I keep a low profile. I'm not on social media, except for my bare-bones LinkedIn page. I live by myself, hanging out in my high rise Manhattan apartment when I'm not on the road for work. My job keeps me on the road a lot.
I'm a crisis consultant for corporations. Shards of glass end up in your company's baby food? Russian police shaking down your branch office in Moscow? Had an explosion at your chemical plant after ignoring warnings about safety issues? Don't freak out - just call me.
It isn't that I have miracles in my pocket.
Rather, I've handled more than a few of these in my time, and along the way ended up with a deep list of contacts, people you won't find advertised on web sites: public relations specialists, edgy lawyers, forensic accountants, private investigators, personal security experts, dark web citizens, and other "technicians."
I work quickly and discretely, before the situation blows up in the media and hurts a company's stock price -- before protestors even know there is something to protest. My work tends to be, as they say in business-speak, "mission-critical and time-sensitive."
Given my client's preference for discretion, and my irregular schedule, my work doesn't lend itself to having normal social or personal relationships, so I keep to myself, and truthfully, don't stay in touch with a lot of folks. As my ex-wife put it as we were finalizing our divorce, "You're a die-hard loner." She probably was right, at least about that one thing.
And so when my college's alumni office contacted me, I had second thoughts. They asked if I'd speak to students on the topic of "consulting as a career." I do try to avoid being too visible, but as I thought about it I realized that I hadn't been back to Pennsylvania in ages. Besides, my work had hit a lull, as it sometimes does, so I agreed to fly out for alumni weekend, check out the campus, and do a little presentation to a class on entrepreneurship.
A couple of weeks after I agreed to speak I got an IM on LinkedIn from my old college roommate, who I'd lost touch with years ago. "Saw you are coming to town" he wrote, "Beth and I have a place just west of the City. Love to see you and catch up. You can stay with us, we've got plenty of room." It would be good to see him after all these years, I told myself, so I agreed.
Five weeks later I flew to Philadelphia, picked up the rental car, and headed down the Schuylkill Expressway into Amish Country towards that campus on the hill.
James - Jim, Jimmy, or JT for short - was living with his wife in a lovely brick house across the river from campus, in suburbia. He'd gotten a degree in accounting and fit the stereotype: boring, pudgy, glasses perched on his nose, and very methodical. See "nerd" on Wikipedia. But he was a great roommate and a really nice guy.
He greeted me at the door with a bear hug. We caught up as he showed me the house, reintroduced me to Beth, whom I hadn't seen since their wedding, and led me to the guest bedroom. "Dinner will be ready in about an hour, and I'll leave you to get settled."
Dinner was nice - Beth was a decent cook. We filled in the years as we ate - though I was customarily vague, as I always am. They seemed like a nice, if boring, suburban couple growing old and plump together. She had been a school administrator, retiring early, and JT was working for a local branch of a regional accounting firm doing tax returns and company financials. No kids, just a couple of cats they rescued.
I helped them clean up after dinner, and we moved into the living room as JT cracked another bottle of wine, which was having its effect - Beth was getting louder, and JT seemed to slur a word or two as we laughed about past escapades.
Eventually the conversation hit a lull. I didn't want them to think that they had to entertain me - so I filled the lull. "Did you guys want to watch a movie or something?" I asked.
"JT hates to watch movies" Beth said. "He says it's all drivel."
I answered before thinking. "Really? We used to watch movies in our dorm room all the time, VHS tapes back then."
He shot me a glance - which Beth caught. "What was that look Jim?" she asked, as she wrinkled her face in a scrunched up question mark. "You've
never
liked to watch movies."
He apparently didn't know what to say. "What was
what
look?" was the best he could do.
"Don't' give me that innocent 'what' thing" she said. "JT, I saw the way you looked at him. What's going on?"
"OK, well, he's right" JT said. "We used to watch movies a lot back then."
Another silence.
"AND?" Beth declared.
I gave JT a sideways glance. This was his house, his wife - I wasn't going to say a word - but Beth caught that glance, too.
"What is it that you two not telling me?"
I looked at JT - his face was slowly turning pink, probably not due to flushing from the wine. I decided to just jump in.
"We used to watch porno tapes. There was a collection of tapes that used to circulate in the dorm" I said. "We were young. I wouldn't think anything of it these days with all the porn that's all over the internet. Or so I hear." I smiled in an effort to make light of it.
She blurted her reaction, "NO!" as she slapped him on his thigh. "JT! You never told me you liked to watch porn!? You guys! Together?"
This could be tricky. I looked at JT. He was getting redder.
"Yeah" I said. "I mean, we weren't going to find any girls to sit on a couch with a couple of horny college guys watching pornos. And we were curious. So we sat there alone."