Chapter 2

Her head snapped in the direction of the speaker. He did not mean her, did he? Oh, yes, he did. The sadistic damned man! What was wrong with him? And why the hell was he so creepily familiar?

Oh God!

Shit!

Arnav Singh Raizada! The founder and CEO of AR Communications! Shit! What would she do now?

Ow!

Khushi glared at her friend and colleague, Lavanya Kashyap, who sat to her immediate left. She had just jabbed at her foot with her five inch high Clark's stilettos.

"Say something, Khushi," Lavanya hissed at her from the corner of her mouth. "They're all waiting for you!"

Just then, Mr Raizada addressed her again.

"You were following, Miss Gupta, weren't you? Or were you lost elsewhere?"

Her eyes darted around the room. Everyone was staring at her expectantly. She had really screwed up this time. But she needed to get out of this mess. The store closed in exactly fifty minutes now, the sales ended tomorrow and she needed that scarf! Where would you get a Denny and George scarf at seventy percent discount? That's right! Nowhere! Trying to appear confident, she cleared her throat.

"Actually..."

She paused as several people shifted in their seats and Arnav Singh Raizada raised his brows at her. If only she had followed...

"Actually... I... uhh... I was not exactly listening..."

There were several gasps around the room and even Lavanya twisted around to stare at her with a what-the-hell-are-you-doing look. Well, what was the big deal?

"You were not listening?"

Was that a spark of amusement she had just seen in Mr Raizada's eyes?

"Any particular reason for this disinterest, Miss Gupta?"

Shaitan! Laad Governor! Khushi blushed crimson as her mind poured out curses at him. If Jeff heard any of this, she could bid farewell to her career. It was not like she love her job, but it was a way she earned money lucratively and that let her do her shopping.

"I was not disinterested!" she blurt out in her defence.

"Oh really?"

"Yes, I was... I was... occupied... by... uhh... by something..."

"I hope that the something which was occupying you is a valuable excuse to miss the whole presentation."

"Yeah... actually... it's... it's about... My aunt! Yes, my aunt!"

"You aunt?" whispered Lavanya.

Now why did this stupid girl have to open her big mouth?

"Yeah, my aunt! She's in hospital poor... thing... She... she... actually, she just had a cardiac arrest. Her second," Khushi said innocently, amazed at how she could lie so smoothly. She wished she felt as cool as how she sounded and prayed fervently her little story would convince Mr Raizada.

"I was thinking if I could leave a bit earlier because I needed to see her and the visiting hours end in," she looked at the clock behind his desk. Forty minutes left! "In forty minutes, actually. So can I go?"

He watched her for some time, before finally nodding in assent. Khushi thanked him, grabbed her handbag and took off.

Thank goodness she had worn flats that day! She managed to reach the store within fifteen minutes.

"Hello again," she said cheerily to the salesgirl, once she'd caught her breath. "You still have my scarf?"

"The scarlet Denny and George?"

"Exactly!"

Minutes later, she walked out of the store a glittery black carton bag in hand. As soon as she was out, she removed the precious little ivory-coloured box and excitedly untied the black ribbon which held it shut. Her smile changed into a full-fledged grin as she opened the box.

She felt like a child at Christmas. It was a festival she had just discovered. When she was little she had never celebrated it, because she lived in India within a traditional Indian family who was totally anti-angrez and also because they were not that rich to afford the toys she and her sister would want. It was only when she had moved to London she had discovered many new things. She was overwhelmed with joy. She had never lived live like this.

And she had turned into a shopaholic. She worked for a finance magazine, she had her own column where she advised people on finance but she herself had no notion of saving money. She was indebted too. Not much though. Maybe just a few hundreds, here and there, but she would repay them back soon enough.

When Khushi had opened the package and removed the black tissue paper, the red fabric she had so much coveted spilled graciously in her hands. A dream come true! Khushi Kumaari Gupta owned a Denny and George scarf!

She giggled to herself. She could not wait to show it to Anjali, her best friend since university and equally her roommate. She tried wrapping it around her neck in the most elegant way possible and checked her reflection in a glass pane of one of the shops. Oooh! Was there a scarf in this whole universe that could make her look any better than this?

"Miss Gupta?"

Khushi froze instantly, her eyes wide as saucers, and a look of pure horror settled on her face as she recognised the voice behind her.