RAGNA SS:MY lady love Ms.Santa claus(chap20 updated -83)(27/10/16 IST) - Page 8

"Hello kALPANA," he said, obviously ever the gentleman.

"Hello... Mr. Singhania," I said as he pulled out my chair.

"You can call me Raghav," he said. He pushed my chair in and went back

around to take his own. He kept staring at me as if he didn't know what to

say. I may have been staring as well. First, I was shocked at whom he was

and second ...he was drop dead gorgeous. I swear Adonis didn't even come

close to describing this man. I hate to use the word "perfect" but there was

no other description for him.

"Would you like a glass of fruit wine?" he asked.

"No ,Thanks," I told him.

Raghav still hadn't cracked a smile and the butterflies in my

stomach had grown into pterodactyls. I finally just blurted out what was on

my mind.

"I was playing a joke," he still looked confused, but he offered me a weak

smile and a soft chuckle. "I was hoping you would think it was funny."

He looked around at the others in the restaurant before speaking.

"I glanced around too. He was right; we were getting a lot of strange looks. It wouldn't have bothered me, but it obviously did bother him. For some

reason, I wished that he would lighten up, just a little bit. I finally gave in

however, mostly because he was my boss. Besides, I was hoping if he was

more comfortable he would relax and we could get to know each other.

"I brought the other dress," I told him. "I can change if you'd like."

"I'd like that, yes," was all he said.

I was unfazed by the stares of the other patrons as I walked across the

restaurant once more. The only thing I was feeling was disappointed that

this beautiful, brilliant man didn't seem to have any humor at all. I thought

that humor was one of the most important things in life. Some days, mine

was all that had gotten me through. I considered walking out and just going

home for a fraction of a second, after all, this wasn't a real date. But he was

Raghav Singhania , and he was beautiful and no matter what that said about me, it was enough to make me want to stay and give him another shot.

I quickly changed in the restroom and ran my fingers through my hair. I

reapplied my lipstick while I was there and then I stuffed the elf costume

into my bag and headed back out to our table. I watched the expressions

change again as I walked back by, but none more so than him.

Raghav stood up when I was about three feet from the table. This time his

expression was easy to read. He was pleased with what he saw... very

pleased. He pulled my chair out for me again and once he'd taken his seat

again he said, "You look stunning."

I smiled, "Thank you, and thank you for the outfit. It's beautiful, just not

quite what I might pick for myself."

"It looks like it was made for you," he said. "Why wouldn't you have picked

it?"

"I'm just not one to go along with the "norms" of society as I'm sure you can

tell by the fact that I wore an elf costume to dinner." I was smiling, he was

still not. He was looking at me like he was trying to figure me out. It

shouldn't have been that hard. I was just a girl who enjoyed having fun.

Raghav wasn't looking like fun was something he did often to me.

I was saved from Raghav's gaze by the waiter who came to take our order,

until I realized that I hadn't even looked at the menu. Raghav asked me if I

hamburger out of my handbag. He was making an attempt at humor and

I felt encouraged suddenly, and strangely... proud of him. He at

leastpossessed a sarcastic wit.

"You go ahead," I told him. "I'll eat pretty much anything."

I listened as he told the waiter we would both like to have the Charcoal

grilled Miyazaki . I had no idea what that was so I quickly glanced at

my menu. It offered no explanations. It just said that it came with, "Salsify

Dauphinois, Bluefoot Mushrooms, Arrow leaf Spinach and Sauce

Bordelaise,'" and that it was a hundred and twenty five dollars a plate. So as

not to embarrass him, I waited for the waiter to leave before I asked my

next question.

"At the risk of sounding like an ignorant diner... what did you just order for

me?" The corners of his mouth twitched. My outfit didn't amuse him but my

ignorance of fancy dishes apparently did.

"It's Japanese Prawn item with a side of potatoes and the salsify is a

European root vegetable. It's very tasty the way they prepare it here. I'm

sure the rest you recognized."

I appreciated that he didn't find me ignorant enough to explain spinach and

mushrooms to me.

"Thank you," I said. "That does sound good."

