The Welcome Change

About ten years back life used to be so simple yet so complicated. There were friends who were so easy to both please and displease. There were parents who were so concerned yet so aloof from our well being. We were so cared for yet so misunderstood by everybody. Love was so vague yet such a beautiful concept. A promising career was such a motivating yet burdensome dream. Those were the years of confusion, of adolescence, the years, Nancy longed to get back to, but she well knew that those years of innocence had long passed her by.

Nancy was now riding high on the graph of a career that projected her to the top of the food chain by her early forties. She was only twenty-eight and the executive manager of a firm she had joined two years back. She had an apartment all to herself in one of the grandest residential complexes. A chauffeur driven car brought her to office every morning. Every evening she enjoyed a modest seven course dinner with a successful boyfriend who was higher up the food chain. Nancy had the perfect life that all girls envied and from her ivory prison Nancy envied everyone else. How she dreamed of a simple life from a Maupassant story where the protagonist would succeed in escaping from the monotony of social life and create a private niche for themselves in some quiet corner of the world where only emotions would matter and nothing else. Nancy's life was quite the opposite, with no place for privacy and no value for emotions. The day starts with financial concerns and ends with the promise of social security in the arms of her beau who seeks in her not a companion but an artefact to divulge his passion.

Passion is a strange word. In her childhood Nancy was passionate about painting. As she grew old her passions took favour to Shahrukh khan, a Bollywood hero, and then came Arijit, the college stud. With the passage of time Nancy's passion ebbed away as the monotony of life got to her. The only passion she feels is expressed in the reports she submits to her boss at the end of the week that affords her a weekend away from work. She does care for her fiancé but the care comes more from the promise of a well furnished home rather than the longing for togetherness. Rohan is a nice chap. There is no doubt. But he can never be the man Nancy would have dreamed of had she the guts to live a long and lonely life. In its entirety Nancy's fear of loneliness was the only factor that bonded the two into a relationship. But change was just around the corner.

Nancy woke up that morning as she did every other day. She stepped out of her home at 9 am in starting out for work but it was only on that day that her Honda city broke down. Desperate to reach office on time she took a lift from a car, a far inferior Maruti800. She got in for not just her punctuality or her spotless reputation, that day was special. Her company had finalised a merger with a high end business empire and today she was to meet her new boss. She wanted to make an impression. Alas that was never to be.

The interior of the car was as dingy as the back alleys Nancy feared the most. The dashboard had the effigies of all possible Indian gods and goddesses. The seat covers were besmeared with the sweat and grime of a decade and used plastic bags lay strewn around. The car smelled worse than the sewers and Nancy had to sit through it all. The man sitting beside her seemed to be in his forties, light brown eyes, dark hair, and a few days old stubble which was peppered over with a few gray strands. He wore an ill fitting shirt and screamed at the other cars with a harsh voice that cracked at times. He spoke a language which could neither be described as English, Hindi or Bengali for knowledge in all three would not suffice a man to decipher the innumerable curses he uttered between his every breath. Nancy could not believe her fate that she had to tolerate him for an entire hour. Every muscle of her body twitched with indignation and an unspoken fear that grips every educated independent Indian girl who dares to take lift from a stranger.

The hour took so long to end that Nancy felt like eternity. But perhaps eternity also ends for the one who has the patience to wait. Nancy never had patience for anything. Sitting beside her was the figure she hated most for it reminded her of her liquor guzzling step-father from whom she had distanced her with so much pain. It did entail her separation from her mother and half brother that she so dearly loved but it was a price she agreed to pay to save herself from the indignation of having to stand the man in whom she wished to see a father and who in her saw only a young attractive vulnerable girl. Nancy never told her mother the things that he did to her. Her mother loved him. After Nancy's father died he was the first person Nancy's mother loved for initially she had lost the capacity to love. The sense of her loss was so great that she never saw the face of an orphaned child but only the unfortunate fate of her widowed self. Nancy loved her till the last day. She did not get to see her on her last day though as she was away on an important meeting and the corpse could not be kept waiting. Nancy got to cry over her mother's ashes. Those tears signalled her detachment from the confines of whatever she had to call a family, a family she forever hated.

