Gay Bear Needs Love

Mack was staring at me. I felt the heat of his eyes and knew that my pale skin was turning red. It turned out we both lived in the temporary corporate housing two blocks from the office.
* * * * *
It was Monday of the last week of a six week management training seminar. I was hired during my last year of law school by this large multinational corporation that I had no interest in working at beyond the two year commitment I’d made. After undergrad, I spent two years in the Peace Corps in Africa. The conditions in the village I was assigned to were appalling, but it was the government’s consistent trampling of villager’s basic rights to health care, water, and the vote that made me truly furious. In response, I went to law school with the intention of doing human rights work and that was still my plan. But $127,613 in debt later, I accepted a management job in this enormous company. They’d not only pay back my loans if I fulfilled my two year commitment, I’d make enough in my salary that if I lived modestly, I could squirrel away close to six figures. I was just shy of 26 and this seemed like an honest bargain.
Ok. So it is the first day of the last week of this management program. And it is the first week for a new group of 25 trainees to start. We are assigned to random groups of five to spend the day in a corporate “team building” activity. I work hard not to roll my eyes. The people leading the seminar are a bit overly enthusiastic for me but I swallow my disdain and am determined to be a good employee and make it through the training.
And then, he walked...