Part 10
All the gowns on display were breathtakingly beautiful – anyone who would wear any of these would feel like a princess, and look like one too, she thought off-handedly.
An assistant came hurrying over to them, "Welcome, Sir. Welcome, Madame" she said with a smile, "What can I help you with?"
"Evening gowns for the lady, please"
"Gown" she corrected him. The assistant smiled and came over to her side, "yes, ma'am. What is the occasion?"
"An inauguration party" she replied. Even as the assistant hurried away in the other direction, she turned to Mayank, "Look – is this really –"
He folded his arms over his chest and fixed her with a stern look, "Okay, we can either do this the easy way or the hard way"
"There's an easy way?" she asked, watching the assistant scurrying towards her with a dark blue evening gown in her hand.
Mayank shot the assistant a look before fixing his stern gaze back on her, "yes, there is"
She took the evening gown from the assistant and looked it over, "and that is?"
"Where you'd be a good girl and buy a gown without anymore tantrums" Mayank replied.
She titled her head, "and the hard way?"
He smirked, "We argue about this for fifteen minutes and at the end of it, I pull my authority and do whatever the hell I want to do"
Silence reigned for an entire one minute.
Nupur shook her head even as a smile escaped her, "fine. We'll do this the easy way" she muttered, giving in reluctantly.
He smiled a superior smile, "good"
She turned to the assistant – the young girl was gazing at Mayank with a love struck expression on her face. And for some reason it annoyed the hell out of her, clearing her throat loudly, she stepped in front of the assistant, "I'd like to try on the gown, please" she announced, louder than necessary.
The young girl shook herself and smiled at Nupur, "Yes, ma'am – try this one – royal blue – in satin and silk. It would look very nice –"
"Thanks" she said curtly, grabbing the gown from her hands, she stomped in the direction of the trial room.
Banging the door shut, she faced the mirror – her face broke out into a huge smile. Shaking her head, she forcefully replaced her smile with a frown and went on with the business of trying gowns.
The blue gown she tried was way too glamorous. She frowned at her reflection, and besides the black strappy stilettos that she owned wouldn't go with this gown.
Rejected.
The next one was a bright red number – it was a shoulder-less gown with a sweetheart neckline. The skirt of the gown stuck to her frame. Too teen.
Rejected.
Dark burnt orange –wrong color.
Rejected
Bright yellow – eeks, too loud
Rejected
Light baby pink – double colored frilly skirt and a deep low cut back – too sexy and not formal enough.
Rejected.
Even as she tried out gown after gown – and found that she did not look like a princess in any of them, she still couldn't keep that smile off her face.
She was certainly going mad.
****
Mayank ran his hand over his hair and gave himself a look over in the mirror. Good to go, he thought, glancing at the clock – 6:45 PM.
Time to step out for the inauguration party - he hoped that Nupur was ready by now.
Nupur.
He smiled at the thought of her – she'd finally accepted and brought a gown without anymore tantrums. Okay – she had thrown one final tantrum when she'd seen the bill.
"Those are way too many zeroes" she'd exclaimed. When he'd pointed out that it was just one zero, she had responded with an agitated, "In Indian Rupees there are way too many zeroes!". He'd shushed her by pulling authority and telling her that he was anyway going to buy the gown whether or not she wanted it.
She'd finally accepted it with a scowl.
Mayank shook his head, picking up the phone, he dialed her room extension, he was going to put the phone back in its cradle when she picked it after too many rings, "hello?" she said in a muffled voice.
He frowned, "Nupur?"
"Yshheiung"
"What?"
There was a sound of something dropping to the floor, "Damn" Nupur cursed, then spoke to him, "Yes, Mayank?" she said distractedly.
He rolled his eyes, "are you ready?"
"Ten more minutes" another distracted reply.
"It's already 6:45" he snapped.
"I can read the clock, thanks" she snapped back.
"You can read it, but am not sure if you can understand it"
"We're getting late, can we do this later?" Nupur said irritably.
"I'm coming over in two minutes. Do whatever you want to do within that time. I don't want to be kept waiting" he dolled out.
She wasn't even listening.
" Nupur?" he bit out.
" Ehmn hmmn"
With an irritable sigh, he placed the phone back. By the time they went back to India, he was sure he could write a book – Nupur Bhushan and her ways of life.
Nupur Bhushan and her ways of life??
Shaking his head at himself sternly, Mayank brushed away all thoughts about Nupur and busied himself with the file he'd been studying a couple of minutes ago.
The phone let out a calm ring. Definitely his mother. Smiling, he reached out to pick it up.
"Hi ma" he smiled into the phone.
"Hi Mayu" she answered with a smile, "How're you feeling?"
He flipped the pages of the file, "Fine, Ma" he answered distractedly, his eyes zooming in on a particular number in the file. Frowning, he picked up a pen and circled it vividly – he'd have to check who worked on this file – He'd always told his employees make any number of mistakes when you're learning – but don't repeat them in the client files.
And he distinctly remembered reviewing and correcting this particular data in the file at least twice. He was not going to tolerate this kind of carelessness and inefficiency.
"MAYU!" his mother said firmly, "Put away that file"
"How did you - ?" he started to ask in surprise, then stopped – what was the point? He anyway knew the answer.
"Mothers –"
"Always know" he said dryly with his mother, "I Know Ma" he said, closing the file and placing it on the bed.
"Good. I was asking you – how're you feeling?"
"And I told you Ma, am fine – don't worry about me" he answered, smiling.
"And Nupur?" was his mother's next question.
"What about her?"
"Mayu!" his mother exclaimed.
"She's fine" he said loosely.
"No she's not" came the reply, "and you know that"
Yeah" he admitted - Did he even have a choice with his mother? ", "But I'm not going to ask her. It's her business –"
"So make it your business"
"What?" he almost yelled.
"Cut it out, Mayu. I know you care for her" his mother said in a dead-pan tone.
No I don't. The words almost rolled off his tongue – almost. It was no specific effort from his part to stop him from saying it.
He just couldn't say it – because that would be a lie.
"Ma, I –" he started speaking, simultaneously thinking what he would tell his mother, exactly how much and in what capacity he cared for Nupur, and how the hell had he landed himself in this situation.
In his pondering he did not notice that the line had gotten silent for a couple of seconds before he started speaking again.
"I do care for –"
"Whatever happened to being in tune with your employees?" his mother said at the same time he was speaking.
"Nup – W- What?" he sputtered out, blinking, "Employees?"
"Yea" his mother said flippantly, "she is your employee, isn't she? What were you thinking?"
"Nothing" he muttered quickly, pursing his lips tightly – he could bet that this mother was grinning away right now – and he was not going to give more fodder to amuse his mother now – he had an inauguration party to attend to.
"Ma, I have an inauguration party to attend to" he announced.
"Sure. Go. Who's stopping you?" his mother said, speaking in a broken sentence, no longer being able to hide her sniggering.
"Bye" he said. He only received the sounds of difficultly contained laughter in reply.
Leaving his mother to double up laughing, he stood up and straightened his suit. He would leave the self interrogation session for tonight before bedtime, he decided.
Taking a deep breath, he walked towards Nupur's room.
Author's Note (A/N)- The easy way - hard way exchange is the dialogue that was taken from the MnB that i read ages and ages ago - the same MnB that the gown buying idea was taken from!!! not mine - no credit to me!
Cricket
Current Affairs
Udne Ki Aasha
290