London, a Tuesday in the late afternoon.
A blue Rolls-Royce Phantom pulled up in front of the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, one of the most luxurious hotels in the city. A few seconds later, the doorman standing in front of the building’s entrance approached the vehicle before opening one of the rear doors. A man in his late forties, dressed in an all-black business suit with a few white hairs in his light-brown hair and a three-day beard, stepped out of the car.
“Welcome to you, Mr. Linch,” the hall porter said.
“Thank you very much.”
The man took out two 50-pound bills from his wallet, which he had previously retrieved from the inside pocket of his jacket, and handed them to the doorman.
“This gentleman is too generous,” he stated as he took the money.
Linch smiled slightly before buttoning his jacket and heading for the hotel. The interior of this eleven-story building was everything one could expect from one of the most luxurious hotels in the capital, with its decoration reminiscent of that seen in some European castles, its staff always ready to come to the aid of any guest, but also with its exorbitant prices. Indeed, this place was only accessible to an elite who had no difficulty in spending thousands of pounds sterling per night.
Walking through the lobby of the building, Linch took one of the two elevators to the third floor where his room was located on. Using a white magnetic card that he retrieved from the inside pocket of his jacket, he unlocked the door before entering the room. The man undid his tie and removed it, as well as his jacket, before placing them carefully on one of the chairs present in the room. He then went to stand in front of one of the windows and watched the passers-by. Shortly afterwards, the man received a phone call, which he answered immediately after checking out who the caller was.
“I assume the reason you are calling me is to tell me that the client has signed the loan agreement, am I right?”
“Yes, sir. You will have access to his shares tomorrow morning when the markets open,” the caller on the other end of the line replied.
“Excellent. As soon as that happens, you’ll ask Brighton to proceed with a short sale as well as to initiate the next phase.”
“Yes, sir.”
Ending the call, Linch was proud of himself and smirked. He had every reason to be, he had just landed a contract that would make him a lot of money.
“This deserves a sumptuous dinner,” he thought.
This news came at an opportune moment as the man was starting to have a pit in his stomach. So, he put his cell phone back in his pocket, retrieved his wallet from his jacket, and headed for the hotel restaurant.
It was no surprise that Linch was greeted by one of the hotel’s employees when he arrived at the restaurant. A table was then provided to him as well as a menu so that he could make his choice among all that the Mandarin Oriental Park Hyde had to offer. After several tens of seconds of browsing through their various gastronomic offerings, the man finally settled on a grilled lobster and a good bottle of wine, more precisely a Chateau Lafite Rothschild – which was a French delicacy.
Finishing noting what the man wanted to eat, the waiter immediately went to the kitchen to pass on his order to one of the chefs. Meanwhile, Linch took his cell phone out of his pocket and unlocked it, which brought up a picture of him alongside a young girl and a boy in the background screen. He momentarily contemplated the image with a smile on his face before entering a certain app to take a look at the current stock market. As he scrutinized the stock value of one particular company, he could not help but smile slightly.
“I’m going to make so much money,” he thought at that moment.
While Linch’s eyes were glued to his cell phone screen, the hotel employee returned with the bottle of wine he had ordered.
“Here’s your Chateau Lafite Rothschild, Mr. Linch.”
“Thank you very much,” the man replied as he was served a glass.
Once again, Linch took out a 50-pound bill from his wallet and immediately handed it to the young man right after he had finished filling his glass. The latter thanked him for his gesture before returning to take care of other customers. Finding himself alone once more, the man smelled the soft perfume which was released from his red drink before taking a light sip of it.
“Really excellent!”
While he had been enjoying his wine for a few minutes, Linch’s attention was drawn to a young woman dressed in a tight red dress who had just taken her place at the restaurant’s bar. This beautiful creature, whose generous forms did not leave the man indifferent, displayed magnificent brown hair and was slightly smaller than him. To tell the truth, according to his own estimations, she had to be around 1 meter 77, which was not really in his criteria. However, being in a very good mood at the beginning of the evening, he thought he could make an exception this time.
Having made his decision, Linch removed the wedding ring he was wearing from his finger and put it in his trouser pocket before calling another employee of the restaurant.
“Mr. Linch, what can I do to help you?” the employee asked when he arrived.
“You see that young woman dressed in red? The one who is just sitting at the bar?”
The young man slowly turned around to see who this important customer was referring to. He then saw that young lady sitting alone at the bar and immediately understood why Linch had set his sights her.
“Would you like me to give her a message for you, sir?”
“That’s about it. I’d like you to buy her a drink and tell her it’s from me. You’ll put that on my tab as well.”
Linch took out a 50-pound bills from his wallet and discreetly handed it to the young man.
