Page 21 of Engineering a Love Story

Still, my mood brightens with Howard’s assignment. Market Spotlights are flagship products in Gilroy’s research portfolio, and this will be my first time publishing one as a lead author. Spotlights are meatier reports, more comprehensive than the vendor profiles and other briefs we push out on a weekly basis. A Spotlight will overview the market, key use cases, and all the relevant vendors in online banking.

I thank Howard and leave his office, promising that I’m back on course.

I find Evan and tell him about the Spotlight. He’s thrilled Howard asked for him specifically to work on it with me. Evan’s constant energy makes everyone think he brims with confidence. And it is true he’s always volunteering for projects and is friendly with more people at the office than I am, even though I’ve worked here longer. But I see his insecurities too. Evan worries Howard can’t remember his name and gets his nose bent when he’s not invited to meetings.

“Yes, you and me,” I say. “Do you want to start today? Maybe over lunch?”

Evan nods. “Noodles?” We make a plan to meet later at the noodle place down the street.

***

Back at my desk, I check on Travis Platt. He has his headphones on, as he usually does. Sometimes he teases me, saying he covers his ears all day because he can’t stand hearing me talk about banking. “I mean honestly,” he announced one afternoon, after I’d been sitting next to him for a few months, “the guy in that cube before you? He spoke louder than anyone I’ve ever met. I got these just to get by.” He’d swung his headphones, wires dangling and slapping his desk. “Glad I have them now.”

At that point, I knew Travis well enough to recognize his teasing. “At least people know what banking is,” I countered. “I’ve learned more about networking equipment sitting by you than I ever wanted to know.”

To his credit, Travis makes his research area amusing. I actually enjoy listening to his banter with clients, though I won’t ever admit this to him. With all his jokes about routers and switches, he no doubt injects light into what are the otherwise dreary days of network administrators. His most recent report on networking layers was subtitled: “The LAN Down Under.”

One day before I left for San Francisco, Travis and I had a long lunch. I thanked him for trying to look out for me at The Symp. When I told him I was leaving Ash, he seemed relieved. “Good for you,” he said. “Get yourself back to the city.”

I’d like to spill to Travis now about Seth, but the Gilroy conflict keeps me quiet.

Plus, Travis has his own problems. Not long after I started sitting next to him, he left for a two-week vacation in Japan. When he returned, I began overhearing mid-morning calls where Travis stumbled along in what sounded like halting Japanese.

“What’s going on?” I needled him one day over lunch. “Did you lose your wallet over there or something?” Travis made a pained expression. “Oh. Wait.”

At that point, Travis hadn’t discussed his love life with me. I knew only that he lived in the South End and had never mentioned a romantic partner. That day, he told me about meeting Daisuke in Tokyo. “I went to see the Yomiuri Giants, and I took this tour of the Tokyo Dome before the game. The tours were given by minor league players. Daisuke was my guide.” He fiddled with his bangs. “I couldn’t be sure, you know? The Japanese are pretty conservative. But then I asked if he had any recommendations for dinner and he offered to go with me.” Here Travis allowed a brief smile. “We traded emails and phone numbers. I didn’t expect anything to come of it. But we’ve been writing and talking. Or trying to.” Travis chuckled softly, averting his eyes and making small tears in a paper napkin.

Travis has traveled back to Japan twice in the months since that conversation. He and Daisuke are trying to figure out next steps.

I ask Travis now if he wants to join Evan and me for noodles. “Though we’re going to work. You know, online banking.”

“The hardest of passes,” Travis says without looking up.

***

At lunch, Evan and I bend over a notebook that’s soon splattered with chicken broth. We won’t actually start writing until July, but we hash out a high-level outline for the Spotlight and divide the labor, putting together the list of vendors we’ll cover in the report. We’ll gather their latest customer lists, employee numbers, and revenue estimates.

“You take Aurelian,” Evan says with a smirk.

He accosted me as soon as I arrived in the office on Monday morning, leaning into my cube and asking, “So? How was it? Dinner with wonder boy?”

I spun my chair to face him. “Dinner was fine. I didn’t learn much about Aurelian PayNow though.” Evan raised a questioning brow, but I didn’t elaborate. “And Manish Bindra has a girlfriend. Not that it matters.” I shook my head, though I feared my cheeks pinkened.

After lunch, I begin emailing my information requests. Private companies aren’t likely to give us revenue data, so I start by asking for up-to-date customer lists. I email seven vendors. The reply from Claire Sanchez, the PR exec at Aurelian, is almost immediate:

Date : June 23, 2000

To: Chelsea Lefevre

CC: Seth Murphy, Evan Feinberg

From: Claire Sanchez

Subject: Re: Current Signed Customers

Hi Chelsea!

It’s so good to hear from you. We’re thrilled Gilroy is publishing a Market Spotlight on online banking!