Rose Blood

By Jessica Miles

©2013 Jessica Miles

Copyright Notice

This book is sold subject to conditions that it can not by way of trade be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the author’s prior consent, in any form or cover, other than which it is published.

This novel is a work of fiction.  The names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Love planted a rose and the world turned sweet.

Katharine Lee Bates

Chapter 1

“Vivvy on line two Ro…”  Harrison said loudly from his desk next to hers.

She gave a quick thumbs up.

“Carl, look I’ve gotta go, another call’s waiting. I’ll get something for dad from the both of us okay. I know struggling guitar players haven’t got a penny to their name. I’ll do a red letter day or something. I’ll text you later tonight…”

“Thanks Rosie. I owe you one. Did I ever tell you you’re the best sister ever?”

“Yep, usually after I give you money… gotta go bro… bye.”

Another line flashed on the board and Harrison picked it up. It had been busy, busy, busy today.

“Johnson you bastard! How’s things? Catch the Man U match the other day?…. yeah….. what a great game…”

He launched into his usual coarse manly style of talk with his newest football loving Australian client. He had such a different style of client management to hers, Rose mused smiling a little. She liked listening to him chat them up. He was very matey…

She clicked line two and picked up her French client.

“Vivienne! Comment ça va? How is Frederick today, well I hope?”

Vivienne was her favourite private client. She had visited her and her much older invalid husband a few times in their apartment in the exclusive Arrondissiments in Paris and had formed a bond of friendship over the last two years, ever since she had been managing their sizeable fortune for them.

“Ca va bien, Rose. Frederick is well too. Thank you for asking. The reason for my call so late in the day is that I am watching the news just now and I am a little worried about the oil crisis in the middle east. I know we have a lot invested in oil… What are your thoughts about that my dear?” Her beautiful French accent rolled off her tongue like a sugary waterfall.

“Ah that, I’m well ahead of you there, I’ve already moved 25 percent of the oil stocks out of your portfolio and have replaced with nuclear fuels. They seem to be on a good steady trend, may even improve on the oil performance. Let’s give it a few days and I’ll re evaluate”

“C’est merveilleux! So efficient. Where would we be without you Rose, ma petite?”

“It’s my job Vivienne… it’s what you’re paying me for!” She laughed a little and heard Vivienne chuckle too.  They were paying Polygon rather well for the services Rose provided.

She enjoyed her interaction with her clients. They were spread worldwide. It could sometimes be difficult to get hold of them with the different time zones, but she tended to speak to them rather than text or email whenever she could. It was far more personal. They trusted her and she wanted to do a good job for them, to get the best growth on their investment.

She was suddenly startled by a ball of paper flying through the air and landing on her desk narrowly missing her half drunk cold cup of coffee. She threw a quick irked look at the person responsible. Harrison, or Harry as he was more commonly called, was a royal pain at times, but on the whole fun to work with and more than pleasant to look at too… She threw the paper ball back at him with a little grin. He had finished his matey chat with his client and was standing up on the other side of their block of desks with his jacket on ready to leave. He gave her a five sign. That was their usual code for ‘see you in five, downstairs in the Plaza at All Bar One’.

The traders got together for a quick drink most nights after work. It helped them wind down after a day’s worth of adrenalin and stress and they could talk things out if they felt the need.  It could be hard going straight home with a lot of work baggage cluttering their brains, especially if they’d had a very bad day in the markets.

Rose liked to socialise with the team, but she wouldn’t usually join them if they decided to make a big night of it together. Her male colleagues were well known to end up in extremely dubious bars and clubs… the little experience she had had of that type of entertainment made her quite sure it was not the kind of place she wanted to be, especially with a bunch of drunk and horny male alley cats…

She finished her conversation with Vivienne and quickly checked through all her accounts for a moment. Everything was A-OK in her mind. She sent out the end of day reports to her clients with a final click on her keyboard, closed down her trading systems and got up to leave.

Mike Harding, the Chief Trader and her boss, was still in his office, just across the walk way from where she sat. He was ruffling through his untidy desk,  which was heaving with reports, looking for something and seemed rather tense judging by his  current expression.

“Coming for a drink Mike?” she asked standing at his doorway.

“Wish I could Ro. Unfortunately I’ve got a heavy with old Clara tonight, just doing some prep for it.”

Old Clara was Clara Moore, the Investment Director. A fifty five year old ex-trader harridan who instilled fear in all with her acid tongue and demanding nature.

“Shame. It’s a lovely evening… We’ll probably be outside in the Plaza if you finish soon.”

“Yeah well, don’t wait around for me… It’s gonna be a long old fucking haul tonight. She wants to talk budget and performance
and
clients…. Could be in her office till ten at least!”

“Hope it’s not too bad Mike… ‘Night then.”

She made her way into the lift. Poor old Mike. It was a hard life running the room. The pressure got to him sometimes. She had a bird’s eye view of his moods and stress levels through his glass partition. She didn’t want his job for a second. Managing staff, budgets, all those reports, his own clients… and old Clara on his back 24/7. He could keep it, no matter what the salary was like! She admired the way he handled it all though, he was as tough as they come.

