Reset-Act 1

Act 1

Chapter 1

"Did you hear that there's going to be a new girl coming in tomorrow?"

Looking up from his computer monitor Waleed turned his face towards his co-worker and said, "As a matter of fact Ian I did, after all I did interview her."

"So what's she like, is she a cutie?" Ian asked with a subtle raise of his orange eyebrow as he sipped on his afternoon coffee.

"She seems like a very intelligent and driven young lady," Waleed replied, dodging Ian's question. "Obviously though it'll take more than a few interviews to know if I'm right."

"Ahh, so she's a stick-in-the-mud type of gal eh? Like we need another one of those."

Slurping his drink once more Ian added, "You should've asked me to conduct a couple of interviews for you, I would've helped to ensure we get some prettier ladies around here."

"Haha, as tempting as that offer sounds I was explicitly told by Kwesi to keep you as far away from the hiring process as possible. Perhaps now I see why."

"C'mon man, you don't have to listen to everything the man says."

"Speaking of listening to things, isn't there a corporate earnings call for Swipe Clean Industries you need to be on soon? As much as I love shooting the breeze with you you should probably get on that."

"Jeez, as if I don't have enough people telling me to do my job already. Alright, alright, I'm going. I guess I'll just have to see her for myself tomorrow."

Leaving Waleed's office to head to his own he almost turned right before poking his head in the door one last time and saying, "By the way, are we still on for squash tomorrow?"

Smiling and chuckling lightly as he heard the question Waleed responded, "But of course, how could I turn down another chance to hand down a beating?"

"I was still under the weather that day and you know it."

"Wah wah, excuses excuses," Waleed playfully mocked. "If you want me to shut up about it then bring your game tomorrow and make me."

"Oh don't worry, I will now. See ya around Waleed."

"Haha, see you around."

Left on his own in his room once again Waleed went back to viewing over Healthness Incorporated's latest quarterly earnings, the third such report he'd read that day alone. As the senior analyst for the pharmaceuticals equity research group at Roberts & Clyde it was pretty par for the course. He was in charge of researching, covering, and evaluating the ten biggest pharmaceutical companies in the market, with the ultimate goal of determining whether a company's stock was overvalued, undervalued, or valued just right. Investors could then use that information to make better investing choices (after paying for his research of course). At least that was the hope. There were many other banks and financial institutions that offered similar services, so it wasn't always easy to get business traffic. But that didn't trouble Waleed too much as he had quite the knack for his work, which showed in the fact that he'd risen to his title only two years after graduating from Harvard Business School.

Jeez, net income is down for the fourth straight quarter, he mused to himself. Probably didn't help that the FDA refused to approve Metadraxil last month.