Original Commentary

After a long haul of nothing but Terrence-writing, I'm back in the saddle- and with a story arc very loosely based on real life. No, Terrence doesn't have to clean the bathrooms late at night, if that's what you're thinking (can't go more into what's going to happen in the arc because that would give things away a lot).. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
New story! You can tell this is Isabel's because the first comic actually sets things up instead of just hinting that something may happen in the second comic. - Terrence

Original Commentary

I hope I made it obvious enough- but Kimberly is putting the lunch bag into Brisbane's mouth. I probably should have put them in a different angle- but this was the one I envisioned when I wrote this comic. Brisbane came out a little too "pretty boy" in panel one... I should have drawn him with a little pot-belly... but I don't think he eats enough for one. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
They work at different physical locations. The main building and the satellite office are within walking distance so they could theoretically meet for lunch if their schedules lined up.
That hardly ever happened because Brisbane's job usually began an hour or two earlier.- Terrence

Original Commentary

Yeah, I know Brisbane is holding the paper in one hand in the first and the other in the last, but I drew his left hand really good (at least to me) and since I already inked the first panel (I basically forgot to have him hold the paper in the last panel) I just figured he was fidgeting with it and it ended in his other hand by the end of things.

A lame reason, I admit, but that's the one I got - Isabel

Modern Commentary
Kimberly has worked there for a week or two. Her department is just three people. They don't have a manager - we hadn't explicitly stated it at this point, in case we needed an intermediary between Kimberly and her mother. The department also isn't doing too great - they're understaffed because everyone else just got fired.

No wonder the boss isn't buying them lunch.

Anyhow, Brisbane is friends with the guys in the Product Delivery department. He's friends with a lot of people.

Dan, who we'll see a lot more of later is the head of Product Delivery. He's willing to stand up for his employees and reward them, which is why they get sandwiches. - Terrence

Original Commentary

What does Brisbane do all day, anyhow? Whatever Ms. Taylor wants him to. He usually has a large list of tasks and very little instruction on how to do them. He does some mail sorting too, when he has time. And doesn't that outfit make Kimberly look professional? - Terrence

Modern Commentary
One of the other things we were still figuring out was how big Lemon Technology was. I think we settled on it being 50-75 people, so the personnel department would probably be two or three people.

So you could see why they'd want some extra folks when it came time to split up a cake. - Terrence

Original Commentary

When she was writing this comic, Isabel asked me to give her a middle-eastern name. First one I came up with was Taimoor. She asked me for another name. This comic is loosely based on real life; three people (out of eleven) in my department are getting married this season. But is this the only thing that was based on real life? We'll see - Terrence

Modern Commentary
We never see Omar. In the original script, Omar was Ms. Taylor's secretary. Not sure why we changed that. Ms. Taylor went through personal assistants quickly enough; we wouldn't need to explain his absence later.

Not sure what Omar's coworkers brought to the celebration, but it has to be a bit better than a three-day-old sandwich. - Terrence

Original Commentary

With the panel where Brisbane's picking up the letter, originally he was supposed to be picking it up from a trash. But since I changed it to a receptacle where you can't see the inside, I just had him pick it up from the floor - Isabel
This is based on a real-life incident; it took me three days to find the one Isabel wrote for me. It was intact, fortunately. The fact that she kept asking me how my lunch was and if I ate all of it, didn't register at all. I'm a bit oblivious sometimes - Terrence

Modern Commentary
So is this an actual uses-the-L-word love letter? No. I mean, the name of the comic is "You Say it First". We're not going to have one of them actually say it first in a letter that gets gooped up and almost thrown away.
But a nice, flowery letter that says "I appreciate all the things you do for me" is always appreciated.

Little gestures like this are more Brisbane's thing than Kimberly's. She's trying to speak his love language and doing a good and sincere job at it. - Terrence