The man sitting next to her was younger than her father yet so much like him. She had resolved to distance herself from the life and the lifestyle which reminded her of her step father. Her real father she remembered not. She only remembered the tears that she shed on the loss of not having him. She forced herself to look outside the window and not to panic for time. It had started to rain.

The traffic was too thick and took her more than an hour to reach office. The man dropped her right outside the front entrance. Nancy was forced to thank him but she declined to shake his offered hand. The man shrugged and left, probably to boast to some worthless friend about the beautiful lady who sat in his car.

Inside the conference room the clients had already gathered. Nancy apologised for being late but the apology was curt telling them that she was not a doormat if they expected one. The meeting went smooth and the clients looked pleased. The sad thing was that only a representative group from the interested company had come for the meeting. Nancy did not get the chance to impress the chairman of GM Industries, the company which despite the recession is the pioneer of commerce in Europe and only recently had set their sight on India. She had heard a lot about his queer ways. She only wished to meet him once.

Sebastion was so angry at his secretary Rita. Why did she not wake him on time? He was late. He is never late. He missed a meeting. He had never even been late for any meeting in his life, not even the breakfast meetings which were so early and now he missed a meeting. How could he have been sleeping till half past ten when he usually got up at six? What was the drink he had last night? His head felt like lead and he had only Rita to scream at. He was thirty nine but a bachelor and he liked to remain so. But his employees were supposed to take care of him.

Of course the fact that the meeting was insignificant lightens the matter. It is just a merger that is good PR and nothing else.

"Keep me informed. I don't want you to mess up our image. We are not corporate sharks. We are here to help the economy. That is what the general idea is. Rita, if the proposal is not good enough then you have the merger postponed and buy all their stocks. Don't screw up. This merger may mean nothing to us as a world force but on the National front it is important".

Sebastion pocketed his Blackberry and headed back to the bedroom. A pretty brunette lay among the crumpled sheet. This is what had kept him up last night. As she opened her arms to brace him close to her heart Sebastion leaned forward and kissed her hair. It smelled sweet. With the meeting under way he had about half an hour to still linger in bed. It was good to be the boss.

"Good" is a word Sebastion rarely used! Nothing was good enough for him. His life wasn't good enough for him. He never really had what he always wanted. His father had given him a really large business empire to look over. Even when his sister Annabelle was alive and well, he had the largest mining industry in all of France. But it never was good enough for him. He had a difficult time deciphering the good bad and ugly parts of life. He sought out his answers from religion. He is a devout Catholic, has been so from a very early childhood when faith to him was not a luxury but a means of survival. Those days are long past. But still nothing is good enough for him.

Sebastion already had had two showers since waking up. His hangover had eased and the brunette that earlier lay naked in his bed was dressed and in a seat in front of him having lunch. He enjoyed looking at her. She was beautiful but Sebastion just could not remember her name and it seemed awfully rude to ask especially now. But he had to, so he asked.

"Well beautiful would you mind telling me your name again for I have it really confused between Seema and Selena."

He did not really remember whether her name started with an 'S' but his did. Earlier he used a range between Samantha and Sandy but this was India after all. From how her face contorted Sebastion could realise that he had missed it this time by a long shot. Most probably it didn't even start with an 'S'. It didn't bother him though. He had faced worst situations and he was a brown belt in martial arts.

"You impertinent pig!" so it began as the hapless lady continued to pile insult upon insult to his name. The vase was to suffer next. This is why Sebastion never ever took a girl home. The convenience never justified the waste. Finally as she left Sebastion got a waft of her name. It was "Khushi".

