Blood Match (5 page)

She cringed with embarrassment yet again at the memory. She was just not made for this type of lifestyle. How on earth did Adam do it? Oh well, she consoled herself, it’s highly unlikely she would bump into Mr nice eyes again anyway as she wouldn’t be revisiting that place ever again… never ever, no way Jose!  Adam will have to take her elsewhere next time, somewhere much more downmarket.

Full of self-disgust, she dragged herself into the kitchen for some sparkling water and juice. The cure-all for hangovers.  Emily was leaning on the island worktop texting on her phone with a mug of coffee at her side… the smell of it made Serena feel even more ill…

“Hi Emsy… how are you?” She asked whilst opening the fridge and taking out the juice and water for her drink.

”D’you want the full or the abridged version…” came the reply.

“Just ‘good’ will do Em. I don’t want details of the long and short strokes thanks”

“Good then” she replied smiling “Great actually…” she elaborated, beaming.

“Well I’m so pleased for you both – now go get some more good or great, or whatever… I’m off to bed again… try to keep the noise down, eh! – see you later perhaps!”

Serena rushed back to her bathroom. Her head was throbbing so very badly and she felt more than a little sick.

Chapter 8

Monday morning at 8.30am precisely Serena entered the lobby and approached the reception desk at B-TECHA. The black marble floor clicked under her shiny patent low heel stilettos. She was polished within an inch of her life. Her mass of long fair hair was swept back and wound up neatly, gelled, pinned and sprayed in place. Her suit was pressed and fit her like a glove. The waistcoat with its tiny red silk buttons was gorgeous. She made a mental note to email her mother and thank her properly soon, she had such exquisite taste when choosing her daughter’s attire. She did so want to make a very good impression here.  Her weekend experience had left her with much more than a hangover. She still had a sour taste in her mouth about the events of Saturday night and wanted to raise her self-esteem as much as possible today.

The receptionist gave her a visitor card, opened the security gate and told her to take the lift down to Human Resources on the fourth floor. She stood and looked at the amazing live murals on the walls. This was currently displaying a purple and blue waterfall. These were just some of the products they designed here. Mood Murals in ultra-thin LED crystal. She set off in the lift. This building had been built upside down. It was a form of eco building, or so she gathered from her earlier interview.  She arrived at the fourth floor and went through the glass door and into the inner reception. The Human Resources director acknowledged her presence from behind her glass fronted office and came out to greet her.

“Miss Green! Hello again. How are you today?” she said in her strong plummy accent.

“I am very well thank you, Mrs. Jackson. And you?”

“Likewise my dear, despite it being miserable Monday!” she replied smiling. “I was just going to make myself a cup of coffee.  But, now you are here. I think I shall introduce you to the other members of staff first and familiarise you with the building and then we can have a coffee and a brief discussion afterwards. How does that sound?”

“That sounds good to me” She said, nodding in reply.

“Let’s start at the bottom of the tank and work our way up, shall we?”

Serena followed Mrs Jackson back to the lift and listened intently to her as she explained about the building, its concept, design, awards it had won and the different departments that were housed within it. The sixth floor was the engine room of the building. It had a monstrous looking heat exchanger and various other large pieces of mechanical engineering inside that keep the building fresh and warm. The fifth floor housed the IT Department and a small staff café. The fourth contained HR, office admin and accounting. The third was the floor she would be working on. Marketing and business development, including the technical design team. Finally the second floor was the executive suite. This floor had a boardroom, a meeting room, Martha the secretary’s room and three offices for the two Directors and CEO, all currently empty, apparently they are in Rome this week on a conference. Floor 1 was the car parking level. Floor zero was ground level and reception.

She shook hands and spoke with so many people that her mind was reeling. There were over 120 staff squirrelled away in here – all beavering away underground… Sadly she could not remember any of their names at all! Mrs Jackson, or Thelma, as she had asked to be called had left Serena in her office whilst making them some coffee. She quickly sent Adam a text….

“All okay so far – see you tonight.”