She arrived at the ground floor, left the building and crossed the Plaza to the bar. Harrison and another two of her other colleagues were standing outside with a few bottles already lined up on the table.

“Rosie …! There you go…” Harrison handed her a bottle of beer. “Mike coming?”

“No, he’s got a heavy with Clara.”

“Poor bastard….! Well… it’s just the four of us tonight then. The others are out.”  He stood in front of her giving her some of his latest, tactical, full on eye contact “What are you doing later Ro? I was just wondering if you fancy a little night on the town with me after this?”

“Can’t Harry sorry… got stuff to do. Anyway, I’ve had quite enough fighting you off on our nights out. I’m not sure I can take another one.”

“Stop fighting me then. You know you want me deep inside you…”

“Oh, you’re just so funny Harry, really you are! Is there ever anything else going on in your head?”

“Not when I’m around you, I’m just a hardened mess…” She didn’t know just how much of a  mess he really was… this was no fun game to him anymore.

“Shut the fuck up Harry. We’ve had this type of conversation before… like a hundred times… you know my feelings on it, so just cut it out.”

He looked quite hurt and sulky for a moment, then recovered with his usual banter.

“Can you believe it?… How can she not want me?” he joked turning to Kieran and Charlie.

“Sam’s over there… she’ll want you, you’re her flavour of the month…” said Kieran motioning in her direction. They all looked across to small blond Samantha who smiled and waved at them giving Harry a lustful come hither look.

Harrison wandered over to Sam’s group and put his arm around her. Sam worked in their IT department. She was very popular with a few of the men in the trading room. She had a trader fixation. Harrison was her latest one.  That would be the last Rose spoke to him tonight then. If you could call it speaking. She seemed to be snapping at him quite a lot lately. She started to have a very strange unsettling feeling creep up on her as she watched him flirting with Sam, stroking her bare arm with his long fingers and hugging her tight …  She pulled herself out of that feeling abruptly.

She looked at Harry for a while more trying to force her mind onto their working relationship, as she didn’t seem to be able to stop looking his way, this was safer ground at least. They got on really well in the office. She would go as far as to say they were good friends most of the time. They helped each other… unlike some of the other traders who would stab you in the back at any given opportunity.  He had a good sense of humour and she enjoyed his company… he even stirred her up with his suggestive chat and constant hitting on her.

She stopped her mind wandering that way yet again… She really did need to be off soon for one reason or another, mainly to get Harry out of sight and out of her head. She needed to do some food shopping and get that present sorted out for her dad too. That would be another thing crossed off her list of to do’s.

She had another very quick drink with Keiran and Charlie who worked on the big guns Corporate desk, chatting about how dead everything was and the difficulties they were having getting to their targets this year and then she slunk off quickly. Once she’d had more than two or three her resolve always went sideways. She ended up having five or six and getting nothing done when she got home. She was pretty sure Charlie was almost an alcoholic the amount he seemed to drink…  The whole drink culture surrounding her job didn’t sit that well with her really, it was difficult to avoid and resist as it was so bloody nice . Still, she felt she was being fairly sensible about it.

She got on the Docklands Light Railway driverless train at Canary Wharf and squashed in between the sweating bodies. The travelling wasn’t great, but it didn’t take that long.  Just 40 minutes to Highgate and a five minute walk after that to her flat.  She came out of her local underground station, picked up some shopping from the local supermarket and walked down the tree lined avenue towards her crescent and her flat. She thought just how lucky she was. She loved her challenging and exciting job, which was in fact rather well paid. It afforded her a comfortable lifestyle and some great holidays abroad. She wasn’t rich by any means but she wasn’t short of money either.

She turned into Cheshire Gardens and arrived at her home in a cheerful mood ready for her few tasks and her quiet and peaceful evening ahead.

Chapter 2

Marcus stood up and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. He picked up his phone and called his assistant.

“Jeff… Kate’s passed out on me again.. can you come up right now… check her vitals and get a blood sample done before you take her home will you?”

“Yes Marc”

“and get Benet to tidy things up… it got a little messy today…”

“Yep. I’m on it”

“Oh and Jeff… stay with her for a while when you take her home… make sure she’s alright will you.”

“Will do…”

Marcus finished his call to his assistant and stood at the bench looking down at her pale slim form in her black vest and denim shorts. He picked up her hand and stroked it gently. He was very fond of Kate, but this was the second time this had happened lately. His supply women were generously rewarded to keep themselves fit and healthy and it wasn’t looking too good for her right now. He brushed a stray blond tendril of hair away from her face and dropped a kiss on her forehead.

He left his supply room crossing the inner lobby to his bathroom leaving his phone on the small table outside. He took off his underwear, turned the shower on and stood under the strong jet of rapidly warming water aiming it directly at his face. It ran down his body pooling around his feet with a pink tinge which quickly changed to clear.

He felt full of energy, he loved his morning supply sessions as they put him in a good mood all day… Well normally they did… it wasn’t too great having Kate pass out on him.