Alonzo Mattel had been an employee of Green Thought Creative Web Designs for almost five years before the competitor, Thought Roar Web Designs Inc., came to be the next leading web design software on the market. Alonzo worked tirelessly and without complaint on most days. Customer complaints about slow software updates, crashing lines of code for a new client design, even the occasional bad email sent around the office that caused more scowls than comic relief was went Alonzo had come to know and love working for this company.

Green Thought Creative Web Designs was established in 2003, with Alonzo joining the company as a start-up technicians a few months after the company got their feet on the ground. He had just graduated from his rinky-dink university out in the middle of Arizona, left his longtime boyfriend, Larz, over an altercation involving their parents meeting at graduation, and had little to his name. After joining Green Thought Creative Web Designs, he thought his life would change, especially being in a city like San Diego where the possibilities were endless.

Well, things didn’t really change until around June of 2008, just a few weeks from the notorious gay pride day in the most flamboyant city around for the time. Green Thought Creative Web Designs was on the rise in sales, due to the increase in internet activity over the years and the initiative to all the do-it-yourselfers out there, San Diego was becoming more open to all sorts of individuals than in the previous years, and Alonzo started to receive mysterious messages on his work IM chat from an unknown person who simply went by the name of Bryce.

ProfessionalBryce83: Hey, Alonzo.

Taken back by this strange familiarity in an unknown user name, Alonzo waited a mere three hours before deciding to respond to the IM message that work day in June.

ProfessionalAlonzo86: Hello, Bryce. Is there something I can assist you with? I’m assuming you’re in the system, but I am unfamiliar with who you are in the company.

ProfessionalBryce83: No, Alonzo, there is nothing of particular importance that I need assistance with. In all honesty, I thought this might be the best way to contact you. Kevin, in the financial department, led me to your company IM so that I may become your acquaintance.

Acquaintance over the company IM struck odd to Alonzo, considering the company was still moderately medium in size despite the enormous company demand rocketing in the previous months. Alonzo knew almost every person within the company, especially the company located in San Diego and being a veteran employee. Had there been a new hire recently that Alonzo missed at the monthly briefings?

ProfessionalBryce83: My apologies, Alonzo, I guess I should have stated that I am the newest employee who was hired this most recent quarter we are currently working to close.

Alonzo was taken aback by this mind reading the man known as Bryce was doing. He scanned the office area to see if anyone was visibly snickering or trying to avoid his gaze of confession. Nothing. He went back to his screen.

ProfessionalAlonzo86: No worries, Bryce. It is simply my fault for being unaware of the hiring situation this upcoming close of the quarter. It is nice to finally have your acquaintance.

ProfessionalBryce83: It is, Alonzo. I hope we can become close.

The word close sat in Alonzo’s mind for longer than it should have. Nobody at Green Thought Creative Web Designs knew that he was attracted to men, and although Alonzo was on good repute with almost everyone in the office, grabbing drinks frequently, various house parties or weddings, he hadn’t gotten particularly intimate about his personal life with any of his coworkers.

Alonzo closed the IM tab on his desktop and continued with the technical coding of the current new client project he had been assigned to, a website for active gays seeking companionship.

The days, precisely three, passed before another IM message from Bryce popped on Alonzo’s desktop screen.

ProfessionalBryce83: How is your day, Alonzo?

That unfamiliar skipped beat in Alonzo’s chest cavity, the one that feels like the heart choked on the blood coursing through it. He had never felt that twinge with any other company IM chat, but something about Bryce unsettled him.

ProfessionalAlonzo86: Normal on the technical end. How about yours, Bryce? Do you have any questions I could maybe help you with? I’m sorry, I’m still not sure which department you are in yet.

ProfessionalBryce83: Numbers have me bogged down over in financials, which I should have said is the department I am currently in. I have my degree in web design, but my focus was also in the technical spectrum. Any ideas of when a position of that sort could come about?

Alonzo focused in on the word also regarding the technical spectrum of his web design degree he had obtained in Arizona. New and veteran employees didn’t have access to that sort of information, so was it simply a good guess on Bryce’s end?

ProfessionalBryce83: Wow, I am really making myself out to be a creep, aren’t I? I shouldn’t have mentioned your degree. I simply overheard Kevin stating your focus in the lunch room one day after I received your contact information. He said you would know the most information being one of the veteran employees since the launch of the company.

Relief swept across Alonzo’s face. Kevin did know about his degree focus, being a veteran employee himself in the financial department. Although not particularly close with any of his coworkers, they tended to know some information.

ProfessionalAlonzo86: That’s great to hear about your interest in a technical position, especially with the profound growth we’ve had. Unfortunately, we have no available positions at the moment. When one does open in the future, I will consider your peak of interest before looking at outside hiring. We must keep it in the Green Thought Creative Web Designs family first. Ha!

ProfessionalBryce83: We have a jokester, do we? I would enjoy hearing more of them.

Alonzo froze on the keyboard, unable to contemplate an appropriate response.

ProfessionalBryce83: What type of growth is the technical department expecting for this next quarter?

Alonzo was able to compose himself to answer the less direct message.

ProfessionalAlonzo86: If all goes as projected for the upcoming quarter, we will have over 25,000 new customers inquiring about web creation software ranging from design to cost efficiency and rate of response.

ProfessionalBryce83: Is there new software the company is trying to push into the market?

ProfessionalAlonzo86: Currently we have technicians working on a new line of software called Green Push that will help move along the operating of the new customer websites at a more efficient speed, add more color options, layout designs, overall hassle-free money operations on the client’s end, as well as more possibilities with coding in other aspects. Have you heard of the competing company, Thought Roar Web Designs Inc? If not, consider their platforms for technical software. They have little idea of what is coming to our market and how much it will change their customer’s choice in choosing a company that is more progressive.

ProfessionalBryce83: I’ve known about their software for a while. What other differences in software are there that I should be informed on before the possibility of being transferred in the future?

ProfessionalAlonzo86: Everything is a difference between us. In the financial department, Kevin may be the better person to explain this. What I know is that our cost performance versus other factors, that include the ability to incorporate artist designs, saves more money in the long-term, due to effective budgeting. The CEO is also great at giving us internal links to potential customers, especially ones that have a growing clientele that need a bigger company to handle their new designs or approaches. I attached the spreadsheet of these known clientele to outreach towards in this message. Research them and see what they need and you’ll understand why Green Thought Creative Web Designs is on the path to higher success, without the competition.

ProfessionalBryce83: Incredible, Alonzo. I appreciate this information. I didn’t realize how much extra homework in research I had to do! Let me know of anything else that begins to pop-up over these next few days heading into the new quarter. I want to be a bigger help in any area to better understand our clients and the ways to progress the company.

ProfessionalBryce83: I would also love to know where you got your tie from. The sage and lavender compliments you elegantly.

Alonzo felt that twinge in his chest as his stomach slowly flopped. Frustration of not knowing what Bryce’s intentions were behind the messages that pushed the boundaries, as well as the respect of hard work and an underlying tone of sexual curiosity simmered in his mind as he closed out of the web browser for the day.

*

ProfessionalBryce83, better known as Damarion McCarron, the Vice President of Thought Roar Designs Inc., reclined in his black leather swivel chair with his arms resting behind his unshaven neck as he closed out the IM chat that he had been hacked into for the almost last week.

Just a few more days, Damarion, you sly dog, he murmured to himself.