The Alpha For Her

“Fair enough,” he said, smiling and sitting back. “Your momentum seems to be propelling you three somewhere. That’s good. That’s very good; collaboration and teamwork. I can’t wait to see your design.”

“You’ll have it in about an hour,” Jennifer said.

“You have until six.”

“We also have confidence,” Candy said.

“Okay. Anything I can do to help?”

“Yes,” Candy said. “Would you take a course entitled The Phallus in History?”

Flint stared. Billie was the first to giggle, then the other two erupted. Flint couldn’t help but chuckle himself. Then, shaking his head, he smiled, wished them luck and left them. But, for just a moment, his gaze slid to Jennifer’s wet shirt, and was enough to send that pulse waving through Jennifer once again.

“That,” Candy said as soon as the man was out of sight, “was thoroughly enjoyable.”

“It was,” Billie said. “It was fun watching him try not to squirm. But he did well, don’t you think, Jen? — Jen?”

“Oh, no,” Candy said. “I’ve seen that look before. JJ, check this one out; Detangling the Business of Black Women’s Hair.”

“Whaa?” Jennifer said, snapping back into the scene. “Let me see.”

At five twenty-five, the three gave their submission a final review.

“We sure that we want to go with that team name?” Jen asked.

“Absolutely,” Candy said. “It’s most assuredly absurd, as is our submission, as was this ‘off-the-cuff’ competition.”

“Billie?”

Billie just smiled, shrugged and nodded. And so at precisely five thirty Jennifer hit ‘send’, and as one the three sighed and collapsed in their chairs, feeling a weight lift.

“Right,” Candy said. “Who’s for a swim?”

“I think I’ll get a real bathing suit,” Jen said.

Her hallway was as closed and as somber as a dormitory before final exams. Jennifer almost felt a little smug. She dressed in a modest black one-piece swimsuit with a boat neck, a vee of mesh running down the middle, modestly showing off a bit of cleavage.

The three were the only ones at the pool. As the sun dipped low in the west, waiters came out and began setting the tables for dinner. And then, the area that had been all theirs for most of the day, soon became alive with people.

“Must be after six,” Candy said.

The attendees emerged from their solitude in threes and twos, nearly everyone looking bedraggles and worn. But one major exception was Bea. The pudgy little blonde was all bubbles and glee as she strode to the diving board.

“Jennifer,” she cried before executing an adequate dive.

The splash and wake she left was substantial. She swam underwater to come up before Jen. She wore a one-piece halter “Hey, girl. How’d it go for you?”

“Awesome,” Jen said. “But more to the point, how did your interview with Dryzek go?”

“Awesome,” Bea said. “I was so nervous at first, I was actually shaking. And then he started – but, I’m sorry. I’m not supposed to say. Flint told me that, while it was cool to help others, he needed the element of surprise. Or, something like that.”

“Surprise?”

“Yeah. So, anyway, I left feeling so uplifted and so empowered, that I decided to take on the project alone. It was super. Let me tell you about it…”

And she did. She went on and on about architecture and navigation aids and help boxes, and Jennifer wondered about how many enthusiastic people had designed new and better mousetraps that ended up being far too complex for a simple task.

“Sounds…interesting,” Jennifer said.

“It’s not going to win any awards,” Bea said. “I’m sure of that. But it was all mine, and it met the criteria, and I’m feeling good.”

“That’s what counts.”

“So what did you guys do?”

“We went totally absurd.”

But just then, a small bell tinkled, signaling the start of the dinner service. Bea joined Jen and Candy at their table. The staff had placed their gear neatly aside, and there was a lovely little floral arrangement. Billie sat at a table with Billy.

“Rats,” Candy said.

“You knew that about her,” Jen replied.

“Yeah, but I was hoping that after working together…I don’t know.”

“Hoping what?” Bea asked, wide-eyed.

“Oh,” Candy said, nonchalantly. “Nothing. Just, well, we worked so well together.”

“You feel a camaraderie,” Bea said, nodding. “I totally get that. That fellow feeling can be precious, particularly among women. I remember back in school–”

“May I ask,” Candy said, “what college you attended?”

“Smith.”

“Really?”

“Oh, my goodness,” Jennifer said. “You have to try this soup.”

And so the meal went; Candy joking and laughing and flirting with Bea, while Bea laughed and joked, totally oblivious to being flirted with.

After the desert was cleared, Lois called for everyone’s attention.

“Mr. Dryzek,” she began, “asks me to pass along his congratulations on one-hundred percent, on-time compliance with the little task he had set before you. The winner will be announced at breakfast – which will be here on the patio, and casual.”

There was a smattering of applauds.

“Meanwhile,” she continued, “Tomiko and I, along with some others will be holding some small seminars about the grounds this evening. Your servers are passing out the schedules…”

And so Lois began to read the schedule that everyone had in their hands. Jennifer looked at the list and found a few things that excited her. And while she had hoped to spend the evening relaxing after their project, she understood that this was a working vacation. She looked up to ask Candy what she might be interested in, but Candy was leaning over Bea’s schedule, looking studious and nodding, saying,

“I think I like that one too.”

Jennifer quietly drifted off to a session called Reaching Out: Attracting Diversity. During the first few minutes, she wondered if it was out of their absurd college courses, but then she saw that it was geared mainly to white people. Still, she took away some tips. Her second session was on watermarking your website.

Too often, pirates would steal your work and post it on their own sites, claiming that “my friend Jenny simply had to share this with me”, and so take away eyeballs. Watermarking was a way to put a logo, or a disclaimer on your video that told the viewer that the material was copyrighted. Jen took copious notes and saved every handout and download.