Sebastion smirked. Girls with egos were so much easier to get rid off than prostitutes. One look into his light green eyes and she thinks she can seduce him with her looks. These egoists never realise that he is playing them all along. He is very good at his game. He however doesn't keep a score. He doesn't care. When the egoists wake up from their dream the next morning they have a wounded pride to deal with.

Sebastion knows his women and his wine. He also knows he won't have the luxury of bachelorhood forever. He has a secret promise to keep. A promise he had made to the only woman who had made him go on his knee and propose. Madeleine could not live to say "I do" but she did make him promise that he would say his to one lucky woman at least once. That lucky woman still eluded him after fifteen years. He has to marry before he turns forty. That was the promise. And for Sebastion a promise is something he never breaks specially one he made to his Madeleine. But he still has few more months to go. He loved his freedom.

The ping of his blackberry reminded him of his next meeting. Rita hadn't called yet. Maybe the meeting had not gone as planned. Sebastion detested it when something hay-wired in his master plans. Sometimes he felt like if he could only will things to go the way he wanted. But life was always full of surprises. No one knew what lay ahead. The uncertainty of life always put him off things. Madeleine's face haunted him. Why did she have to die so young?

Nancy hated when things didn't go as planned. The merger was not yet signed and they were yet to declare a date for the merger. She did her best to impress them but she very well knew that these were just puppets in the hands of the Chairman, the mythical Sebastion Mornington. GM industries despite taking its name from his father George Mornington was the brainchild of the son who had uplifted a mining company in the heart of France to a multibillion-dollar multifaceted group of companies whose prime objective lay in taking over smaller companies that had been doing fine by themselves, consolidating the infrastructure and exposing it to a wider market. He had done it with a host of companies and had succeeded in every attempt so far. It would be an opportunity for Khanna Pharmaceuticals if GM industries were to provide it with better infrastructure and funding. As far as she was informed their interest in the company is far from mere business. They wish to develop and supply affordable and effective drugs to the population. A kind of good will hunting policy she figured, among a foreign market and man-force. They were doing everything in their power to woo the public as well as their representatives into supporting them. But why this delay and why was she nervous?

Maybe it was the shabby guy who had given her the lift to office in the morning. His resemblance to her step father may have had spooked her. Perhaps her fear lay somewhere deep within her own conscience. She knew one thing: that the life she had chosen for herself, the high lifestyle and luxury was simply to distinguish her from the man who still haunted her dreams. She still had nightmares and woke up alone crying in bed.

Rohan did not understand her tears or the reason behind them. Her tears meant nothing to anyone save herself.

"Something doesn't feel right Richa", she told her assistant. Her agitation hadn't worn off after the meeting. "Mr. Mornington is known to keep his commitment. Why didn't he show up?"

"You are forgetting that this merger is not that important for them. For God's sake, they have no experience in Pharmaceutical. This is all a PR stunt for the Cancer drug that is under test in our lab. If they support that financially it will buy them some goodwill. That is all that matters to them. Don't fret it. Maybe he didn't think he would be needed himself."

"Are you crazy, Richa? Sebastion Mornington is a performer. The day he arrived in India a beggar knocked at his window. It was winter and the guy was shivering. He had the bare minimum to wear. If Mr Mornington only cared about the logical aspects he would have just given him some money. But along with the money he took off his own jacket and gave it to him; such a show off. Sebastion Mornington loves PR stunts. And he never misses a meeting. Something has to be seriously wrong with either him or this contract"

"You are panicking for all the wrong reasons. Mr. Mornington is a super rich scoundrel and a womaniser. Maybe something or someone kept him up for late and he didn't feel like a 'performer' in the morning"

"Right you are! Does all of your concoction have to lead to bed? Sex can't be more important than a PR stunt, Richa. Not for a guy like Sebastion, not in a million years"

"Now, you're on a first name basis with him? Wow! Actually you don't even know the man and just hope that your new boss may just be as much a control freak as you are. Am I right?"