We made small talk about my day and my experiences with the kids and the

elderly while we waited for our meals. The only time he seemed bothered by

my chatter was when I veered off into how much I loved Christmas, or

things I liked to do myself. Then he would shut down and I'd have to think of

a way to start the whole conversation all over again. Jeffrey had been right,

this man did not like Christmas.

When dinner arrived, I couldn't deny that it looked delicious on the plate and

my assessment was confirmed with the first bite. The portions were small,

but everything was so rich and satisfying that you didn't need a lot of it to

be completely satiated. We were about halfway through our meal when we

hit a lull in our conversation. I hadn't meant to pry, but suddenly I heard

myself asking, "I was wondering what it was about Christmas that you didn't

like?"

He raised an eyebrow. He does that a lot. He paused for a long "I asked Ramu why you didn't hand out the gifts yourself. They're so

generous. That's all he told me, was that you didn't really care for the

season."

He looked like he was thinking of how to phrase it.

"I'm just cynical, I guess. It's so commercialized these days."

I had to admit that was true about it being commercialized but I said, "I

don't worry about what society thinks of it, kind of like I don't worry about

what they think of me. When I was a little girl I saw "A Christmas Carol." My

favorite line, even then was when Ebenezer Scrooge said, "I will honor

Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year." I try to live by that as

much as I can."

I wished that I could read his looks. If I had to chance a guess I'd say that

he was trying to decide if he believed me or not. It was true, I had no one to

impress but myself. I loved Christmas, but I didn't stop there. I loved being

alive and every morning, rain or shine, I started the day by reminding

myself of that fact.

"Does your family celebrate Christmas?" I asked him.

Instead of really answering my question, he said, "I go away every year at

Christmas time. I go to one of the Islands or India . I leave on Christmas Eve and come back a few days later. I'd go earlier but I feel it

prudent that I attend the company holiday party. I don't care for the cold

either."

"Prudent, huh?" I asked with a half-smile. "Some people look forward to the

holiday party all year. You don't find it fun at all?"

"Not really," he said, simply. "What about you? How will you be spending

your holidays?"

I thought about opening up to him, but I didn't think he'd understand since

he was so unwilling to open up to me. I simply said, "With my family, of

course."

After dinner we shared a piece of the best cheesecake in the whole wide

world. By the end of the night I was torn by my feelings for him. He was

gracious and charming and I'd found out earlier today... very generous. But,

he was also so serious about everything it seemed, even Christmas. He didn't even smile at the cheesecake. The other thing was that I could

definitely stare at him all day and all night. He was the most desirable man

I'd ever laid eyes on even when he was being serious. When he relaxed just

a tiny bit and smiled... I felt my insides melting.

RAGHAV...

I looked across the table at this woman that I didn't know enough to say

hello to in an elevator a couple of weeks ago but now suddenly found myself

completely enchanted with. She was like no other woman I'd ever met. She

kept bringing up Christmas which both frustrated the hell out of me and

intrigued me. It frustrated me because I'd given it up so long ago and never

looked back. She was trying to get me to question that. Of course she didn't

know why I'd given it up, but I had a feeling this woman would say that I

had handled it wrong. If anyone else told me that I'd tell them to go to hell,

but somehow as I looked into Kalpana's pretty eyes I knew I would never

tell her that. I got the impression she wasn't just being nosy when she asked

why I didn't like Christmas... she truly loved it that much and couldn't

fathom why anyone else would not.

The thing I liked most about her, beyond her beauty... was the fact that she

was blindsided by her boss; the CEO of the company she worked for was her

date and she didn't seem the slightest bit intimidated. She hadn't tried to

kiss up to me or cowl down to me, she'd treated me like any other human

being and that, I appreciated tremendously.

"So what about eggnog?" she asked. She wouldn't let up on the Christmas

kick. She was trying to insist that there was something I liked about

Christmas, no matter how much I insisted there wasn't.

"I don't care for it," I said.

"Peppermint candy canes?"

"I've never had one."

"The smell of pine?"

"My housekeeper uses pine-sol." She wrinkled her nose and made a face at

me when I said that. It made me laugh, in spite of myself.

