Steve and I had been working long hours all week. We started early and worked late. This was an important contract for our company. Our boss, half jokingly, said don't come back to the office until everything is installed and working perfectly. It was early Friday afternoon and we were just now installing the last of the software.
Steve looked up from the monitor, 'I wonder how serious Sid was when he said not to come back to the office unless this was all running perfectly.'
'I don't know, but we have at least a half day of work in just checking the equipment set up and installation one more time and. . .'
'And we should run all the software and make sure there aren't any bugs.'
'Yeah, we should run it over night at least.'
'Clint, why don't you call Sid and tell him that we have about two more days of work before this is wrapped up.'
I was on the phone with Sid, 'Steve, Sid suggests we stay until the job is finished.'
'Damn! I was afraid he's say that. Well, I don't have anyone or anything on for the weekend. How about you?'
'Me neither. Glad I don't have a wife and family. Want me to tell Sid that's what we'll do?'
'Yeah, I guess so.' Steve smiled ruefully, 'I could use the overtime, I guess.'
Before I hung up the phone, I told Sid that Steve and I would work through the weekend and that we should finish about noon on Sunday. I walked back over to where Steve was seated at the monitor.
'Sid strongly suggested we stay over through Monday just to make sure everything is working o.k.'
Steve looked up at me, 'This is just like working for the telephone or power company. Lots of mandatory overtime.' He shrugged and rolled his shoulders.
'Why don't you take a break?
He stood and I slipped into the chair in front of the monitor.
'I guess I should call the hotel and tell them we'll need our room through Monday night.'
'Good idea, Steve. Although, I haven't seen much of my room, I'd hate to be without it.'
'Yeah, about all I've done is shower, change clothes and sleep. And I haven't done much sleeping either.'
We worked through the afternoon. Steve stretched in the chair, 'Let's knock of at the regular time for once. I'd like to eat a leisurely meal and have a couple of drinks for a change.'
'Sounds like a plan. I'd like to hit the fitness center. I haven't worked out since we got here Sunday afternoon. And the center was packed then.'
'I should work out too, Clint. I'd probably sleep better.'
'Why don't we work out a couple of hours after we have dinner?'
'O.K. I'm just about finished here. Once this software is running in the test mode, we can leave.'
'I'll get with the contracting officer and tell them we're working through the weekend and that we'll need access.'
Jillian, the CO was surprised, and pleased, that we were going to work through weekend. She made arrangements with the security desk so the weekend guards would let us in the building and she got us a couple of special visitor's passes.
'We're all set, Steve.' I gave him his pass.
He typed a couple of commands then pressed the enter key. 'There it goes. Hopefully, when we come back in the morning, it will have run without any problems.' He leaned back in the chair and stretched. 'Man, my shoulders are stiff.'
I started to massage his neck and shoulders. He didn't object. When I finished, Steve stood up and flexed his shoulders, 'You do good work. That felt good.'
When we got back to the hotel, we cleaned up and ate dinner. I ordered a bottle of wine with dinner. After dinner, we went to the hotel bar. It was very quiet. This was a business hotel so there were few weekend guests. We had one drink, decided it was too quiet and decided to change clothes and work out.
The fitness center, like the rest of the hotel, was pretty quiet. There were six or eight guys working out and we could hear the showers in the locker room. Steve and I took our time and worked our way through all of the stations on the various machines.
Steve wiped his face and the handles on the equipment, 'I should sleep well tonight.'
'I think I'll hit the steam room for a little bit.'
'Care if I join you?'