"I am not a control freak. I just don't like to be a sitting duck. I want to have something to do about it"

"This time there is nothing much you can do. This guy is so rich he can hire an entire army of security, hire a jet and fly off to never-land. If he doesn't wish for a face to face meeting there is nothing that you can do. And be positive. He doesn't need to come over and listen to you for this merger. It is not even a real merger. It's a takeover. Calm down. If he likes to perform, let us sit back and enjoy the show."

"I still don't think they liked the presentation and I was late."

"You are just nervous. They gave a positive feedback. Didn't they?"

"Something is not right. I feel it in my guts. Sebastion Mornington, why are you so uncertain?"

"Get some rest Nancy. You are my boss and my best friend. Trust me. You need to get this thing off your mind. Just wait and see."

"See. I told you we could handle it boss. Don't worry."

"How much of their stocks have you bought yet?"

"56%"

"How much more is available in the market?"

"None is".

"I want at least 70% of their stocks. Otherwise my leverage won't be strong enough. I can't believe they had the guts to over-ride my terms and conditions. They have to pay dearly."

"The girl made us wait and was arrogant and treated us as if our life depended on this merger. May be she thinks that this merger is very important to us."

"This merger is important to us. Every deal is important no matter how small. That is how a reputation is built. Get me that company or get another job."

Why are girls so stubborn? Can't they just do as they are told? Rita gets on his nerves so often. Rita has been with him from his early days. He had hired her for her Cambridge degree but her Indian parentage serves him well enough. Still she is sometimes too headstrong. May be the fact that he relies on her is getting to her. He wonders if she really knows how much. He wonders if she knows that all that he says to threaten her are that, just words. She is loyal and that is what matters.

Sebastion loves a challenge as long as he knows that he will win. He doesn't always win. He is not a sore loser. But his losses mysteriously add up to his profit. God helps him in his ways. May be his sins are not as grave as he considers them to be.

In the crisp linen jacket Rohan looks the quintessential CEO. Nancy hooked her arm instinctively into his as they entered the five-star diners. She wanted it to be clear to the staring ladies that this dark-haired God was hers and hers alone. Rohan looked into her eyes and smiled his quirky "what is going in your head?" smile. He had a fine day compared to her disastrous one. He had finalised few substantial deals and the president had suggested his name for the Board of Directors. He wanted to give her a treat and though she insisted that he was the best treat ever, he brought her out to his favourite joint. They took their usual seat and Rohan ordered his favourite Chardonnay. Nancy took a sip. From the corner of her eyes she could see a foreigner ogling at her.

Nancy had taken extra care to dress in order to take the happenings of the day off her mind. It helped a bit. But the man staring at her really made her nervous. It did not bother Rohan much though. He was happy in his own universe. Nancy did not wish to disturb him but the steady gaze of the clear green eyes scorched through her dress and burned her. She felt so vulnerable.

Even from the far off table he could tell that the reddish tinge of her hair was artificial. It was stupid of the girl to use a colour that distracted so much from her chocolate eyes. May be she did not like someone looking into her eyes. What was it? Some sort of insecurity maybe. The peacock blue dress suited her though. He so much wished to take the dress off her slim body. However she was with a man, her fiancé or her husband he could not understand. One thing was clear. They were not lovers. There was no attraction between them. There was just boredom and stifling adjustments. The girl was fidgeting. Maybe she felt his gaze on her. He had an urge to go and introduce himself but that would freak Gomez. Gomez was in charge of security. It was wise to wait a little.

"Stop fidgeting Nancy. What is bothering you?" Rohan asked.

Nancy did not know what to answer. She was a self sufficient independent woman. It was shameful for her to admit that a stranger's steady stare was enough to disconcert her. She wasn't going to reveal to him her vulnerable side. She only shook her head in the negative. She sipped her wine and pretended to be fine. Only her heart knew how violated she felt then.

Rohan called for the waiter to take their orders. Once the order was given, again the awkward silence continued. After a while Rohan's phone rang. It was an important client. He had to leave immediately. How profusely did he apologise! Not that there was any need for it. Nancy was relieved.

