Somehow, I had to finish a big report before the end of the week. Everyone in the office was tense. It was going to be a difficult sprint to Friday.

The only way I could make it to the deadline, I decided, was to find an extra working day before Friday. This is why, before going to sleep, I set my phone alarm for 3:30 AM. I could get an extra three hours of work in.

The phone woke me up. I pulled myself out of my warm bed and stumbled downstairs to the kitchen in darkness. Desperate times call for desperate measures so I made two cups of coffee. I carried the coffee upstairs, trying to make as little sounds as I could. My housemates were asleep, like all the other sane people in London.

Setting the coffees down on the chest of drawers, I booted up the laptop and opened my report files. I finally rubbed the sleep from my eyes and saw in the corner of my laptop screen — 1:12 AM.

What?!

I picked up my phone.

‘1 new message’, it flashed.

I had been sent a message at 1 AM.

I sighed and shut the laptop lid. Ignoring the two cups of hot coffee, I crawled back under the covers. I’ll have cold coffee to drink in two hours.