Page 5 of Love Spell

What he needed were more traders like Ranveer, brilliant at the job, lightning reflexes, always an eye on the ebb and flow of the market, and he could read a bloody memo.But Ranveers didn’t grow on trees.Daves, apparently, did.

“Maybe I should go.”

Timo glanced up from his phone.“Oh, sure.”How long had Blondie been standing there staring at him?Why was he even here?“Do you need money for a cab?”

Blinking in apparent confusion, the guy shook his head.“I’m fine.I’ll … uh… see you around?”He let himself out.

Head still throbbing, oppressed with a skin-crawling sensation that he was supposed to be busy doing something at this moment, Timo strolled to the window.He would have started pacing the room, making a figure eight with the leather sofa and kitchen island, but that needle pain blazed up again with a light behind his right eye and he winced.

Bed.A few hours of sleep, coffee, run, back to the office.All good.

He’d feel better in the morning.

Timo didn’t feel better in the morning.He hardly even felt like Timo in the morning.

3

“There’s that fucking whale again.I’m going to close that fucking trade …”

“Just because you got wiped out last week doesn’t mean it’s the same guy.”

“It was that same fucking trade and it’s the same fucking guy, I know it.”

Noah fought for focus on his master screen, red and green lights flickering endlessly on his other three screens like a Christmas parody.His positions were doing okay.Not everything was moving in the right direction, but more of them were than not.

“Hey, Noah!”

Volatility was higher than he liked, though, the market feeling jagged and anxious.But the latest CPI and retail data from the States had been solid — of course China wasn’t doing so hot but that had been priced in for months.Almost no point trying to track this to any fundamentals, but Noah’s brain still tried to latch onto a pattern.

“Noah!We’re waiting on that coffee run.Holy shit, does he have in earplugs?”Walking up to him, Dave punched Noah’s shoulder.Hard.“What the fuck, mate?”Dave was laughing.“I’ve been talking to you.You can’t not hear at work.”

Noah yanked the foam earplugs out as he rounded on Dave, spinning his office chair, so furious his hands trembled.“I can hear you, Dave.I’ve been able to hear you.”

“So you’re choosing not to do anything about it?I don’t know which is worse.”Dave rubbed his brow in mock confusion.

“You better not let Timmy see you with those in,” Arthur said, all serious, while Dave thought of himself as a comedian.“He’ll lose his shit.”

“Yeah, well, one more for the list.If I don’t get the coffee, you two yell at me,” Noah tried, longing to tell both these assholes that he’d been wearing the earplugs at work on occasion for several days and no one had noticed or cared.

As terrifying as Timo was, working under him for the past seven weeks had already taught Noah that what the boss cared about wasn’thowhis guys got the job done, it wasthatthey got it done.“If I get the coffee, Timo yells at me for not doing my job.I’m at my desk with my ears covered because I’mworking.I’m not trying to ignore you, Dave, I’m just trying to work.”Which means ignoring you.

“And I’m telling you what work needs doing.”Dave leaned down into his face in the swivelled chair.“New bloke gets the coffee.It’s literally in the job description.”

Breathing hard, face and whole chest burning, Noah opened his mouth.

It’s not literally in the job description, it’s figuratively in the job description, you pompous, overbearing, power-hungry son of a bitch.

Noah shut his mouth, swallowed, shoved himself up from the chair, past a grinning Dave, past an eye-rolling Arthur, exasperated rather than amused by Noah’s stupidity, past other desks in the open-plan office with up to nine screens each, straight into his boss coming around a corner and shouting back at someone over his shoulder.

“That’s what you said about Nigeria last time!Hello, Noah —” Timo, eye-catching as ever in one of his almost identical tailored suits, caught Noah’s arm as the two men narrowly avoided a collision.“Aren’t you supposed to be working?”

“I was just —”

“How will you get in the experience you wanted here before your visa runs out if you can’t spend two minutes in one go at your desk?”

“I’m sorry, I —”

“Look, Noah, I’m on your side.”Hand moved from arm to shoulder in a friendly squeeze.Eyes fixed on Noah’s, Timo murmured confidentially, “Think I don’t know it’s hard work?I get it.I’ve been in your shoes.We all have.But the work comes first.Stalking around and avoiding your desk isn’t earning anyone a penny, is it?”His smile was sublime.

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