She thought of leaving with him but they were to go different ways and she had left her car at home. She would have to take a different cab. So why should she not finish her dinner. She got up only to wish him goodbye. Then she took her seat again.

Sebastion got up from his corner table. It was the opportunity he was looking for. His prey was all alone and helpless.

"Hi! I have been watching you" he said to startle the pretty Indo-Caucasian girl.

Nancy had a huge pile of insults lined up to heap on him but one look at his smiling European face and the bush of chocolate brown hair and she couldn't help smile herself. She hated talking to strangers but this was no stranger to her. How could she have not recognised the man earlier? Here was the answer to most of her woes of the day. Here was Mr. Mornington.

"Mr. Mornington? I am so sorry I didn't recognise you earlier. How do you do?" she asked him excitedly.

Sebastion was too startled to receive her proffered hand. He was popular among businessmen but not pretty girls. His fame was only recent for GM industries had only reached its present status after his half sister died a year ago from cancer. It was one of the reasons Khanna Pharmaceuticals Merger was important to him. No one should know that though. And here was a girl calling him by his name. Who is she?

It was a moment before Sebastion gained his composure. His moment of bewilderment was so brief that hardly anyone could have noticed it. He regretted not taking her hand. But he nodded and took up the seat next to her. By this time the waiter had arrived with the ordered dishes. Nancy had completely forgotten to cancel Rohan's order.

"Your friend is coming back?" Sebastion asked sceptically. He had seen her get up from her seat, a sure sign that she was left alone.

"Well, no. I forgot to cancel the order. He had some sudden business." Nancy said blushing. She did not know why she was blushing. It was such a poor gesture according to her, marred her intellectuality.

"How do you know me?" Sebastion could be quite blunt when he found evidence that his charm was hardly needed. With this girl he knew his charms were hardly needed. Her knowing, who he was, was proof enough.

"I am the executive manager of Khanna Pharmaceuticals."

Well that explained a lot. Firstly her interests were professional and not personal. And secondly this wasn't going to lead to anything fun. Nancy saw that Sebastion was thoughtful and she wondered whether he would have avoided her if he knew who she was. She was scared that he was about to leave now. She desperately did not wish to be deserted by two men in the same evening at the same restaurant. She asked what she thought proper. "We were expecting you for the meeting. I was disappointed that you could not turn up. Was it some emergency?"

Sebastion did not wish to face this conversation. He never answered to anyone and he surely was not going to answer to this insignificant creature. But then he thought the better of himself and decided to be truthful. "I was in bed"

"Oh! Were you ill? It must be the weather change. Tropical heat can do this to you. I am really sorry to hear this...."

Sebastion couldn't stifle his amusement. He started laughing aloud while Nancy looked on in confusion. Finally he took pity on her bewilderment. "I wasn't sick. I was in bed with a girl. I do that quite often."

Realization dawned on her. This was after all a moderately young man with a lot of money and piercing green eyes and an innocent laugh. She blushed again and this time looked down at her hands. She had to remind herself of her engagement ring to stop her from looking into those eyes. Sebastion's gaze followed her and he could very well read her thoughts.

"Were you with your fiancé or husband?" he asked half-knowing the answer. If he had been the husband she would have either got home or gone to another restaurant.

"My fiancé", she confirmed his doubt still looking down. How much he wanted her to look into his eyes. He knew full well that this woman could take full advantage of the situation. This would be more of a liability than a frivolity. Yet he so much wished to seduce her. But she avoided his most potent weapon, his eyes.

"Well, miss. It would be a shame to waste all this food. Since I haven't already ordered do you mind if I join you?" He knew he had to ask. She was definitely not going to ask him.

"That is a very good idea. In the mean time I can brief you our proposal." She said enthusiastically.

Did she have to bring up that now? Sebastion felt frustrated. It was as if this girl was creating a barrier between her and his fantasies and it had to involve his pet project, "the cancer drug".