They spent the next half hour doing some  admin and finally Thelma announced that they were all finished and she would now take her upstairs to her new office. She started to feel a little nervous as this was now ‘it’… She was not entirely clear what was expected of her in her new role although she had a sketchy plan of action in her head. She didn’t know exactly how much freedom she was going to have, or how much of a budget to work with.

Alistair was the Head of Marketing. He was a rather large man in terms of height and breadth and possessed a lovely jolly personality. Serena had liked him instantly at her interview. He stood up as she arrived at his desk.

“Can I leave Serena in your capable hands?” asked Thelma with a smile in his direction.

“Of course. Thanks Thelma. I will get Serena settled in nicely today.”

Thelma left and he looked at Serena with an understanding expression.

“I know! All these people… it’s hell isn’t it? The first day is always the worst!  It’ll soon be over…! This is your desk next to mine. Take a seat Serena and I will give you a run through of everything we do here, give you your computer access codes and then we’ll talk in some detail about what I envisage your role to be…”

By lunchtime she had a firm handle on what she was supposed to be doing. Apart from their website, the company had a Facebook fan page, a Twitter account and that’s about it. There was no inter weaving of social networks and no work has been done other than setting up a few pages. She really was starting with a blank canvas. No one knows anything much about the social side of marketing and business reputation, so she would be in her element.  She had been given a set budget and provided she reported to Alistair frequently on her activities, she was almost her own boss.

She started a plan of action producing a set of graphic and text slides for a brief introductory presentation she was required to do for higher management and the board next week. This would take her a few days to complete and she could practice her presentation at home. She had done one or two presentations such as this during her business degree, so she wasn’t unduly worried about her initial assignment. If she was completely honest with herself, she was perhaps just a little nervous at the thought of performing in front of all those important people…

“Come along Serena, it’s lunchtime! Let me introduce you to our staff café! Now it’s not the Ritz, but it does have a nice selection of desserts!” Alistair joked. He looked like he indulged in desserts quite often, Serena thought, judging by his waistline. As they made their way down in the lift for lunch Alistair chatted away to her about his rather large family of 5 lovely children and his wife of 16 years.  Serena felt quite comfortable with him. He was pleasant, jovial and non threatening. She liked her job even more already.

At the end of her first day she felt she had made a considerable leap forward into her role already. All thoughts of Saturday’s humiliation were fading away as her self-esteem finally bubbled up to its usual happy equilibrium.  She left the office at 5pm with a bounce in her step and headed off to her flat.

Chapter 9

Serena arrived home to find a note on the kitchen worktop. They often left each other notes… it was a fun little thing they had going between them. Quite often they would add amusing little pictures too. This all went back to their childhood.

“Gone out with Em… It’s a real date – dinner and the movies – what about that!  Don’t wait up, we may be naked as soon as we get back!”

She smiled inside and out at the thought of Emily and Adam as an item. She liked Emily and hoped Adam didn’t hurt her too soon. It was going to be hard for him to change the habits of a lifetime just like that. She wasn’t sure Emily really wanted a quick fling and that was probably all that was on offer.

She looked in the fridge and found some food for dinner. She fixed a tuna salad, ate it, put on her exercise gear then selected a yoga DVD. Serena loved her new found yoga hobby.  She had literally only just got into it a couple of months ago. She settled down for a relaxing half hour session on her mat.  She was just about to press the start button on the remote when the entry phone buzzed. She got up and looked at the video screen by the door. Phil’s cute young face peered back at her. She was intrigued about what went down between them the other night.

“Hey Phil – what’s up? If you’re looking for Adam he’s out…” She spoke into the phone.

“Not especially.  Not doing much – just thought I’d call round for a few minutes. You busy?” he asked.

“Not really – come up.” She replied and pressed the buzzer to let him in the front door.

