Ben Catches a ‘No-bomb’ From Tina

Ben Catches a ‘No-bomb’ From Tina

Last Episode, Ben had started his first day in Compliance. Absolutely thrilled at the opportunity to work with Tina, Ben gets his first assignment to go undercover. Ben comes up with a brilliant plan to get everyone to ‘Speak-Up’ and comment about Compliance.

It is not all straightforward for Ben though (it never is!), and he has to deal with a surprise from Tina, but is it a good one? Read on …

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Ben arrived at work on Monday morning, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. He was all fired up to start his ‘Speak Up’ campaign.

“Hey, Tina,” Ben asked, buzzing with excitement like a sand fly ready to bite a newcomer at Bondi Beach. “Did Doug like the ‘Speak Up’ idea?”

“Doug thinks it will open up a can of worms, but he is prepared to let you make a fool of yourself if you want to!”

“Does anything even make that guy happy?”

“We really need to get you back into the business, though, Ben; Doug wants to find out how good our culture is,” added Tina.

Tina smiled. Ben nearly melted - how he had missed that smile! How he had missed Tina! He was in ‘nana land’ and did not see the atomic bomb that was going to hit him.

“Ben, before we discuss that, I need to say something. I like you, but we can’t be romantically involved.”

Ben’s heart stopped. What a way to start a meeting by ripping his heart out and serving it up on a plate. How was he going to respond to that?

“Ben, are you O.K.?" inquired Tina.

“No, I need a few moments,” said Ben.

Ben did not know what to do. He thought they were getting on really well and that they were starting to get back to old times—and now this?

“I’m sorry, Ben. It's not that I don’t like you, but since we’re working together, a relationship isn’t appropriate,” Tina explained.

“I have to go; I have a meeting with the medical and marketing team,” responded Ben, looking for any way to get away from Tina. He needed time to think; he did not expect this and did not know how to deal with it. Ben walked out, slamming the door behind him.

I know I am going to regret that he thought; no one walks out on a woman and gets away with it. He didn’t care; he was hurt.

“Ben, I did try to warn you,” came a familiar voice in Ben’s brain.

“Shut up, you old fart,” snapped back Ben. “You are the last person I want to hear from! Why don’t you get back under your favourite rock and leave me alone!” he continued as he stopped off at the men’s room on the way to his meeting.

“Okay, but you will be back,” said Calvernicus, the godfather of compliance, who always had to have the last word.

Ben was really mad. His mind wandered to all sorts of things that he would rather not think about.

“Oh hell, the meeting!” he said to himself as he snapped out of his daydream.

He walked into the meeting room. Most of the medical and marketing people were already there. As he walked in, four or five smiled right away. Three even laughed, making Ben really nervous. He immediately saw where his old rival Penny Promo was sitting. The only seat not next to her was by Mr T., her former boss, who was now on probation for the "invoice fiasco."

"Morning, loser,” Paula said, her usual sweetness for Ben still shining through.

Ben was in no mood for her. "Morning, Ugly Toad, whom I despise," was his response.

“Well, I see you took all of your charm with you to Compliance,” replied Penny.

“That’s not very nice,” she added. “It could get you into trouble with HR again,” added Penny for good measure. “By the way, she said it is 12 o'clock."

“What?” said Ben.

“Paging Mr. Johnson... Paging Mr. Johnson...,” added Mr. T with a chuckle.

"What?" said Ben. “Who the hell is Mr. Johnson?”

“You need to bring your tray table to the upright and locked position,” added someone else with a smile.

Everyone started to join in amid much laughter and joking, all at Ben’s expense.

“You’ve got Windows in your laptop,” and “Elvis Junior has LEFT the building!” and “you've got your fly set for 'Monica' instead of 'Hillary Clinton."

Ben had no idea what they were talking about.

“You dumb-arse jellybean," came the voice again.

“Your fly is open; you didn’t do up your zipper,” said Calvernicus, this time trying to be helpful.

Ben turned crimson. “Oh, I get it,” he said, trying to think of how he could recover from this embarrassment.

What the hell? he thought. “Since you’re all in good spirits, I appreciate your concern. You won’t have any trouble being ambassadors for our upcoming campaign."

"We want everyone to ‘Speak Up’ about compliance issues."

"We want you to help us all live by this company's values."

"We want to change things before they go too far," said Ben, regaining his confidence.

“Well, where do we start?” said Penny.

“I have something I would like to raise,” said a shy guy with glasses whom Ben did not recognise.

“That’s great,” said Ben. “I don’t recognise you; who are you?”

“I am Jerome Gotagoodline,” said the guy. “I have only been here three months; I took over from Glene E Baker.”

Ben immediately looked at Mr T.  Mr T. looked at Ben. They both knew what the other was thinking.

“Well, hello Jerome! That is great - tell me what's on your mind?"

Next Episode (The last episode for Part II) – Episode 23: 'Ben's Project Gains Momentum, But He Gets a New Training Assignment.’

Till next time,

Calvin