Bani rubbed her eyes, the smoke was getting to her, the short skirt and the white blouse she wore made her feel inadequate and naked. The tables were full, the riverside casino in Mumbai was always popular, but today it seemed like it was too crowded, the rich and famous were all there. It was a true black and white affair. The classy suits, sarees and jewelry made her head spin.
She had never seen so much money thrown on the tables, of course it was all in the form of chips, it was supposed to be a non-profit fund raiser for physically challenged children.
When she moved from Mt. Abu, she vowed that her sisters would go to the best colleges, and in order to keep that promise, she took up this job, even if it meant that she had to work late nights in the middle of lecherous men and smoke filled rooms.
She tried to keep a low key so men didn't notice her, she didn't need that kind of attention from the notorious playboys of Mumbai.
"Hey, You! Get me a Bloody Mary, would you?" A tall woman, in a mint green sari, with exquisite diamond necklace ordered her. She was wearing a sleeveless blouse in the same color and had diamond earrings that hung almost to her shoulders. Her complexion was so fair and blemish free, Bani stared at her in awe. "Chop, chop! Girl, I need it now" she flicked her long hair back impatiently.
"Yes, maam!" Bani meekly turned away to get her the drink.
"And please get me a shot of whiskey, blue label, on the rocks" a husky male voice tinged with rich timbre asked her politely. She did not turn back and nodded. A shiver ran within her at the voice and she felt like turning and staring in the direction of that voice, but she controlled herself.
She went to the bar with a quick pace and gave the order to the bartender. He seemed hassled today, he was working solo and was short of helpers on one of the busiest days at the casino.
She took her order and walked back toward the table. He was facing the roulette table and threw in some chips carelessly. She laid the napkin on the table and placed his whiskey and he threw a chip at her as a tip. She gulped, that was thousand rupee chip.
"Sir, you made a mistake, that's too much!" she protested.
"I never make mistakes, sweetheart!" the huskiness was more pronounced at close quarters, and her stomach lurched with an unknown feeling of sensuality.
She hesitantly took it, all she could see was his profile, a closely shaved cheek, a dark eye brow, a curved mouth and a strong jaw line. He was handsome beyond imagination. His hair was gelled back sleekly.
"Thank you, sir! This is…" she politely accepted his tip and put it in the pocket of her apron. He waved her with fingers, stopping her in the middle.
"Miss, it's OK! Buy something nice for yourself!" his careless words hurt her. Then she shrugged, the money probably meant nothing to him, one of those super rich guys who inherited loads of money from their ancestors.
"I asked you for a bloody mary!" steely tones interrupted her thoughts. She hastily served the drink to the lady in blue and smiled weakly.
The woman looked irritated for some reason. She took a sip and almost spat it out. "Darn it, Girl! I asked for a Bloody Mary, not a tomato ketchup!" her tone carried to the other tables and every one looked up at Bani, who tried to defend herself anxiously.
"Maam, I asked the bartender for a Bloody Mary! May be I accidentally mixed it up!" she didn't want to say anything bad about Tony who was really a nice guy. "I will get you another one!"
"I don't know why they hire such incompetents!" the lady was rude beyond belief. "You should be fired!"
"Roshni!" A steely voice interrupted the woman's tirade. "Stop picking on the girl, she is only serving the drink, she didn't make it!" he still didn't turn and remained sitting.
"Jai, you always side with these low class people! They need to be put in their proper places!" she sulked.
"Roshni, Mujhe koi farak nahi padtha, whether they are low class or high class. They are here to do a job, you need to be polite to them. There is nothing wrong with a little civility!" Bani admired the way he didn't back out and put Roshni in her place.
A grateful smile appeared on her face and she hastened to the bar to reorder Roshni's drink.
When she returned she did not see either of them at the table and felt a bit cheated not to have seen the face of her large tipper.
+++++++++++++++
On the Terrace, Jai told Roshni in no uncertain terms, the relationship was over, inviting a flood of tears from her. The tears soon stopped as Jai Walia told her about the very satisfactory terms of the dismissal of her from his life. He gave her a flat, some jewelry and a car in return for her silence and her promise to stay away from him. Jai walia always took care of his mistresses. After all, he was a generous man. He smiled without mirth or humor. At nineteen years old, Bernali broke up from him to go after his father. She laughed at him and said that she was only interested in his money, but that his father had more to offer. From that point, Jai Walia grew cynical and treated all his affairs like temporary flings and tried to protect himself behind a detached exterior.