"My sister died of breast cancer last year. That is enough of a proposal for me to consider. This takeover or merger, whatever you wished to call it, is very important to me personally and it shall be realised. You don't need to worry." Sebastion was again truthful. Sebastion was perhaps at his most truthful today.

"Thank you so much for the assurance. I was really nervous. I was late for the presentation today. I am never late. But my car broke down and I had to take a lift. The guy was a rogue. I was irritated the entire day. You have no idea how much your words have relieved me. I have been fretting since morning thinking that the impression I gave was not enough"

Well! That got her talking. So Sebastion thought. Sebastion thought of catching the mood. "I have also never missed a meeting in my life. I haven't even been late. When I woke up this morning I couldn't believe that I had overslept. I usually get up at 6 in the morning, no matter what time zone I am in. Today was inexcusable. I woke up at 10:30. Can you imagine? I don't even sleep that late on weekends"

"Really, I can imagine what it must be like to lose control of the entire day's schedule. It is like the whole day getting hay-wired"

Sebastion looked up at her face. How could this girl be real? She not only fully understands him but also speaks his language. "Did you just say hay-wired?"

"Yes I did."

Sebastion could not help smirking. He wished only if his best friend, Frederick would have met her. Maybe then he would stop calling Sebastion a control freak. The truth being told Sebastion would love to relinquish all his control, over his business, mind, body and soul if he ever found someone responsible enough to take care of it all. He knew how to take care of himself. He had been taking care of himself since he was five years old when his grandfather had his first heart attack. He so much wished to be taken care of. He only wished he would find somebody capable and willing. Maybe then could Madeleine's soul really rest in peace?

Nancy knew when to stay quiet but she feared that she had ruined his verbosity. She realised that she must apologise. "I am sorry if my choice of word offended you." She was amazed at how easy it was to apologise to him. He was a man who really had the command of the situation and it was so easy to be intimidated by him. Nancy's sudden and unexpected apology brought Sebastion back to the present.

"Do not apologise. I use the word very often especially when something unexpected happens. My friends find my choice of word crude and rustic. I was just wondering how they would react to see a sophisticated woman using language after my taste. By the way, what is your name? I would really like to remember your name despite the fact I am not very good with names"

Nancy did not know what to say. She felt embarrassed at her language being called crude and rustic yet she felt good to be sharing the embarrassment with a man of his stature and reputation. "My name is Nancy Choudhuri."

"Nice name. Are you a liberal or a conservative woman Miss Choudhuri?" he asked in a sing song voice. She doesn't need to know, his inner voice kept telling him. But Sebastion did not understand his own intentions.

"I am quite liberal I can assure you Mr. Mornington. Why do you ask?"

"I just thought I should tell you that my personal life wasn't utterly responsible for keeping me from today's meeting. As a matter of fact I didn't even know the girl's name. I had a few drinks last night and never knew when I met her. I am a man who can really hold his liquor. I was really baffled this morning."

It was too much information on a personal level. Nancy abhorred intimacy and this conversation was bordering on that. But there remained a contract to be signed. She had to humour this man. She forced herself to appear amused. "Did you finally get to know her name?"

"Yes I did. It went something like Khushi. What does that mean even?"

"Khushi means happiness"

"Wow, we all search for happiness and she just slipped me by." He meant it as a joke but was confused by her reaction. He saw as her face clouded with some unnamed grief.

"It slips everyone by Mr. Mornington while we chase a mere impression of it." Nancy could not help the melancholy from sounding in her voice as she looked at him after a long time, in desperation and defiance as she faced the intimidating man for the first time during their conversation.

Surprised, Sebastion was forced to look into her eyes, into the scathing pain and disillusion and for the first time he felt the urge to hold someone close and ease her pain. He could see this complex woman holding within her a tumult of emotion and an ocean of depravity. He looked down shocked by his own feelings that followed. Sebastion tried to rein in his thoughts but without his own knowledge murmured under his breath, "How I would love to make you happy, take away all your sorrow and your pain, I could make your unshed tears vanish and never come back. How I wish it so!"

