The Ascendant

Chapter Five

To start with I just sat there in a state of shock until I heard someone laughing from the nearby urinals.

‘Classic timing,’ he guffawed, possibly to me but more likely to himself.

I pulled the phone from my trouser pocket and checked the display. The number began with 0207, an inner London number. Was it the job offer or had they realised my scam? The phone kept ringing, and I realised I had nowhere more private to take the call, so I just pressed the OK button and lifted the phone to my ear.

‘Hello’, I said sheepishly.

‘Hello, is that Ben Lagman?’ the voice said.

‘Yes’, I replied, ‘speaking.’

‘Hello Ben, this is Tracey Rice, the Recruitment Manager from Vanguard London Plc. We met at your interview for the Project Developer vacancy a couple of weeks ago.’

‘Yes, of course,’ I repied. This is it: make or break.

‘I was just calling to find out if you were still interested in the position,’ Ms Rice asked. Was it a game? Was she trying to trap me, confirm my guilt and then hand a tape recording of this conversation over to the police along with copies of my forged documents?

‘Absolutely!’ I replied.

‘Fantastic!’ said Ms Rice, laughing. ‘Then we would like to offer you the position. What’s your decision?’

I felt as if I had been thrown into suspended animation.

‘Mr Lagman? she said.

‘Yes, sorry, yes, yes INDEED!’ I replied. I had lost myself completely. Was this really happening?

Ms Rice laughed again. ‘That’s what we like, some good old fashioned enthusiasm! Excellent. Well, in that case I shall pop the written offer in the post to you today. I shall enclose the full details of your package and some further information about ourselves. And I know that Paul Hobbs, who will be your divisional manager, was hoping you could start sooner rather than later. How much notice do you have to give your present employers?’ she asked.

‘Oh not much,’ I said, before remembering the complimentary reference I had given myself: a key and popular employee, an excellent manager, mixed emotions if and when I decide to move on to new challenges. ‘I mean, hopefully we can sort something out.’

‘Well I know Paul would be very grateful if you could’, said Ms Rice.

I opened my mouth to say some reassuring words to her, that I would do everything I could to secure an early start date, when someone pulled the toilet flush in the adjoining cubicle. I gripped my face in anguish, pulling hard on my cheeks. I couldn’t believe this was actually happening to me. Had she heard it? 

‘Er, am I calling you at a bad time Mr Lagman?’

‘What?’, I replied. Don’t lose it now, I implored myself. ‘No, no, not at all, that wasn’t me. I’m just um…’

‘I’ll pop the written offer in the post Mr Lagman, and if you could let me know about a start date when you get a moment that would be great.’

‘Yes, of course,’ I said. ‘Thank you very much, I’ll come back to you as soon as I can.’

‘Wonderful,’ she said, ‘now I’d better let you get on, Mr Lagman. Hopefully we’ll be hearing from you shortly.’

‘Yes, of course,’ I said. ‘Goodbye now.’

 ‘Goodbye, Mr Lagman.’