This is a pretty long one, for me, at about 1,800 words (10 minutes or so), but see how you get on. I’ve been mulling this idea for a while and wanted to jot something down before it escapes.

“Haven’t you tried it yet? Your own product? You really should, you know. Especially now that you can get it for nothing. And you never know, it might help shift some of that puppy fat.”

Josie had never quite been able to lose that annoying loose skin, even though she was now twenty-five years old. But she had to admit, her mum was looking good for her jabs. Her slimmest for years, her features harder, better defined.

“Mum, I’m still only young yet. I’m right on the fifty-first percentile. I’m as fit as a flea. Trust me, I understand these things. Whatever puppy-fat you think you see, I’m in tip-top shape. Oh, and did I tell you? My entry papers came through for the Ironman Challenge, just before I flew over? When you start running triathlons, then, by all means, feel free to lecture me”, she laughed. But then her words turned to warning. “You just be careful how much of that stuff you pump into your body.”

And Josie did understand these things. She had grasped the basics during her first degree, then specialised in the human metabolism during her doctorate. And, last year, she had gone on to her first “real” job, for BioPharm, working on their very own weight-loss injection. In her first year still, Josie held only a relatively junior role, though they had at least based her at the heart of the main operation, in their Palo Alto HQ itself.

“Well, think about it anyway. These things are miraculous, and you know deep down, your mum knows best.” The pair hugged.

“When are you back in work?”

“I’m heading down to Jen’s this evening. She’s offered to put me up for a couple of days, and I haven’t seen her since college. Then I’m flying back to SFO Tuesday morning, finally back home Tuesday night. I’ve got a day to get my head straight, stock up with some food, then I’m back at work Thursday. I’m sure the bloody plants will be dead by now.”

“Oh well”, mum had tears in her eyes now, “it’s been lovely to have you. I hope you didn’t mind being in your old room. And your dad… he doesn’t say as much, but he’s proud as punch of you, you know. Boasts to anyone who’ll listen about his daughter, the doctor.”

Josie was struggling to contain her own tears, now. “I know, mum. Truly I do. Please, think about coming over to see me, next time. And don’t forget, if there’s anywhere you want to visit stateside, we can meet up there. Vegas, New York, Miami, anywhere you fancy. It can be your holiday of a lifetime.”

Then, she became business-like to diffuse the situation. “Look, I’d better get going. I’ve a drive to Manchester, and my flight down to London leaves at seven. And don’t forget, I need to dump this heap off first.” She slapped the brand new Land Rover firmly on its rear bumper and eased open the driver’s door.

❖

If Josie had been genuinely worried about missing her flight, she needn’t have, for the small, twenty-seater sat on the runway for an hour, and it was gone half-ten by the time she found herself buzzing the intercom to Jen’s flat.

Opening the front door, Jen peeked out. “Did you bring a car?”

“You said not to. I just jumped in a cab at Heathrow, and here I am. That was the plan, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, yes, we’re only five minutes walk to South Ealing tube. Straight up to the West End in twenty minutes. A car is just a hassle, round here. It’s just that some of the neighbours can be funny about their parking spaces. Anyway, let me see you.”

Jen held her by both shoulders, while Josie absorbed her surroundings. Jen rented a tiny flat in this neglected house, one of a long street of semi-detached houses which had grown straight from the Thirties. Except that in the Thirties, Josie grasped immediately, parking might have been somewhat easier.

“Come on up, I’ll show you the place.”

Jen led the way through a shared hall space. Sparse, her landlords had seen no gain in shelling out for decoration. This changed, though, as Jen reached the first-floor landing and pushed open her own front door. Straight into the lounge, Josie faced a warm terracotta room, where Jen had hung three Tuscan paintings to brighten it further. The rustic feel was completed by a dry flower arrangement taking pride of place in a redundant hearth.

“This is it, I’m afraid. Can’t swing a cat, but this is London. I painted the place when I moved in, tried to brighten it as much as possible. The bathroom and bedroom were on the way in. That will be yours while you’re here, so make yourself at home. It’d help if you could keep the shower free around seven.”

Josie realised that Jen had given up her bed.

“Where will you sleep?”

Jen tapped the sofa. “This thing flips into a bed. I use it all the time, when people stay over. It’s no problem, honest. Anyway, are you tired after your flight? I just uncorked a bottle of Fleurie, do you fancy some?”

“I could murder one, I thought you’d never ask!”. Then, as Jen prepared another glass, Josie continued. “Anyway, you’re looking good, Jen. How’ve you been? It feels like aeons since last summer. Do you mind me asking, did you lose weight?”

