Act I

“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. 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.

Wow, 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.

In reality that was merely the latest piece of tough news to weigh down on Healthness, one of many in a long string of them. Ever since the firm had been rocked by false advertising charges twelve months ago things had only gone from bad to worse. In addition to all the lawsuits and negative media attention it was soon discovered that the longtime chairman and CEO had been embezzling funds from the company for years, leading to his swift and disgraceful dismissal from his post. His demise had brought to power a young, high-powered executive named Henry S. Goode, who’d managed to turn around one of Healthness’ most underperforming divisions from loss maker to profit maker in no time at all, becoming the industry’s biggest success story along the way. But even Henry’s penchant for performing miracles couldn’t protect him from what happened next; the suicide of the company’s CFO, a fire that burned down Healthness’ second largest R&D facility, and now the failure to get FDA approval for Metadraxil. Henry S. Goode held nothing short of corporate America’s most unenviable position, a fact that wasn’t lost on Waleed.

Poor guy, he’s gonna get a huge earful from his board the next time they meet. He may even lose his job then and there, he thought, stroking the hairs on his chin in thought. That wasn’t his only facial hair, because growing along the length of his whole face was a thick and trimmed beard, black and devoid of any unsightly patches. His glasses covered up a pair of pale green eyes, and his hands were a light tan color, the same as coffee mixed with cream. By all accounts he wasn’t a highly attractive man, but he certainly wasn’t ugly either.

Stretching back in his plush leather armchair and taking in the view from the 42nd floor of his Broadway Avenue building, he pulled out his antique French pocketwatch and took stock of the time before muttering, “But that’s none of my concern, it could’ve happened to anyone I suppose. I’ll probably need to revise my fair value estimate at this point. Let’s see…”

Swiveling back to his computer screen he resumed his work for the day, performing it diligently and methodically until, once the clock struck 7:12 PM, he finally decided to call it a day. Neatly packing up his things in his brown leather shoulder bag, he waved goodbye to the stragglers still laboring in the office and walked home, marching along the streets of New York City before arriving at his apartment in Chelsea. It was undoubtedly a bit of a walk, but in the springtime he loved being outside and stretching his legs after a long day of sitting down.

As soon as he walked through the egg white doors to his unit the first thing he did was to dash straight to the comfort of his bed, enjoying its soft embrace as he lay down on the sheets. He could feel the tension and knots in his back loosening up the more he stayed there, the cathartic effects kicking in almost instantly

Ahhhhhh yeahhhhh, that’s the spot. Man, sometimes I wish I could just stay here like this all the time.

Swinging his legs back up after taking the time to roll around his mattress for about a minute more, he then admitted, Then again, a life of lying on a bed doing nothing all day long would probably get pretty boring pretty fast.

Feeling more refreshed and relaxed, he then changed out of his work clothes and into his nightwear before walking to the kitchen to heat up the leftover salmon and rice he’d cooked the night before. Living alone with no wife or relatives he had no choice but to be responsible for his own food. For Waleed though cooking wasn’t a burden, but rather a chance to be creative and do something else besides look at spreadsheets and presentation slides.

Once dinner was ready he did his normal routine and plopped down on the gray coach in his living room before turning the TV on, flipping through the channels casually as he tried to find something interesting to watch.

“Today the P&S 300 fell 200 points today…”

“Health officials have documented two more cases of the azakia virus in East Africa…”

“This administration has lied to us, deceived us…”

Man, everything is so negative these days. Doesn’t anyone have anything nice to say anymore?

Eventually Waleed settled on watching a re-run of a comedy sitcom, the only light-hearted program he could find at that hour. He figured that since he spent much of his time looking for things to poke and nitpick at for each company he covered he owed it to himself to enjoy some positivity every once in a while. “Emotional balance” was what he called it, that was what he always told people was key to maintaining a healthy professional and social life.

Spending the rest of his evening with a combination of TV watching and watercolor painting (another hobby of his), it wasn’t until 11 PM that Waleed decided to hit the hay for a good night’s sleep. Although he sometimes wished he didn’t have to wake up so early the next day he always maintained his self-discipline and prevented himself from going to sleep too late. All actions have consequences, best to avoid the negative ones.

Brushing his teeth before lying on his bed one more time, he calmly and comfortably nestled himself underneath the blankets and dozed off, content with his life and acknowledging another good day’s work.