“It will be done as you wish, sir.”
After taking the money, the waiter withdrew to accomplish the mission he had been given. He thus went near the barman to whom he whispered some words in the hollow of the ear. This one then exchanged a brief glance with Linch before nodding his head as a sign of approval. He then complied by taking out a glass that he put and filled in front of the young woman.
“Excuse me, but I haven’t ordered anything yet,” she said while stopping writing on her cell phone.
“Courtesy of the customer of table 9.”
Hearing this, the young woman immediately looked for the individual who had just offered her this drink. It was not long after that her eyes met Linch’s, who smiled slightly at that moment. She returned the favor, smiling as well. She then grabbed her glass, got up from her seat, and went to meet the man. As she walked towards him, Linch could not help but admire her beautiful plastic. The desire to have sex with her became stronger and the man promised himself that he would do everything in his power to make it happen.
Standing now in front of Linch, the young woman asked him if the chair which was in front of her was occupied, to which he answered that it was free and that she could take place there. At the same time, just as she was settling in at the table, the waiter who had brought his bottle of wine returned with the dish he had ordered.
“Would you like something else, Mr. Linch?” the employee asked after placing the man’s meal on the table.
The man then turned to the young woman and asked her what she wanted for dinner.
“That’s very kind of you, but I’ll settle for the glass you just offered me,” she replied.
“I must insist.”
“No, that’s all right. I am not really hungry.”
“Please, I really insist. What would the other guests in the hotel think of me if they saw us in such a situation? It wouldn’t be right in their eyes at all.”
Faced with Linch’s insistence, the young woman had no choice but to agree. So, she took the menu and ordered something light while he told the waiter to put it on his personal bill.
“Well! Mr. Linch, your generosity goes straight to my heart,” the young woman stated.
“You can call me David. And you don’t have to thank me.”
The young woman smiled slightly before introducing herself as Yasmine Ferra.
“Yasmine Ferra, what a beautiful name. A beautiful name for an equally beautiful woman.”
“You flatter me, David.”
“I’m just telling you what I’m seeing. To tell the truth, I have a bad habit of saying out loud what I think and I can say that Ferra is a name that suits you perfectly. By the way, may I know where it comes from, if you don’t mind, of course?”
Yasmine answered that he was of Brazilian origin, which made David understand why this woman had such attractive shapes. He wondered if some of the stereotypes about women from that country were true. He had heard that their appetite was insatiable or something like that. If that turned out to be true, then he was sure he would have a pleasant night.
While Linch was thinking about all the things he would do with the young woman during the night, the latter was examining the man with her eyes. She already knew he was a wealthy man, as almost all the guests at the Mandarin Oriental Park Hyde were, but she was still curious to know what he did for a living. So, she did not hesitate to ask him. David was in no way surprised by her request. Indeed, he had been expecting her to ask him for some time, in fact, he had been waiting for this since the moment she left the bar to join him.
“I wish I could tell you, but that would be too easy. Why don’t you try to guess it?”
“Guess it, you say?”
“That’s right.”
“It might be very difficult.”
“Try anyway. You know, in our society, being able to read other people is a great advantage.”
Ferra finally accepted Linch’s challenge and watched him from head to toe for several minutes. It was not easy for her to guess what this man did for a living. There were simply too many possibilities. So, she chose the simplest one.
“On second thought, I’d say you’re a businessman, maybe even the director of a company.”
“What makes you think that?”
“The way you dress and the way you act. You are one of the few customers in this restaurant who is still wearing most of your suit. It will soon be 6 PM, so I assume that you have recently finished with your work day and are enjoying a hearty meal. Secondly, you seem to be a very confident person as evidenced by your insistence on inviting me to dinner. It was an invitation, wasn’t it?”
David did not answer her question and just smiled, somewhat surprised by the young woman’s analysis. The latter went on to say that if he was not a businessman, then he was a celebrity. However, she had great doubts about her second assumption.
“And why do you doubt this second assumption?”
“I don’t know. My instinct is just that it’s not the case.”
“Your analysis is very interesting and it seems that you have very good instincts. You were absolutely right to listen to it, I am not a celebrity by any means. I’m more in the finance business, which does make me a businessman, a businessman working at Apex Capital, an investment fund.”
Linch then gave her some details concerning the activities of this company without telling her the position he occupied in the said company. Upon hearing this, the young woman thought that she had hit the jackpot by finding such a person. At that moment, the employee of the restaurant came back to them with Yasmine’s dinner that he put down right in front of her. David took the opportunity to give him a tip, which allowed the young woman to see the wad of cash in his wallet. The worker then thanked him for his generous donation before leaving them and going to take care of other customers.
To be continued !!!