LUST, PRIDE AND OTHER FEELINGS

All in or Nothing. Chapter 3

The next morning, I wore one of my new purchases to work. It was a sleeveless square necked white body con dress, paired with my beige Chanel long tweed jacket, accessorizing with a solitaire diamond pendant hanging from a delicate necklace and matching diamond studs. Slipping on my usual 5 inch heels, I was ready to go.

A firm believer of dress for success, an hour less sleep is worth the effort.

Markets opened red for the third day in a row, this time with more than a hundred point drop on the Dow Jones first thing in the morning. Oil dropped perpetually, substantiating a downward trend. Needless to say, I was ecstatic.

My phone rings and it was Sarah calling as usual ignoring the fact that I've reminded her a million times not to call but text during market hours, but today I was in a good mood. Cheery enough to extend 60 seconds by triple the time.

"Good morning woman. You've got 180 seconds", I chirped.

"Someone's awfully merry today. Anything to do with Nate last night?"

"I retract that back. It's 60 seconds now. Wait, since when were you and Tim going out?", I directed the question back to her. She laughs, "Since never. I went along with his plan just to annoy you, though it seemed that you had fun instead".

I ignored her remark and changed the topic. We agreed to meet up on Saturday for spa and retail therapy before hanging up.

I turned my full attention back to the screen, there wasn't much to do today except sit back, monitor and relax. Prices aren't low enough to go bargain hunting yet which only betokens one thing, there's still room for a further drop. Seeing that I've got a slight breather, I decided to run through the piling resumes that I've yet to review.

"Brandon, can you bring the resumes over. Also, a cup of coffee while you're at it, thanks", flashing him a grateful smile.

He returns with a stack of resume and coffee in hand. "Does this mean I'm finally getting my own assistant now?", Brandon asks with hopeful eyes.

I grinned replying, "Yes, that's if we can find the right guy. Once we do, I'll teach you market related stuff to handle and you can hand down the admin work. Let's run through together and get you an assistant".

"I knew those coffee slavery days would finally pay off someday", he joked.

"Dissever the pile first, put the ones with excellent grades from prestigious universities to the left and those without to the right", I instructed.

My criteria is simple, I like a street smart, eager to learn and hardworking person. Most importantly, passionate and takes orders well.

A distinguished education is irrelevant if one lacks those traits. An overprivileged graduate without the required mind-set is a sitting duck waiting to be eaten alive by the markets. I've seen many quit in less than 3 months.

By the time he finished sorting the resumes, I let him decide the candidate to call in for an interview. He chose from the right pile, the street smart one. "Good choice", I told him.

"Thanks, I was hoping to give them a chance like how you gave me mine", he smiles. When Brandon first came in for an interview he was only 18, young and eager yet something lit in his eyes, it was the spark of a fighting spirit. Now he's all grown up, extremely diligent, especially loyal and like a little brother to me.
I ruffled his hair and smiled warmly. No words were needed as it was a mutual understanding and bond.

I redirected my attention back to the trading screen. Dow is now trading at a two hundred points drop. Several negative articles were released over noon, resulting to my unrealised gains from the shorts increasing steadily. It was soon becoming an arduous feat to remain level headed from the all the exhilaration.