Nancy was never used to being taken care of. She looked in horror at the man before her, with heads bent down in deep thought, conversing with the palm of his hands as if to convince them into some action he knew they were capable of yet reluctant to undertake. Nancy had heard the whispers and she knows full well she was not meant to. The thoughts were whispered under his breath. She could hear them through that chance happening when all at once silence envelopes everyone around. She tried hard not to flush at his words or not to feel special, but a woman's heart rarely listens to herself. Nancy's heart was beating fast. After eons had she actually realised its existence. She had difficulty concealing the throbbing of her reawakened heart under her heaving bosoms from the man who looked down into his own soul. None of them spoke and the silence was deafening. Nancy had to break this situation for she feared further probing into her essence which she efficiently hid from everyone. "The food is getting cold" she urged, "Shall we begin?"

Those made Sebastion stir. How hard had he taught himself not to look beyond the false eyelashes of every pretty face he met! Yet here he was peering into the pool of unshed tears behind a well concocted mask of self sufficiency. "Yes, please." And there was silence again broken by the sound of the knife cutting into the steak or the wine being poured. Occasionally they looked at one another each having something to say and yet forgetting what it was. They were less like strangers and more like old friends though neither knew the concerns that plagued the other. The food was delicious and both were hungry but neither truly wished to leave.

Nancy asked for the bill.

"Are you crazy? I am paying." Sebastion objected.

"But I ordered and I shall pay. Any ways you are not my boss yet. So you can't order me around. I shall pay." Nancy explained.

Sebastion had never been treated this way. He felt amused. He could ask her for an evening to return the favour. But he knew she would blush and the colour of her cheeks made his heart lurch forward. He knew he wanted her but he also knew that he would not seduce her.

"You have your car?" he asked instead.

"Well no, actually I came with Rohan in his car"

"How do you plan on getting home?"

"I'll take a taxi. You don't have to worry about it."

"Oh! No you don't. You paid the bill. I give the lift."

"Actually I am not very comfortable....."

He didn't let her finish. "You are not comfortable in taking lifts from strangers. So I have heard. But we are not complete strangers. We just shared dinner and I am no rogue, I can assure you, at least as long as I don't wish to be. I promise I shall hold my manners. Now come this way."

Sebastion could be quite domineering if he wished to but he believed in letting others handle their own situation. He let her pay the bill. That was far too much for him to allow. As the valet brought the car Nancy couldn't help her appreciative smile. She always loved a Mercedes: The best in its class! "You drive yourself?" she asked feeling jealous.

"Yes I do, only in the evening though. Gomez prefers to ride ahead to ensure the road is open."

"Who is Gomez?"

"He is my security cum chauffer cum valet. Whatever I wish him to be, he is. Here he comes."

All this while, Nancy was chatting with a very charming and handsome young man. Only now she realised that she was having dinner with a multibillionaire whose mere name sets thousand hearts to flutter. She turned around to see the man who had been their shadow all evening yet had gone unnoticed. He was dressed in a crisp formal black and white, his uniform perhaps. He nodded to Sebastion and got in an Audi parked ahead.

Sebastion got in the driver's seat and held out the door of the passenger side for her to get in. The leather seats were soft and smooth. He smiled at her a mysterious smile and off they went. It didn't take long to reach the apartment. Nancy was quite disappointed. Very unlike herself she asked him to come up to her place. She had never asked anyone, not even Rohan. Her apartment was her shell. Rohan respected her privacy but this man didn't. He saw right through her mask and she knew that her shell was useless before him.

"May be some other time I'll come." He said. And he left.

Hope lingered in Nancy's heart but not for long. Some other time was very unlikely to happen. Cinderella's hour was up. Sebastion Mornington was gone. He refused her.