Free Wall Street Blues (Swashbuckling Romance) by Nancy Clinton

 
     
        A Friend From Hell
     
         Wall Street is not only what we all know it to be: a popular, world-renowned financial district in America. It is also a place of annoying sins where raunchy bosses stalked their beautiful employees without courtesy; where happiness is squashed because of jealousy and unnecessary rat race. On top of it, it is a street where innocence is destroyed and hopes are dashed by the most inhumane group of people.
           But I had had a different perspective of Wall Street right from the moment I accepted to work for a bank on Broad Street. For me, it would be the place for my professional development, where I could climb up the corporate ladders, where I could contribute my own humble quota to help American economy expand by creating jobs, as a senior officer, and making people’s lives better.   
       At twenty-eight, my aspirations might seem too big for people who didn’t have knowledge of my background. Both of my parents were retired bankers: my father became a chief operating officer (COO) of his bank before his full retirement at seventy years of age; my mum was also a senior manager of hers. And they had instilled me the thought of possibility of reaching any level in my career if I could only work hard. But what my parents had hidden from, maybe because of the fear of discouraging me, was the reality of the doggy lifestyle on Wall Street.
        Armed with a first degree in econo mics and a six-month stint as a banking intern at the same bank where I would be honing my skills in the coming years—the bank whose CEO was my billionaire uncle’s best friend—I had approached everything concerning my profession with an air of rigid seriousness.
       By coincidence or deliberate selection, all of the bank’s three new recruits were ladies and graduates from the same university. Though I didn’t know the other two ladies, Meg and Hillary, during our college days, but I felt more attracted to Hillary because we shared the same interests in music and books, and she had been raised by disciplinary parents as mine. At twenty-seven, and like me, she had never dated any guy in her life—she confessed that she didn’t want anything to stand in the way of her education then; a decision that let her graduate at the top of her class. Together, Hillary and I had formed a secret club for fun, Sisters of the Virgin New Yorkers, with the acronym SVNY!
        Like two Siamese Twins, Hillary and I ta gged along well in everything we did, most especially in our official duties as the secretaries to the bank’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Henry Russell. Despite knowing Mr. Russell for decades and enjoying good relationship with him and his family, in particular, with his forty-two-year-old wife who looked like a teenager, sleek and very pretty, I had learnt to always behave in a professional demeanor whenever I was around him.
      This Monday morning was dull and lazy for both of us as the CEO had jetted out to the United Kingdom for a business meeting. Hillary and I had had plenty of time on our hands to burn as no one bothered us except for a few phone calls from people requesting to book appointments with Mr. Russell.
       “I’m wondering we are on the verge of kicking up some shit for people to be crazy about in New York City,” Hillary said, smiling mischievously.
       I frowned a bit because I didn’t get what she was talking about. “What about that?” I asked, impatiently.
      “The Sisters of the Virgin New Yorkers thing!” She shouted, but not loud enough to disturb people in the next office.
    “ Yeah. What about that?” I said again, looking straight into her eyes for clue. “Or have you got any weird plan in your chest to blow things up?”
      “Definitely, Jan,” she answered in her usual comical way. Only she referred to me as “Jan”, everyone else called me “Janet”, Janet Bellview. “I’m thinking about setting up a website and a Facebook