julia had advised him, but he found his attention wandering again. Accordingly, his eyes started to wander, too, and many a time they seemed to stray in one direction in particular. As it quickly turned out, a few spots were unusually interesting to Tom's meandering gaze.

Julia's pretty face. Julia's bountiful breasts. Julia's slender neck. Julia's substantial bosom. Julia's lightning-fast fingers. Julia's deliciously round boobs. Julia's toned arms and shoulders. Julia's magnificent tits.

...Julia's message in the corner of Tom's screen?

you are staring. just wanted to let you know ;)

Uh oh.

Crap. Sorry.

Tom risked a glance in her direction, and he saw her do the same. There was a dimple in the corner of her lips.

She was smiling.

are you admiring how focused i am on work? ;)

Another glance, and another smile, now even wider than before.

Yes. That too.

While waiting for her reply, Tom was trying his earnest to appear like he was trying to fix some unruly CSS that was messing up the look of his web app.

really? and what else has picked your interest? ;>

Although some wretched, pedantic part of his brain wanted to correct the spelling mistake, he had more sense than that and replied in a rather more amicable way.

I like your blouse.

Okay, this was definitely skirting the line of a work-appropriate conversation. Tom could only hope that if Julia found his remark off-putting, she wouldn't make a big fuss out of it.

yeah? coz im thinking its not actually the blouse ;)

She was still typing...

perhaps its more about whats underneath? ;p

Welp, now he was totally busted!... Or was he?

I pledge the fifth.

He heard her chuckle.

as you should! now get back to work please :)

Tom had an impulse to reply with a witty retort, then realized it would be best to actually listen to Julia's request. Right now, however, there was no way he'd be able to focus on writing code. His heart was pounding, his throat was parched, and his forehead shone with beads of cold sweat.

He needed a walk, and something to drink, and some water to splash on his face, and most of all someplace else to clear his mind. He grabbed his laptop and stood up, trying his hardest not to look back as he walked away as quickly as possible.

In his hurry, he didn't hear her giggle.

***

For the next hour or so, Tom was avoiding Julia, choosing to hide in one of the many lounge & collaboration areas that the office was peppered with. He got some good work done during this time, including the category ID thing that he had trouble with earlier. Staying in the zone, he was only interrupted by a calendar notification that suddenly popped on his screen.

"Right, it's stand-up time," he mumbled to himself, memorizing the name of the conference room before closing the lid of his laptop. This was a meeting he was definitely expected to attend, as much as it pained him to leave a complex task that he was sure he'd have trouble coming back to later.

Oh well, that was just life in this job.

Finding the correct room proved to be a challenge, as this was totally new and unfamiliar office. He managed to go to a wrong sector of the building despite being on the correct floor, and had to take several extra flights of stairs, down and back up, to finally arrive at the right spot. The rest of the team was already there, all sitting down rather than actually standing up. The name of the meeting was really more of a guideline.

Tom swallowed when he realized that the only available seat was next to Julia.

"Everyone's here, so let's join in," Lingyun said, tapping the small touchscreen that controlled the video conference equipment.

A few moments later, Tom was waving at the familiar faces of his team back home, now displayed on a large TV screen where he would normally appear as well. The two groups exchanged pleasantries and commented on Tom's "switching sides," then proceeded with the usual agenda.

It's been about five minutes into the discussion when he felt a hand sliding up his thigh.

He looked at Julia and saw her curiously engrossed in the TV screen, even though the picture there remained largely unchanged since the meeting began.

Soon thereafter, someone patted his knee.

It obviously couldn't have been Julia, because she was paying careful attention to what everyone else was saying. Still, Tom thought it'd be best to keep his hands off the table and perhaps put them on his lap for now.