He asked me if I wanted some. He told me that the cheese was French and called it something that made me want to vomit even more. One of those horrible French words you say with that thing that hangs in the back of your throat.

I told him that I had already eaten too much breakfast and didn’t have place even for a sip of water.

Dominic then asked me to close the door and make sure no one was sitting anywhere nearby. I looked around. Only that stupid Polish girl was there who takes Xeroxes and books flight tickets. And even Polish she only knows 50%. I usually point at a piece of paper and then hold up my fingers to tell her how many copies I want. She will nod and go away and book flight tickets.

Stupid woman. No threat.

I closed the door.

Dominic finished his sandwiches, threw the napkins away and then began to talk.

He told me that even alluding to things like bribes during a Dufresne conference call was illegal in the UK. He told me that many Dufresne conference calls are recorded for future reference.

Thankfully he confirmed that yesterday’s had been off the record.

Then he said that all such things should only be discussed one to one in private and not with the whole group listening.

I apologized profusely and told him that I had brought up the idea of alternative compensation schemes for Tom only because I was committed to the client’s well-being and I just did not want to spare any strategy to achieve value delivery.

He nodded quickly, reached into a bag at his feet, and brought out a small plastic tiffin box.

Then Dominic asked me if I had any ideas of how to forward-reward Tom. Of course I was completely confused but only looked at him and nodded solemnly as if I was thinking intensely. Dominic opened the box. Inside there were three medium-sized croissants.

Dominic again asked me in the most direct way possible: ‘How do you think we can get the asshole to keep us in play? Should we just offer cash? Do you know this guy well?’

Which is when I realized that Dominic was actually agreeing to my front-loaded bonus strategy. And he hadn’t called me to slap me.

Instantly I felt the fear and stress and tension lift from my stomach and disappear into the air. Unnecessarily I had taken tension and skipped breakfast.

As you can expect I began to feel hungry with a vengeance. Which is when I actually took notice of the croissants.