Two brooms at work

Larry nervously tapped his foot on the ground while the boss man clicked on his computer. The boss was still speaking, words generously pouring out of his mouth, spouting instructions at a rate faster than Larry could process. But Larry's brain had frozen ever since the name Barry Mitchell had been uttered.

"So that's settled then. You and Barry are going to work on the Maxim project. You've got seven days until the presentation."

"But...Sir...I need to."

"And you know the Maxim project, sonny. There's some meaty grub in there. So you better make it count."

"Yes, but maybe someone else is better suited for this job?"

The boss continued speaking like he hadn't heard him.

"And the projections are in, so your focus has to be on the leads for the second quarter and then..."

When Larry saw that his interjections were met with indifference, he raised his voice a little louder.

"I'm sorry sir, but I must object. I simply must object!"

There was panic in Larry's voice. The boss must have noticed it too, because he stopped talking.

"Why Larry? What's wrong?"

"I cannot do this. I must inform you that Barry and I have a long history and its not pretty."

"Go on. I'm listening" replied the boss, half turned towards Larry.

"We have known each other for 10 years and we have, what one would call, a sports rivalry."

"Really Larry? I didn't take you for a...I mean I didn't know you were...uhm...athletic?" The boss now turned fully towards Larry. One could tell his opinion about Larry had somehow improved.

"Well, yes. I don't usually brag about it, but I have been part of the stateside winning team for three years in a row now."

"Damn Larry. That's impressive. What sports do you play?"

"Quidditch."

"I'm sorry I didn't quite catch that. What did you say?"

"I said Quidditch, Sir."

"And what's that? Is that some Canadian sport like curling?"

"No Sir. It's a professional sport, inspired by the fictional game played in the Harry Potter books."

"Are you pulling some kind of prank?"

"No Sir. I am not. I am afraid this is the reason I cannot work with Barry. He plays for Manic Muggles, our biggest rivals. We have beaten them in the Stateside Championships three years in a row."

The boss didn't say anything but pulled back in his chair and folded his hands in front of his round, gargantuan belly.

"And Barry and I, we go way back. He is the roguish Beater to my gallant Chaser. Our rivalry is legendary and often spoken with the highest respect. He is the Nadal to my Federer. The Ali to my Frazer. The Ronaldo to my..."

"Okay I got it Larry. But let's be serious here. This doesn't sound like a serious sport."

"Oh no sir. Quidditch is now internationally recognized. If you go to the website www dot quidditchpro dot com slash premier hyphen league slash regional slash states..."

"Okay I'm going to stop you there, son. In some ways, it's good that you don't brag about these things. Anyway, listen. Why don't you see this as a challenge huh? You can think of it as two rivals coming together to overcome obstacles."

"You mean like Captain America and Iron Man?"

"Yeah sure whatever. Uhm, I've got to take this call now. So I'll see you in a week. You better have some good news for me, okay? You've got this, son." 

And with that the boss picked up his phone and started a pretend phone call.

As Larry was about to leave the room, he added.

"Oh and one more thing Larry. For your own safety, I would advise you to maybe not repeat what you said in here to the people outside."

Larry didn't eat a big lunch. He skipped the fries with his burger. Even his cola was not supersized.

He was perspiring. Was this a tactic by the Manic Muggles? The Regionals were coming up after all. They wanted to throw him off by playing filthy mind games.

Snap out of it man, he said to himself.

Of the 300 sales people that graced the halls of this company, why did the boss have to choose the two of them.

Had he not heard him say that he was the Nadal to his Federer?

This was the first time they would be meeting each other without a broom between their legs. Usually, they couldn't stand being in the same room as one another. Larry didn't even know how they would address each other. They usually just shouted tirades from across the field.

"Hello. Larry." spoke a rough voice from behind.

Larry took his sweet time to swirl around in his rotating chair like an astute king surveying his kingdom.

Barry was not impressed. He nudged his glasses up on his nose. He had been equally distraught when he saw the name Larry Stevenson in the email from the boss. 

"Hello Barry."

"So, this is where you work huh?" mouthed Barry, his words laced with disdain.

"This is where we "both" work. You are literally two floors below me and your office space looks exactly the same."

