Mehrya FF: Her Undercover Lover -Chapter 10 page42 08/15

Her Undercover Lover

PROLOGUE

Meera looked across the kitchen and sighed.

She had no idea how he was managing to keep his job. Every single day he would show some inaptitude that would make it blaringly obvious that he probably should look to some other field by which to make a living. And each and every time she would feel the need to go and rescue him before the head chef would come upon his work and see him for the fraud that he was. Perhaps today was the day she could finally convince him that what he thought of as his dream, really wasn't the path he should be on. Holding on to the swell of her belly she trudged across to his station. Very soon, she would not be here to save him, and she had no clue what would become of her friend who otherwise was a treasure of a man, when she was not around.

"Shaurya, pass me the knife; you're doing it all wrong, and we will need these done shortly. We have a full house tonight of mostly VIPs, and this will need to be done properly or Chef will have your head."

The tall man carefully passed her the deadly sharp instrument, frightened that some mishap would occur to endanger her, yet in the next breath, was unmistakably proud of the proficiency he saw that made him understand that there was never any danger of such happening.

"Try not to lift the knife with each slice. Keep it grounded and you will make better progress and get a more uniformed result. The vegetables should be julienned not chopped. You see?"

Shaurya nodded, getting his first close up look of his wife today. She looked a little more tired today: her burden- and their blessing- was weighing heavily on her. It would soon be time. The private medical staff he had secured had checked into the resort already and were on constant stand by for the call that she was ready to give birth. Out of deference to her condition, both physical and mental, he had given her druthers for months in allowing her to work well past her time, but he would risk nothing when it came time for her to bring their child into the world. He would not lose her again.

As he often did, instead of concentrating on her demonstration, his mind cast back to the day when equilibrium had finally come back to his life.

********

He had been in a fouler than normal mood after the finish of the daily update he had been given, and the suggestion that he accept the fact that perhaps the conclusion that no-one wanted to consider; that Mehek had perished in the accident was the most logical explanation. Not all bodies, the lead searcher indicated, had been retrievable from the fast-moving water, whose currents and potentially uncharted, submerged rock formations could hinder one from locating its victims. It had been two and half months now, and with no sign of her, they had to face the possibility that Mehek Khanna was no more.

Shaurya had gone ballistic, demanding that the man either do his job or get the hell out. He ordered him to find him a team of engineers: he would dam the entire f**king river in his search if he had to. He had been so wild, as to send his entire team scurrying out of his sight, lest they feel the wrath of the devil the man had become. Through his closed door, the distinctive sound of the man trashing his cabin could be heard. It was becoming a vicious cycle now, but still unnerving to those under his employ, whose sympathy for the man's grief was slowly turning into fear.

Only Hina, his trusted PA, and longest serving employee present, having relocated her post when her boss had made the resort his home base, seemed able to handle him. On that day, with only her tightened lips, any indication of her concern, she had taken the lunch tray from the dining staff who would not deserve the reaction entering his boss' office suite would bring, to deliver his meal to him. Hopefully he would eat more than just a bite, which would be good news to relay to Karuna Ma'am when she gave her daily report to the woman who fretted on her son's condition.

Walking through the minefield his office had become after his destructive episode, Hina reached his desk, and after moving some items out her way, placed the tray down. As she did every day, she uncovered it in hopes that the aromas would reach the man and tantalize him enough to partake of something. More often than not, it was a futile effort and as a result, her boss had become haggard of late due to his lack of appetite and his incessant worry.

But today was different.

"What is this, who made this, he gruffly demanded almost immediately.

Hina took the slip that had been affixed to the tray cover and recited the meal's contents.

"Rice Kheer," Shaurya repeated after she had confirmed that the pudding had been sent up.

This surprised her, as she knew her boss' ways and that the pudding would not have been the first thing to appeal to the man. She was in fact surprised that the kitchen had sent the sweet dish up at all, but for the first time in days, he was finally expressing more than a passing interest in anything that had been previously offered.

He hated sweets, in his mind they were empty calories and the folly of people who didn't care for their health, but Mehek had changed his mind about that. At least she had with her Kheer. And today, unless he had completely lost his mind, which was quite possible, the aroma of her recipe was reaching him. It was an unmistakable enigma, for she had never disclosed her methods, taking joy in the fact the she had won him over with her secret variation of the recipe that had never before appealed to him. He walked over to his desk and picked up the small dish. Moving the bowl to his face he inhaled deeply, drawing in the different spices of the pudding, and then plunged his spoon into it.

And then he fled his office to find the source of what would either be his saving grace or eternal torment.

She was calling herself Meera Sharma now, and up until this day did not know what had drawn her to the resort, or had given her the nerve to come to the kitchen seeking employment. Despite the changes in her, a gauntness that hadn't been there before, the Head Chef had recognized her straight away, and had offered her immediate work, if she passed one test, with the explanation of how severely understaffed they were. He had then asked her to prepare a favorite dish any, with the explicit intention of sending it to their boss today. It had been a brilliant move that had paid off dividends, he realized, when Shaurya Khanna stormed into the kitchen.

He reached there just in time to see his wife crumple to the ground in a faint.