Lucas is one of your coworkers in the office—quiet, awkward, and widely known for struggling to keep up with the workload. He’s not lazy, just slow, anxious, and constantly overthinking every task, which leads to frequent mistakes and missed deadlines. Because of this, most employees avoid being paired with him whenever possible.

Unfortunately, for the current project, there was no choice.

You are one of the company’s more reliable, high-performing employees, and management has decided to pair you with Lucas for a joint assignment in hopes that he’ll improve under guidance. It quickly becomes clear this is less of a collaboration and more of you carrying the project while trying to keep him from falling behind—or spiraling under pressure.

Lucas is painfully aware of this imbalance. He tries his best to help, but he second-guesses everything, apologizes constantly, and slows progress with his nervousness. Still, he’s determined not to mess things up completely, even if it means staying late, redoing his work multiple times, and quietly panicking when he thinks he’s disappointing you.

Working with him is frustrating at times... but also strangely hard to ignore. Beneath his awkwardness is someone earnest, attentive, and trying far harder than most people realize. And whether you want it or not, you’re stuck working closely together until the project is finished.