"Sure. Sure," said Barry absentmindedly and flipped through some document that was on Larry's desk.

Larry stood up and walked over to Barry, facing him head on, except Larry's head only reached the chest of Barry's six foot five frame.

"Listen. I know you think you are some big shot on the Quidditch field. But let's keep it civil here okay? I've been asked to brief you on the Maxim project. And that's what I intend to do. Any attitude and I am reporting you to the boss man. You hear that?"

Barry came closer to Larry so that his chest did bump Larry on the nose.

"Not so big without your broom between your legs huh?"

Larry stared back defiantly.

"Fine. But I don't want to hear any of that trash talk that you usually spit at me on the field either. Got that?"

The two rivals begrudgingly shook hands and went off to the meeting room, which they would call home for the next seven days until the final client presentation.

The coming week would be the most challenging period in Larry's professional life. He used to think his dislike of Barry Mitchell only extended till the Quidditch field.

But Larry found that Barry was just as aggressive and mean-spirited as he was on the field. Barry on the other hand was sick of Larry's uppity, condescending attitude. Typical of Chasers, he thought.

But they had to work together to get the presentation ready for Monday. So both of them shut their mouths against their better judgement, grinding away all through the weekend and late until Sunday night.

Against all odds, things went smoothly, and they managed to work together to put up a decent presentation for the client. But right at end, the two rivals were once again at loggerheads over who should be presenting the main talking points.

"Of course it should be me! I am the senior of the two of us." Larry exclaimed.

"Ha! By 6 months. That's nothing! If anything I should be the one presenting. I am better at presenting than you"

"Says who?"

"Says me. I am better than you at everything. Beaters are better than Chasers. Everyone knows that"

Larry felt his blood boil.

"Beaters are sadistic bastards trying to hurt everyone. If anything Chasers have the most important job! To score!"

"Sure, if you are busy falling off your broom at the most crucial point in the final."

"Hey! We agreed never to speak of that again!"

"Well I change my mind! I don't take orders from someone who bumped into his own Seeker and lost his team the shot at the title. Haha!"

To Larry, this was a low shot. He was about to react when something happened that made him forget about what Barry had said.

"Dude. My computer is frozen. Did you upload the presentation onto the cloud?"

"What? That was your job. I was busy with the edits," he said, a slight panic rising in his voice.

"Merlin's pants! We are screwed man! What do we do? The presentation is in less than eight hours?"

Larry and Barry looked at each other in panic. They knew the time had come when they had to put aside all differences and really work together to find a solution.

They stayed up all night and eventually rewrote the entire presentation, thanks to Barry's excellent memory and Larry's quick thinking on his feet.

Ironically, when it was time to do the presentation, neither wanted to do it. They had so little sleep the previous night, none of them had any energy left in them to present the work.

So they borrowed an intern and let him do the work of reading through the slides, while they sat back and answered the questions.

Later, the boss man would accost them outside the meeting.

"Good work guys! Nice work making the intern do the presentation. Making yourselves important huh? Good lawyer tactic. Client feedback is positive. Good job!"

He patted them both on their backs and walked away, unaware of what had passed between the two rivals, less than eight hours ago.

Barry looked up at Larry and smirked.

"I guess we make a good team, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess so." said Lancer, staring at his feet.

"Although, just to be clear, if that was Quidditch, I would've shot myself rather than play with you."

"Yeah. Same here."

"See you at the Regionals then?" asked Barry, a tinge of friendship in his voice.

"Yeah, see you there. Get ready to get your ass kicked!"

"Haha you wish." said Barry and walked off leaving Larry standing in the corridor feeling slightly misty.

Larry and Barry never saw each other at work again, despite working in the same building. So in the end their group project didn't do much in favor of their friendship.

But there was definitely a significant reduction in trash talk at the games, sometimes a nod, a half-wave of hands and even an odd smile once in a while.

The one good thing that did come out of the whole project was that the boss man, seeing their good work, and as a gesture of good faith, decided the office would play a game of Quidditch at the next team building event with Larry and Barry as team captains.

The boss, naturally, had no idea that he had unwittingly unleashed a storm!