The weather was lovely when I came out earlier, warm and sunny. Now after spending an hour overground and twenty minutes underground, the rain was coming down as hard as I had ever seen rain as I exited the underground station at Piccadilly.
Rivers of fast flowing water were running like mini waterfalls down the concrete staircase leading to the street, my brand new suede loafers would be ruined by the time I got to the interview. Mum would kill me, she had taken money from her savings to kit me out.
My mother wanted me to go to Uni, I had the grades but I wanted a job. No to be honest I wanted the money, I had spent my teenage years in a one parent family and had to make do. I had friends that were going on holidays and buying cars, or going clubbing at weekends where as I, I was stuck at home with my mum with no future and no cash. Mum needed a holiday too as we had not had a proper break in years.
She tried her very best for us and often worked two or three jobs. One in the local supermarket on the tills, another cleaning houses with her older sister, my Aunt Alice and sometimes a shift or two in the local pub behind the bar. We needed more income coming into the house and besides that, I wanted to pay my way now I was old enough. I mean, I was 18 in three weeks and wanted to be the man of the house.
We argued about it a lot and I could see working so hard was taking its toll on her, my mind was made up and I had to help out.
My father had died of heart failure when I was ten, I was heartbroken and remember every single minute of that horrible day. It was a hot summers day in the school holidays, just a perfectly normal day and I was out playing football when I saw mum walking over the field towards us. She had her arms wrapped around her body and her shoulders hunched into her neck, her mouth was moving as if she was speaking but no sound escaped her lips.
"Bobby, I think you better go see what she wants." Steve, my buddy said quietly, "She looks upset mate."
The ball had just been passed to me and being a kid I just wanted to play, I hit it sweetly with my right foot in the general direction of the goal and watched it soar into the top right hand corner. It was probably the best goal I had ever scored and turned to run the length of the pitch to celebrate but no-one had seen it. All of my friends had turned to look at my mother who had sunk to her knees on the grass sobbing.
I spent the day at the hospital with my aunt trying her best to console me. It dawned on me in that quiet family room of the hospital of what an asshole I had been today when I saw my mother completely fall apart in her sisters arms. From that day on it was just me and mum, us against the world.
It was aunt Alice that came to my rescue on the job front a week after my birthday. She sat my mum down and had a heart to heart convincing her that taking on more debt with Uni costs at the moment was madness. It was agreed that I would take a gap year and if I found a worthwhile job we would reassess it on my nineteenth birthday.
Aunt Alice owned and ran a very successful cleaning company that had some quite wealthy clients, one of whom was a local businessman Terrence Johnstone-Browne.
He owned a few companies which Alice held the cleaning contracts for, my mum also cleaned his private house. Alice had a quiet word with his wife Penelope about me, she told me that she had really "bigged me up" so not to let her down.
Penelope Johnstone-Browne ran one of their bigger companies, a huge advertising agency that ran campaigns for major global companies and political parties. They employed over 200 people in just her building alone, Aunt Alice had secured me an interview with Mrs. Johnstone-Browne herself. I had met her when mum had no choice but to take me to work with her a few years ago, I was about twelve and our babysitter had called off at the last minute.
"Just be good Bobby, please don't embarrass me in front of them." Mum implored.
I had remembered Mrs. Johnstone-Browne being a very intimidating woman, she was all business suits, heels and attitude.
She took a shine to me that night though, and I spent most of the evening cuddled up with her on her large chesterfield sofa watching movies and eating popcorn. Aunt Alice once told me that she was given a few more contracts on the back of that night. Mum was very happy with the praise I was given by the lady of the house too.
"He is a credit to you Eileen." I heard her say to my mum as we left the grand house, "Such a lovely young boy, please feel free to bring the young lad along again."
Mrs. Johnstone-Browne paid mum double from then on and I grew to love those nights on that sofa. Penelope Johnstone-Browne became my go-to woman throughout my teenage years, I spent many nights comforted in my fantasies under the covers dreaming of her. Now here I was on my way to see the woman again, this time as a man.
I ran through the wet streets trying to avoid the torrential London weather by stopping at every other shop hording that I could find on my route. Looking down at my new shoes as I stood under cover, I was sickened by the state of them. My brand new Hush Puppies were drenched and looked a mess. "Fuck!" I hissed under my breath, my best sports jacket was soaked through too. This was not the impression I wanted to make to her.
PJB Inc.
Even the sign on the building looked imposing in big gold lettering on a shiny black background as I approached the main entry doors. The rotating doors opened up onto a beautiful foyer area with pure white marble floors and peach coloured walls with expensive works of art hanging tastefully here and there, they subtly guided you towards a long white marble desk which behind sat three of the most beautiful girls I had ever seen.
"Can I help you sir?"
The stunning blond perched on a tall stool in the middle asked, her colleges tapped the keyboards either side of her with their perfectly manicured nails without even looking up. She tilted her head slightly and raised a brow waiting for my answer.
"Sorry," I answered, trying to gather my wits. These three gorgeous ladies had put me a little off kilter.
"Erm, yes, Bobby, er...Bob Saunders to see Mrs. Johnstone-Browne." I eventually managed to splutter in a not very convincing way.
I hastily tried to dry off the tops of my shoes on the backs of my trouser legs as I stood waiting for the secretary as she looked down at the screen in front of her.
"Ah yes, here we are." She stood and came around from the back of the desk,
"Let me show you the way."
The rest of her matched the head and shoulders, she was magnificent. Her long tanned legs went on forever and her heels clicked on the marble tiles so loudly, but somehow she managed to glide so daintily as she led me over to the lifts. I could not help but stare at her backside as she sashayed a few feet in front of me, she looked over her shoulder and caught me. I expected to be admonished and went scarlet but she just smiled and said,
"Take the elevator to floor seven, ask for Helen."
With that she swiped a card over a small black box on the selection panel and hit floor seven, she smiled again but this time winked then turned to walk away.
Her ass in that tiny tight skirt looked amazing and was my last memory of her as the doors closed on my perfect view.
*PING* Floor 7, the voice from nowhere said over the lift intercom.
If the foyer was amazing, then this was another level entirely. Trees! Trees growing inside, proper living trees were the first thing you saw as you stepped out of the lifts. A pond, a real life pond, with fish!
The overwhelming smell of a pine forest took your nose and transported you to a Norwegian fjord. I looked around puzzled at the sights before me, this was unlike any office I had ever been in, ok, I had not been in many but this, this was incredible.
"It's all about first impressions." A voice from my side made jump.
Startled, I looked to my right to see yet another stunning woman smiling at me.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to make you jump. I just love it when a newbie comes up here for the first time." She said, holding her hand out for me to shake.
It took me a second or two to register her words before I saw her hand still hanging in midair.
"You gonna leave me hanging?" she laughed.
"Sorry, sorry." I flustered and took her hand in mine.
"Helen," she said, "You are?"
"Bobby, B-Bob, Saunders, Bob Saunders." I managed to spurt out, sounding even more stupid than I had downstairs. Her words 'first impressions' whizzing around in my brain.
God, she was gorgeous.