I know. I know that’s no help, but I’m at a loss.”

Tony said, “I just got off the phone with Mr. president, SIR! – he had just finished his little e-broadcast telling everyone to go home. He called me to check up on the payroll and I asked if we could delay running it a few days in view of events. He said no, that it had to run as scheduled and it better run right or BOTH our jobs would be on the chopping block. He was pretty firm – Jeff, I hate to ask, but can you stay with me for a few hours and see if we can get this damned thing to work?”

My first reaction was one which I (of course) kept inside, which was “Aw, sheee-it, man!” My second reaction was a slight glimmer of hope. For that, you have to understand something about me and about my boss, Tony Solacio.

First, I am gay, but I am not out at work. I figured out soon after I landed this plum job (which was a big step up for me) that the corporate culture here was extremely homophobic. If I had known that going in, I might not have taken the job, but the money is so good and the career advancement so limitless. I also was frankly attracted to the idea of working closely with Tony. He had been hired about a month before I was, and I had already done two rounds of interviews before he came into the process. The minute I saw him I wanted to work for him – and do a lot more for him, and with him, if possible.

He is not tall, about 5’9” or 5’10”, with a compact, wiry body that is still nicely shaped. He fills out a polo shirt and tight jeans quite attractively on our casual Fridays. He is just over 30 and single, and I am just under 30, also unattached. He is Sicilian/Lebanese, and has olive skin and very black wavy hair. His hair is so thick and grows so fast that he keeps an electric razor in his desk, and often has to shave at lunch if he has a meeting in the afternoon, and still show heavy stubble by quitting time. I already mentioned those huge dark eyes, which he now has turned on me full blast as he asks me to work over, with his lower lip almost quivering. He looks like he wants to crawl up in my lap and suck his thumb, and I certainly wouldn’t object, especially to the sucking part, of his thumb or anything else…but he doesn’t know that – as I said, I am not out at work.

I leaned back and stretched out my long legs and said, “Well, Tony, you know me by now – I’ll do anything to help out. Especially since I took the train in this morning, and now I’ve no way to get home. I may well be here all weekend anyway, so I guess I can work as late as we need to.”

Tony flashed a grin that made him look exactly like one of the Mediterranean pirates he was doubtless descended from. “Oh, man,” he said, “I knew I could count on you – let’s get this place locked down and get going – we’ll lick this thing together!” He was all boyish, competitive, cocksure enthusiasm, and I knew he had no clue as to what things of his I