"Think of it this way Kalpana, you've read Dr. Seuss, right?"

She seemed amused that I would be considering quoting Dr. Seuss but she

said, "Of course, everyone has."

"Christmas is like green eggs and ham to me. I don't like it here nor there, I

don't like it anywhere."

She laughed and said, "I'd be willing to bet that's the oddest analogy a

brilliant CEO has ever come up with for anything."

"You'd be surprised," I told her. "Besides, I've been more lucky than brilliant

I'm afraid."

"I doubt that," she said. "Singhania Inc. is a conglomerate because you made it that way. It takes a lot more than luck to do that. Maybe you got lucky in the family department and one of them was willing to finance the start-up,but I suspect you took it from there."

"I got a small inheritance when I was twenty-one. That's what I used as my

start up capitol."

"And eight years later your company is a household name. What about when

you were a boy, didn't you believe in Santa Claus and all that?"

"Of course I did," I replied.

"So, what happened?"

"I realized he was a fraud, like everyone else did." The sentence came out

more bitterly than I'd intended, and I could see from Kalpana's expression

that she wanted to know more. Thankfully, she refrained, and for a moment

I thought I could see a trace of pity... or was it sadness in her eyes.

"Are you ready to go or would you like more coffee?" She made a face at

me again. I knew she wanted me to open up more, but it was a subject I

didn't care to talk about with anyone.

"I'm ready," she said.

We picked up our coats on our way out and I walked her to the limousine.

"I've got it, Ramu," I told him. He got in behind the wheel and closed his

door. I looked at Kalpana in the moonlight and I was overcome with an urge

to kiss her. I didn't know what it was about this woman, but she'd definitely

gotten under my skin. From the day I'd seen her getting on the elevator I

had been thinking about her. I asked Sammy and he told me who she was and then I'd seen her name on the auction list. We'd been doing the auction for five years and I'd never bid before. It didn't seem like the sort of thing a

CEO should do. That night I went there on impulse, and even more

impulsively I began to bid. I felt like I had to have her, if only for a day.

Once I had her, I hadn't known what to do with her. It wasn't that I didn't

have a fantasy list, but that would never do on a first date and with an

employee to boot. I had made the false assumption that she'd be

intimidated by me, so I set up the whole costume and delivering presents

first to get a feel of what kind of person she was. Jeffrey had checked in with

me periodically and had nothing but glowing reviews. They had bonded right

away and here I was a little afraid that now after our dinner conversation,

that she would think of me as a Scrooge and not want to see me again. It

was a new experience for me that someone liked my chauffeur better than

they liked me.

"I had fun, Raghav. It was a great day all the way around. Thank you for

everything," she said.

"I had a good time too, thank you, Kalpana."

I didn't kiss her; it was too soon no matter how badly I wanted to. I watched

her get into the car and I closed the door behind her. Suddenly her window

came down and she said, "Raghav?"

"Yes?"

"I was thinking. It's such a shame that you haven't done anything festive in

years. There's a lot more to the Christmas season than presents and parties

you know. You just need to explore it a little further. I was wondering if you

might do me a favor."

I was very interested to find out what kind of favor she might want from me.

I didn't want to commit to anything without hearing what it was however.

"What kind of favor do you need?"

"I'd really like to help you enjoy the season this year, if you'll just give me a

chance. Maybe I could have you for a day, the way you did me today?"

I was tempted to laugh. Instead of angering me like it would if someone else

harassed me about Christmas, she amused me. I decided that one day

couldn't hurt anything. I didn't have to enjoy it after all. I doubted that I'd

enjoy any of it except for spending the day with this beautiful creature that I

didn't understand at all, but couldn't get enough of. That was the bottom

line here. I wanted to see her again.

"How about next Saturday?" I asked her. She looked surprised that I

accepted.

"You're on. You are going to so love Christmas when I'm done with you," she

said with a smile.

I chuckled and said, "Don't get your hopes up Kalpana. Good night."

"Good night Raghav," she said, "Thank you." I watched the limousine until it

was out of sight. I missed her already.

ps: please spare me for being late and drop your valuable suggestions or comments please