Love On The Nile - Rosalie Otterbourne x OC

How It Began

Authors note: I am skipping the war scene at the beginning and going straight to the pub scene because poirot isn't the main character in this book.

3rd person:

THE LONDON AIR  IS DEWY  and slightly humid as the rain starts to die out. The street is full of reporters surrounding the new live music pub, trying to catch a glimpse of the famous detective Hercule Poirot as he exits his vehicle. "Poirot! Where you been? The Arundell mystery, are you with case?" One reporter yells over the growing crowd before snapping a picture with his camera. "No, I am with hunger." Poirot shuts down with his typical slight smile as he passes the reporter into the pub.  He greets the owner of the pub and is led to his table for one. "Anything else Mr. Poirot wants, just ask." The owner says, walking off after making sure Poirot is comfortable.

The owner makes his way over to the stairs and walks up behind a tall black woman in a black sparkly dress. "The whole house is wondering why there's no music." He states, causing the woman to turn around at his presence.

"There's no music because no money's been paid." The woman replies, her eyebrow slightly raised. "I pay everyone at the end of the night." The man quickly counters.

"Well in my experience, men who run such upright, quality establishments like yours," she starts, letting her eyes move around the place before bringing them back to his, "lose their wallets when the bill comes." The owner scoffs letting his head tilt back a bit to look into the tall woman's eyes. "I'm betting you already forgot my name....Rosalie Otterbourne." The woman now known as Rosalie informs.

"I'm not just Salome Otterbourne's manager, I'm her niece. She will retire wealthy, and I'll see to that....And we get paid up front." She asserts.

"So if you want a little music," she says scrunching her nose a little, moving her shoulders back and forth as if she were dancing. "First I wanna see a stack of green or whatever color money is in your country." She finishes, tilting her slightly back and to the side which her signature smirk.

The owner clears his throat and reaches into his suit jacket, pulling out a packet with cash in it and hands it to her. Smiling, Rosalie takes the packet, "You remember my name now." She says with a smug smile on her face. Then she lets the smile drop and signals to one of the assistants that they can start the show before letting her eyes follow the man as he storms off defeated.

Suddenly there is a start of a guitar run while an announcer says " LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! SALOME OTTERBOURNE!" The crowd of couples dancing on the floor start to go wild, cheering as Salome appears at the top of the stairs. She starts to descend the staircase as she continues her guitar runs. Rosalie claps and whoops for her aunt, loving to watch her perform even though she has seen her perform more than a million times.

Rosalie nods her head to the beat, smiling while watching the couples dance. She's never had the chance to dance to her aunt's music with a lover. Sure, she's had her fair share of relationships but they usually only last until her aunt's gig is over and they have to travel to a new place. They were never committed enough to stay with her through the constant traveling. So she just decided to stop getting into relationships all together. Still though, a small part of her wonders if she'll ever find someone who will actually love and appreciate her enough to stay.

Rosalie is so caught up in her thoughts that she doesn't notice her best friend, Natalie, come up behind her. "It's so lively in here. Salome is killing it as usual...." Natalie trails off as she recognizes the zoned out look on her best friend's face. " Hey, what's wrong?"

Rosalie zones back in at her question, putting the smile she didn't even realize had dropped back onto her face. "Nothing's wrong I was just thinking about something." Natalie raises her eyebrow at her response. "Do you forget how long I've known you? Rosie were practically sisters I know when you're lying to me."

Rosalie cracks a small smile at Natalie's comment. Rosalie had met Natalie in kindergarten and they had been inseparable since. She's the only person besides her aunt that knows the real Rosie behind her cold exterior and sassy remarks. She had been through everything with her including Rosie coming out to her aunt as bisexual. When Natalie's parents died in their teen years, she had no family left so Salome took her in and loved her like she's her own. (We're just gonna pretend that you can let an orphan permanently live with you without having to adopt them:))

"I'm fine, Nat." Rosalie reassured, making her smile bigger to convince her further. Surprisingly Nat believes her, either that or she just drops the topic. "And anyway, where were you this whole time? Talking to bouc I'm guessing???" Rosie teased, nudging Nat with her hip.

Natalie laughed, pushing her away. "Yes actually, he was wondering if we could meet while we're still in London." Rosalie looks over at her with her eyebrow raised. " Did you say yes?"

Natalie gives her a "be for real" look. "Rosie, you know how his mother feels about me." Rosalie clenches her jaw at the mention of Bouc's mother. Rosie has never liked his mother as she hated Natalie just because she was an orphan and American. She thought that Nat only wanted to be with Bouc for his money and never approved of their relationship.

"Yeah, we'll she's gonna have to get over it cuz y'all are gonna get married and have 3 kids and a golden labradoodle named lucky." Rosie says quoting the dream that Nat had for their future and wouldn't stop gushing to Rosie about.

Nat playfully rolls her eyes chuckling, "Whatever! I'm gonna go get us some drinks."

Rosie's eyes follow Nat as she walks away before turning her eyes back to the dance floor, sighing as her aunt finishes out her first song. Suddenly, there is a commotion at the top of the stairs. A more upbeat song starts to play as Rosie looks up to see all of the reporters crowding around a woman in a silver dress. She realizes that it's Linnet Ridgeway, her old friend from grade school, and smiles. Rosie watches as she comes down the stairs and the couples part like Red Sea as she walks across the dance floor.

As the crowd starts to bunch back together she catches a glimpse of wild-curly brown hair. She has never seen a woman have such a rebelliously wild hair style.

It intrigues her.

The woman is wearing a black spaghetti strap dress with red accents here and there. She can only see the back of her but she can already tell she carries herself well. The slight swing of her hips as she walks draws her in further and keeps her captive.

A dancing man bumps into her turning her body to the side. Rosalie can see her sharp jawline and beautiful side profile as the man apologizes and she reassures the man that no harm has been done.

As if sensing her stare, the mystery woman makes eye contact with Rosalie out of the corner of her eye. The woman turns her face a little more towards Rosalie and smiles at her before continuing to where she was going.

For a second, Rosalie thought she was having a heart attack as she feels her heart stop when the girl smiles at her.

The woman disappears out of her sight and Rosalie goes to follow her but realizes what she's doing and snaps herself out of it.

She turns back to the music trying to figure out what just happened and realizes that for the first time that whole night....

She let more than just her eyes follow.