Everyone that crossed William’s path was
always amused by what he did for a living: he was the marketing manager in a
company that sold condoms called Phalanx. He was very popular at parties,
telling one and ten stories about the funny things that happened both in his
department and in the factory where the condoms where actually made. He even
knew some other stories about people that had called the Phalanx hotline in
order to ask silly questions that no one ever knew if they were real or false.
The point was that he had a lot of fun at work
and out of it. However, for a person that saw condoms so often at work, he
didn’t really get to use a lot. In one of those ironies of life, William had
not had a real sexual encounter in a long time. He was a very busy person and
he always failed to have time to party or socialize except for the events
hosted by Phalanx. The few times he met people was in those parties but they
were always funny for a while but not for the long haul.
Every single Monday at the office, they held
pitching sessions in which any of the employees of the company could present
new ideas to make the product more attractive. Normally, they would laugh a lot
more than do actual work but sometimes, once every six months almost, they got
a very clever idea that could easily become a big thing in the world of
condoms. Anyhow, it was a very fun thing to be in and most people were very
serious about their ideas.
There was the typical things like making
condoms into different sizes or different flavors and colors, but then they
were the crazy people telling them to sell condom certain foods in
supermarkets, or not only having flavors but also smells, which everyone
thought was absolutely awful. They laughed a lot the time that someone proposed
to print images on the condoms and even the possibility of personalizing them
with your signature. It seemed like a good idea but it wasn’t.
There were some good ones like having a guy
dressed like a penis or condom in some popular area and make him do funny
dances and stuff and then handing out pamphlets about how important it was to
use condoms. Others had made proposals about the packaging and image that they
were really considering. As in any industry, they needed to keep innovating and
doing different stuff or they would get obsolete.
But there was one presenter William remembered
for weeks after they moved on. William had always identified as a straight man
but somehow that man had captivated him and he had no idea why. It was
something more than looks and his idea. It was something he could really
pinpoint.
The man’s idea was very simple: in each one of
the condom packaging’s, putting a drawing of a different position in order to
kind of make it like a challenge towards the couple that was going to use the
prophylactic. Everyone received the proposal to mild enthusiasm and only
William seemed to be distracted by the guy that was in front of him. For weeks,
he had him inside his head moving around, appearing in the weirdest moments and
it was a long time after that, when they were executing some of the ideas
people had pitched, when he realized why he thought of him so much: he knew
him.
That day, after all work was done, he went to
the archive room and asked fro the file on that man. Apparently, he had been
working in the office for as long as William had been there. He was his same
age and had gone to the same college too. The difference was that that guy
hadn’t been able to ascend in the company whereas William had climbed that
ladder a lot faster than anyone else ever before. He was very talented at what
he did.
When he got home that day, he was relieved to
realized he didn’t like the guy for his looks or something like that but
because he unconsciously knew something weird about him. He couldn’t really
remember him from any of the classes in college but apparently something inside
his brain did remember him and had been curious to reveal that.
As tired as he was, William relaxed that day
with a bubble bath. He was so tired that he fell asleep inside and only woke up
because he was slowly sinking into the water. When he got out of there, he just
dried himself up and fell asleep naked as he was on the bed, above the sheets.
He must have woken up at four in the morning only to crawl under the covers
because of the cold.
After the weekend, he stumbled into his old
college partner in the elevator on the way to his office. It was kind of an
awkward moment: there was some tension between them but William had no idea
why. He knew now that he wasn’t interested in that guy physically and that was
the only thing that had been weird before. But now everything was tension and
looking down to their shoes and it was very strange.
For the rest of that day he didn’t really pay
attention to anything else because his mind was still trying to understand what
had happened in that elevator. He tried to remember anything about that man but
he just couldn’t remember him in college. Maybe crossing him one or twice in
the hallways but that was it. He was so distracted during the pitching session
that day, that he missed every single one of the funny presentations. His
fellow managers would laugh and he would just smile.
The following day, he was lucky enough to have
dinner with a friend from college he had not seen in a while. She had always
been one of his best friends back in college and now she worked out of the
country in a job that paid very well. So they got together and talked and
laughed and drank and ate. It was a very fun evening. When the dessert was
brought to them, William remembered the man from his office and instantly asked
his friend about him. He described him as well as he could and she was
surprised by the degree of detail he was able to give her.
His friend had no idea of whom he was talking
about. Then, William looked for a picture on his cellphone and showed it to
her. Crazy as it seemed, William had taken a picture of the file on the guy in
order to remember his face the next time he saw him and now he got to show to
his friend so he didn’t see how awkward it was.
Then, she immediately recognized him. Trying
not to laugh at her friend for having some random guy’s picture on his
cellphone, she reminded him that that guy had been a good friend of the people
they used to hang out with during college. He would even go to some parties
with them although she didn’t even remember his name. He wasn’t a particularly
social person but she knew she had seen him a number of times around there with
them.
William thought about that for a long time. He
looked at the guy’s picture that night before going to bed and then spent a
good half hour trying to sleep but really thinking about why he had no idea of
who that person was. The next day at the office, he got the rumor that many
people were being laid off because the company had decided to wipe out a whole
section in order to make room for new people that were going to be in charge of
social media and such.
As he went to get coffee, he saw the guy from
college with a single box, eyes very red, standing in front of the elevator. He
had no idea why, but he walked towards him and asked what was wrong. The guy
was obviously surprised to see William but he just answered the question: he
had been fired. William offered to help him with the box and in the time from there
to the first floor, he was able to remember who that guy was.
They had kissed once in a party. William had
been very drunk. He was sure to have vomited at least a couple of times that
night. And somehow, in between all that, they had kissed. He gave the box to
the guy and told him to call him if he needed any help. The guy seemed confused
by that and honestly William was too. He didn’t know why he had said it but he
thought it was the right thing to do.