This probably wasn’t wise with Adam out, but she wanted to straighten things out a little. She opened the apartment door and he bounded in and through to the living room. She took a proper objective look at him. She had always thought Phil to be rather good looking in a tall, healthy and athletic way. He looked much younger than his 23 years. Standing there in his low slung baggy jeans, oversized navy blue Nike t-shirt and massive trainers, he had the New York backstreet look down to a fine art.  She had the feeling he had made quite an effort for her. He smelled nice too, she thought as she was caught in a shockwave of aftershave.

“Oh, you are doing yoga are you, I didn’t know you were into that?” he said sinking into the sofa and picking up her DVD case.

“Only recently. It’s relaxing. You should try it” She suggested.

“Yoga is a chick thing!” he protested “No way! I’ll stick to footie if you don’t mind!”

“Phil…” She began, with a completely mad little experiment suddenly forming in her mind. This would determine how she felt, at least…

“We’ve known each other for a long time haven’t we…?  We’re good friends and all that…. We’ve built up a lot of trust between us, well I feel we have… and I was just wondering something… But before I tell you what it is, you’ve got to promise me that you won’t think this means anything special, okay?”

“Well, now you’ve got me interested!  Okay, I promise. What something are you wondering about Serry?” He said smiling at her with twinkling eyes.

She climbed up on the sofa next to him and wrapped her arms around his neck smiling back at him.

“I was wondering if you would kiss me again please – properly, now that we are both completely sober. I am absolutely not going to do anything else with you. I just want a kiss from you. A really good one. Give it your best efforts Philip Roberts…”

“Serry! You what? You actually want me to…! Right now?”  Phil’s eyes lit up like torches and he licked his lips at the prospect.

“Yes. I just said so, didn’t I?” She said enticingly.

He pulled her towards him and she eased across his lap. This all felt very strange. She waited for him to start the action.  Even small fireworks would do, she thought. He just sat there looking at her for a moment. “Come on now, don’t be shy…” She said quietly. He touched her lips gently at first, a little hesitant to get going. He was a lot different when he was sober. Very gentle and sweet. Well this was a very nice sensation; her stomach was a touch tingly – this was a good start.  Then he suddenly sank into her with a massive passion. He was a rather good kisser, she thought as his tongue rubbed gently against hers. His hands trailed up and down her neck and his thumbs ran around the back of her ears.  There were no massive fireworks going off but she was certainly enjoying it and felt some warm whirly sensations building inside her. She played with his short hair and ran her hands up and down his neck copying him.

“Serry…” He moaned as he shivered a little beneath her touch. She found this rather pleasing. She was doing something right. She went with it for a good length of time and then felt she had to call a sudden stop to it as it was obvious from what was going on underneath her and his heavy breathing that he was getting extremely turned on. She quickly broke away, a little embarrassed, planted a little kiss on his nose and stood up.

“Thanks Phil, that was great. Fancy a drink?” She asked in a softly consoling tone.

“No I fucking don’t!” He gasped. “Come back here and let me kiss you some more.”

“Remember what I said” Serena reminded him. “I said don’t take this the wrong way and it wasn’t going to go any further. We had our long kiss. So that’s about it, best friend of my brother!”

“But Serry babe, that was so damn hot – don’t you want just a little bit more?” He pleaded with a desperate tone.

“No.  Not today. I need to think about it.” She said firmly.

He stood up to face her.

“You need to think! You are kidding me! Well I don’t… we are so good together. It could get even better. Let me work some magic on you.. Go on baby.. Adam doesn’t need to know anything about it if you’re worried about that. I won’t tell him…”

He took her hand. Her initial resolve was slipping fractionally. He was very appealing in a young and fresh looking way. She couldn’t deny that. She also had to admit she had started to imagine him undressed. Obviously he did something to her. But… she couldn’t get past the fact that he was her brother’s best pal and she had known him since he was 12!

Furthermore, the big question that had to be asked and answered was… Did she really want Phil, her brother’s pal, to be the first man she had real memorable sex with? The answer was emphatically no. It was all too close to home.

“Look, you’ll have to go – this wasn’t a good idea of mine.” Serena said finally with a sigh. “I’m really very sorry for all this Phil – now go – please!”