As he walked back into the casino, he eyed the waitress who served them from the back. The petite and slender girl with the long hair was covering her mouth and coughing discretely. It was obvious she was not made to work in such conditions. He continued to stare at the slender waist and slightly flared hips and a rounded, firm bottom. He had an urge to hold that waist and turn her toward him to see her face. He shook his head in a shock, what was wrong with him? He just broke up with his long time mistress, and he is already thinking of an unknown, faceless woman warming his bed. He was thoroughly exasperated with himself and moved to the blackjack table.
He eyed Mohan, Tarun and Aditya at the gaming table and sauntered toward them.
"Jai Walia, look what the tide brought in?" Mohan thumped him on the back and the others joined in the friendly ragging.
"Mohan, sawal hi nahi hota ki, I am not here! This is my pet project, or did you forget?" Jai asked Mohan smilingly.
"No, Jai! I did not forget, I know that this is your favorite charity, so I expected to see you here." Mohan warmly hugged him. "Papa was asking you to come to the house, Meera is here from USA, she just graduated from the art school in USA. And I will warn you now, papa is looking for a bridegroom, and I think you are on the top of the list" Mohan chuckled at Jai's grimace.
Tarun acted hurt at the imagined insult. "Mohan, mein bhi ek eligible bachelor hoon, mera kya hoga, Walia, all the girls are after you and now even the girls papas are after you!"
Jai blushed charmingly, he never did understand the women and their proclivity toward him. But he was also alarmed at the new development. He wasn't ready for this, especially a marriage proposal from Mohan's sister. This was a bit tricky, he thought quickly of how to get out of this dangerous situation.
"Mohan, nahin…I mean I have a girl now, some one serious…I am even thinking of finally tying the knot" he kicked himself for lying, but he couldn't really think of anything else at the moment.
"What?" Aditya looked at him balefully. "You are not meaning Roshni, are you?"
"No way! I mean No, I broke up with Roshni, she and I do not see eye to eye on many things!" he quickly thought about all the girls he knew that are suitable for this supposed long term relationship and came out with nothing.
"So, out with it, who is this girl, Jai! You are not going to keep it a secret from all of us, are you?" Tarun looked inquisitive, and with three pairs of eyes turned on him, Jai flushed unhappily.
"I will let you know in a week! The relationship is at a crucial stage now and I don't want you bozos involved at the moment" Jai congratulated himself at his quick thinking.
They harrumphed but backed off, teasing him good naturedly.
The next hour passed by drinking and catching up on the Mumbai happenings. Jai looked thoughtful, where was he going to get a girl in a week, that too, bahu like girl? He stopped by at the cashier to cash in his chips, 50 lacs in a cashier check, not bad for a few hours of play, he had already contributed half of that amount to the charity.
As he put the check in his pocket, he caught the waitress again, this time he saw her profile, she was coughing again discretely. But the delicate looking cheek, he knew she was young, her skin looked velvety soft, inviting a touch. He felt intrigued and had a deep urge to have a full frontal look of her. He stepped closer and touched her on the shoulder. She turned just at that moment, crashing into him, the tray she held in her hands flipped on his dark Versace suit, tumbling all the drinks on to his chest.
"Goddamn it! My suit!" he looked down at his suit and raised his eyes to give into his anger but his eyes locked with the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen in his life.
"I am sorry, I am so sorry sir! I didn't mean to, you shouldn't have scared me like that!" she was at the verge of crying. "Sir, please! Don't say anything to my manager, I will have your suit dry cleaned. I need this money for my sister's tuition. Please!" the tears stung behind her lids. Despite of her distraught state, she saw he was the most handsome man she ever saw in her life. But at the moment, she only worried about her job even to notice that he was staring at her.
He raised his hand to stop her from begging. "I am sorry, it was my fault, I snuck up on you!" his well bred voice interrupted her pleas. He was the same man from the gaming table. He looked as divine as she imagined him to be. She fished a napkin out from her apron and started dabbing the drinks from his suit. He looked down at her bent head and her delicate hands and imagined them on his naked chest. His body hardened with a deep yearning to hold her in his arms.
The floor manager came running, "Sir, I am so sorry! She is new, I am going to fire her, I don't know why I even hired her in the first place!" he looked apologetically at Jai and glared at Bani furiously.
