Ben walked up to his office with more than a little frustration on his mind. Head burrowed in reports he had no idea how they were going to keep in business for longer than a few months. No one said that being a senior salesman would be easy but if that supplier didn't come through with the offer, he knew he could be laid off. If Ben was the one to bring it to the boss though, a bonus and even a promotion might be on the cards. Make or break time for the whole office. Opening the door and walking up to his desk he could just see though the cubicles and office workers his opposite number being verbally ripped apart in her office by MacNamara the head manager.
Katherine, a perfectly adequate saleswoman, had manged to get this far in the company by her looks alone, far outstripping where her abilities should have landed her. Her long red hair, slim body and rich brown eyes was enough to make her stand out among the grey workplace but that wasn't helping her now. No new sales, no new ideas to get them out of this hole and no real commitment to the job was all being laid out for her by the manager. Watching those eyes start to water and lips tremble you could almost forget she wasn't some schoolgirl but a professional woman and all round sociopath. The amount of men she had left in her wake in the office, all superiors, gave everyone around the water cooler some notion of how she had kept her post, so far.
Storming out of the room Mac, as he was affectionately nicknamed, marched over to accounting and let out a cry of dismay at whatever he had just stumbled upon there. Ben could just make out Katherine wiping a tear away and smiling as she got up to shut the door. Crocodile tears or not though, she couldn't quite hide the worry on her face, not about the company surely, but her own job prospects.
Ben was interrupted from his musings by a fresh stack of papers landing on his desk. With dismay he began flipping through them as his assistant Mike smiled sympathetically at him, always cool and collected, Ben would have been surprised to see any stress on his face.
"Wait are these the sales reports leading up to the New Year" Ben groaned scanning page after page.
"'Fraid so boss, some clown decided to suggest going over all the department's expenditure see if we can cut some more costs somewhere." Mike sucked his teeth and shook his head "Do you want that sofa bed pulled out? Gonna be a late night with this. Mac is making the whole sales staff stay to comb through them. Try and see if we can pull some extra funds together from somewhere."
Ben sighed and rubbed his forehead with his palms trying to ignore the fact this pointed towards more staff layouts, "Sure might as well, and if that deal from the suppliers comes through, bring it straight here okay? Christ might as well hope for some good news tonight."
With an affirmative nod and another tight smile of sympathy Mike exited, shutting the door behind him.
Ben let out another long sigh and got started. Checking the clock on the wall he concluded that if he worked hard, kept his head down and stay focused he might be able to get this done in only a few hours and leave the office at... half ten. With a grim chuckle to himself, he grabbed the top page and started reading. - - - - - - The knock on the door startled Ben jolting him awake. Mike laughed as he came in, "Hard at work eh?"
Rubbing his eyes Ben looked at the clock seeing it was just past 11pm. "What the hell are you still doing here, you didn't need to stay in for me."
A grin crossed Mikes face as he casually dropped a binder on the desk, "Well, was just doing a bit of admin, waiting on hearing from the West Coast suppliers and guess what? Get a signature of you and Mac tomorrow and it's all done and dusted mate."
Ben stared at the binder in disbelief, "They went for it, we actually got them?" Snatching it up from the desk, he held it almost at arm's length as if afraid it might disappear. "We got them?" he repeated, the corners of him mouth starting to curl into a smile.
With a cheer he pulled Mike into a hug, nearly tripping over the pull out sofa. The two men took a moment to relish the idea that the company was saved and broke apart grinning. All down the office people poked their heads out to see what the excitement was about, and from the sight of one worker with a post it stuck to his face, at least some of them had been woken up by the shouting as well.
With a wide smile Ben waved to them all "Head on home guys, I'll clear it up with Mac tomorrow. We might just have a way out of this after all!"
A weary cheer went up as people starting to stand, stretch and begin trickling out. Shaking hands and brushing off questions Ben stood holding the door waving them all out smiling, pausing only to put a hand on someone's shoulder to stop them long enough to pick a post it note off their face and pop it in their shirt pocket. Mike slapped a hand on his shoulder "I'd grab a coffee if I was you before heading back, you're looking like a bit of a zombie now."
Ben gave a faint smile back and nodded in agreement. Falling asleep at the wheel and crashing his car on the way home wasn't the ideal end to the evening. "Just a second Mike, did you see Katherine leave at all?"