Jen smiled, returning to the sofa with a fresh glass. “Ten kilos. Can you tell?”, she winked.

She sat in the chair opposite. “Course, it’s not really me. I’m taking that jab. The one you guys make, in fact.”

“What? The BB?” Internally, BioPharm’s Weight Loss injection had been christened the BB Jab.

“Yup. The very same. I wanted to stay loyal to my bestie”, she beamed.

“Er… Jen, you know that’s designed for people a lot older than you, right? Ideally, post-menopausal.  Certainly not a good idea while you’re still menstruating. Besides, you were never overweight, in any case.”

“Oh, behave, Jose. Everyone’s on something these days. And I mean, everyone. Remember Katy? She jabs. And Chloe. And all my old schoolmates… And if I can keep on top of my weight now, just think what a goddess I’ll be when I hit the big three-oh! Plus”, she added with a twinkle, “it hasn’t harmed with the boys, either.”

“Well, just be careful, that’s all. It’s far healthier to diet naturally, especially at our age. Trust me. I know they call it a miracle drug, but even so, in our twenties we can lose weight perfectly naturally.”

❖

For all their tiny differences, it had been good to see Jen again, In a way, they still led very similar lives, both trying to navigate the post-university minefield as best they could.

But as her next plane, the big one that would take her back to California, taxied out to the runway, Josie thought happy thoughts, memories going back through almost five years of friendship. Subconsciously, she gripped the armrest tighter – takeoff was always the bit she hated.

A short while later, however, the airliner was climbing steadily toward it’s cruising altitude, and Josie had relaxed enough to slip her laptop from the rucksack stashed between her feet. She began by opening Outlook, and started to catch up on the emails that had flooded her Inbox since she’d been home. With almost a twelve hour flight ahead, she might as well try to put the time to good use.

First-off, she honed in on a message from Paul Glaser, that greasy young marketing guy. She was only a carbon copy, fortunately, so just relaxed and digested the information. Q4’s interim sales report. Highly confidential. The BB was doing incredibly well, way better than expected, almost a half a billion dollars sales in EMEA alone – and those were just November’s numbers!

Scanning through the rest of the messages, most could be dealt with at work. But a request on her calendar caught her eye. For the day after she returned. From Jesus, her line manager. It was simply titled, “BB NextGen”. Just a fifteen-minute slot,  with the subject and no description. Nothing like a bit of secrecy!

❖

Josie was still jet-lagged on Friday, and tried hard to stifle her yawns at the meeting.

“Okay, I’ll get straight to the point. The BB Jab has been such a success, the Brass want to push forward straight away with a follow-up. They’ve code-named it NextGen, and our teams are going to front up the research. We’re happy we cracked the weight-loss side, so the main goal will be to reduce possible side-effects with a view to increasing BioPharm’s global market share. With a fair wind, we should be able to hit forty percent. The plan is to subdivide into four groups. Each group will work independently, for now, and you’ll all report back in to me. Jeff Juan Carlos and Nola Gambretti will be doing the same with their teams, so there’ll be twelve groups total, all working independently, tasked to solve discrete issues. Brass think if we blitz this, we might get some big wins”. Jeff, Nola and Jesus were three of the Development Managers in BioPharm’s Research Division.

Jesus turned to his twelve employees. “That’s it for now. I can take questions, if anyone has anything, but most of the details, even I don’t know yet.  I’ll give you more info as I learn it, and let you know the team splits, but the initial brief is to commence ramping things up around the start of next month. So anybody wants you for anything, the answer is a firm ‘no’”

❖

“That’s funny”. Josie almost fell backwards as the numbers on the printout hit her. “It can’t be! Jon, we need to go back over every single blood sample we’ve taken to date. We’re specifically looking at AMH levels. I’ve got to be one hundred percent sure on this. Right back to the bloods themselves, completely re-run the analyses, right?”

The amount of the AMH hormone present in the bloodstream is a key indicator of female fertility. Even in mice. And Jon recognised that, even though they were just one month into the project, even though there were just five hundred of the nasty critters, and even though they each only gave two sets of bloods per week, that this all equalled to a shit-ton of working late!

“Why?”, he responded, in a deep-south drool.  Jon had already tested the samples once, and had been meticulous. He simply didn’t make silly errors. “What’s wrong with them? What have you seen, Josie?”, He, too, now became animated.

“I dunno. Hopefully, nothing. But these results look weird, and I want to be absolutely sure before I take it higher. The AMH levels in these mice, they’re down by three-quarters, just about across the board. All since we started administering the current, production BB. These bloody creatures are becoming infertile!”