She burst into tears and walked dejectedly to the changing room for the employees. She needed to collect her clothes and take her last paycheck. She hated him at the moment, it was his fault, he even admitted it, but he didn't say one word to the manager, they were all the same, those rich men, all they ever thought was about themselves. She thought of the thousand rupees in her hand, what good is it when she need a ten thousand by the end of the month as the first installment of fees for Rano and Pia.
She stepped out, in her simple salwar kameez, a black dress with a simple gold border. She wiped her tear ravaged face once again and sniffed.
+++++++++++
He was waiting for her outside the cruise ship.
"Ms. Dixit?" He drawled as he pushed himself away from his sleek black car.
She looked up at him scared, she prayed he didn't want her to pay for the dry cleaning of his suit, she needed the money desperately.
She looked challengingly at him. "I am not paying for the cleaning! You said it was your fault! I even lost my job because of you!"
He smiled lopsidedly. He liked her spirit.
"On one condition, if you let me take you out for dinner." He crossed his arms in front of him.
He must be mad, first she lost her job because of him, next he is asking her for dinner.
She just turned and started walking away from him. He sauntered lazily after her.
"I have a proposition for you!"
She stopped in her tracks. "Don't tell me, that you are thinking that you are Robert Redford and I am Demi Moore!"
He looked confused, "What?"
"You know, from 'Indecent Proposal' movie. The guy asks her to sleep with him for a million dollars!" she looked foolish, it seemed unlikely that was what in his mind.
He grinned. "And would you do it?"
"Not in a million years!" she glared at him.
"That's what I thought! Well, what I have in mind is somewhat simpler, but I will tell you what it is over some dinner, I am starving. We can go back to the ship, to the downstairs restaurant, if you don't trust me enough to come in my car."
"Will I get my job back?" she looked hopeful.
"I will consider it! Are you coming?" he started walking back toward the ship.
She followed him meekly.
+++++++++++++
"It's just for a month, until she goes back to US, my father and Mohan's father had agreed to marry us off when we were children, I don't look at her that way, and I am sure she doesn't see me like that either. I think she likes Tarun, and he likes her. I am sure I saw something in his eyes today." Jai poured the cider into her glass.
"So, why don't you tell them that you are no interested? Wouldn't it be easier, if you just tell them the truth?" she looked troubled by the deceit.
"It's not that simple, the only way they would agree to it is if I get hooked to someone else!" Jai bit into the delicately cooked meat on his plate.
"Why should I do it for you?" she played with her food.
"Because I will take care of your sister's tuition and I will pay you this, he dug into his pocket and pulled out the check for 25 lacs."
She stared at it and stared back at him. "You are crazy!"
"That may be so! But this is what I want, I don't want any strings attached, I just need a good little Bahu material for a month" he looked mockingly at her and her dress.
"Why me? There must be tons of people who would do it for you willingly. You are talking about a lot of money here!" she didn't look convinced.
"Because, you are the kind of girl my maasi would approve of! You need money, I have money, so what's the problem?" he answered flippantly.
She looked puzzled, "And what happens after a month?"
"You and I break our engagement because I am going to cheat on you, we part ways, you get 25 lacs check and that's the end of it!" he tried to appear aloof, but somehow just thinking of parting ways, hurt him like hell.
"What would I have to do? I am not the kind of girl who is comfortable with physical intimacy! I won't allow you to touch me or do other things!" she looked defiantly at him.
"Other things?" He contained his laughter, then sobered quickly as he saw the anger flashing in her eyes. "No, of course not, trust you to think of that, I would never be physical intimate with you!" he lied quickly, but a little too quick for his own good, she looked at him suspiciously, was he laughing at her?
"I need ten thousand rupees in advance!" she looked a little squeamish about asking him for the money.
He pushed the 25 lac check at her. "I trust you! You can keep it. I would like you to invest in a few decent sarees and some jewelry. I will pay you ten more lacs for it" he got up and shook hands with her before leaving her ogling at him. Ten more for sarees and jewelry, was he mad?
++++++++++++++
Jaz, sorry about being late for your birthday present! Belated birthday, sorry with my travel and the holidays, it turned out to be this late. Here is a short story as your birthday present.
But better late than never (Big Sorry!)
Wish you a belated happy birthday!!
PS: Don't expect anything like what the title suggests, disappoint ho jaogi...😉
Love,
-- Shinbin
Second part soon....