RUBY

It had been a long day and was still very hot, in the high 30s. She sat on her windowsill, bare feet firmly planted on the grill of the fire escape, and fluttering her red skirts about her knees, she waited for the breeze. Two more months of summer and already the underarm seams of her dress were giving way from constantly being soaked in sweat, the colour leached to a dark orange.

Still no breeze, just a thickening of the humidity and a stillness that seemed to magnify the traffic noise permeated with blaring horns which always seem more frequent on days like these.

She felt numb, the days events slowly coming to her consciousness. Shocks and bad news always took a while to be felt but now it was visceral. How could she have been fired? And for such a small mistake, not even of her own making but that of a staff member who she supervised. She had been with the agency for 11 years, 11 loyal and hard-working and efficient years. To be told to clear her desk while every item she put in her bag was monitored, then marched from the building by a security guard, people watching, wondering what terrible thing she had done.

She felt her heartbeat quicken, her face flush from more than heat, angry tears and tears of fear fill her eyes and mingle with her sweat as they rolled down her face and drip drip drip on her breast.

Reaching behind her she picked up her glass, clinking with ice and beaded with its own sweat. She took a large gulp of the tart and fruity liquid it contained and without thought, threw the glass out across the railing, its ruby red contents arcing into the street.