What Dreams Are Made Of – Episode 14

Episode_14

 

 

She answered defensively, “I came with Mrs. Clark because I didn’t want to leave her sick all alone but I had no clue about you both being related”. He raised an eyebrow looking at her even more questioningly as if he didn’t trust her. “And why were you with my Aunt?” he continued accusingly.

 

 

“Oh spare the child, Nikloi”, Mrs. Clark intervened. “I was lucky to meet Chrissy at her shop and she had been helping me with my antiques collection. She is quite good at her business”, she smilingly added praising Chrissy affectionately.

 

Nikloi didn’t seem to be impressed with the situation nor had any interests for her any of her talent. He was about to go on with his displeasure of finding her in his home, when another voice captured everyone attention.

 

Henry Clark entered the room saying “Oh Mom, are you alright? Nik called me saying you are not well. I rushed back home to be with you!”. The man was on the bed now and holding Mrs. Clark’s in his arms lovingly. “What happened to you?” he continued.

 

Chrissy had thought nothing could beat her surprise on meeting Nikloi Swaroski in his home and knowing that Mrs Clark was his aunt. But she was obviously wrong. The day was seemed to be made for surprises.

 

Watching Henry hold Mrs Clark in his arms and address her as his mother left her completely bewildered. What was happening here and more importantly, what was she doing in this family union? She couldn’t blame Nikloi Swaroski for his unpleasant reaction. She herself was puzzled with the chain of events of the day.

 

Mrs. Clark told her son what had happened and how Chrissy helped her. Sensing her presence in the room, Henry was equally surprised but his reaction was much more pleasing as compared to his stony cousin who was standing away from the bed and the door.

 

Figuring his mom was much better now, Henry quickly jumped from the bed and went to Chrissy. Holding both her hands in his hands he said, “What a pleasant surprise, Chrissy. I never expected to meet you here of all the places but I am so glad Mom was with you. Thank you so much for taking care of her while Nik and me both were not around”.

 

His happiness was quite evident and almost contagious. Chrissy wanted to relax and smile back at him but she was aware of a pair of dark eyes staring at them, especially the way Henry’s hands were still holding hers.

 

 

Remembering the kind of allegations she was subjected to last time she had met Henry, she was overtly conscious of their interaction. Releasing her hands from his grip, she replied politely, “Please don’t mention it. I didn’t do anything special.” Mrs. Clark smiled at her response and said, “You are not just kind but very modest as well. I don’t know what I would have done, had you not been around.” She was quite happy meeting the simple girl and had a happy feeling seeing her son and Chrissy standing together.

 

“I am glad I could be of help”, Chrissy said to her, moving away from Henry. But Henry was elated with the turn of events. He seemed not to notice, Chrissy’s attempts to move away and following her back he said, “Now that you are here, please do stay back to have dinner with us. Give us a way to properly thank you”.

 

“Yes, yes, you should.” Mrs. Clark added. “I may not be able to join you guys tonight as doctor has advised me to rest but Henry and Nikloi would be more than happy to have dinner with you”, she said happily.

 

Panic struck Chrissy at the dinner invitation. She couldn’t have dinner with either of them. More importantly, she didn’t want to have dinner with either of them. Besides, in all this, she was already late for home. Her mother and sister must be wondering what is keeping her when she had informed them that she would be reaching home early.

 

She tried to excuse herself. “Thank you, Mrs. Clark. But the doctor has advised you to rest. You should be resting and I shouldn’t be keeping any of you busy from attending to her.”

 

“Having dinner with a lovely lady is not keeping us busy”, Henr

 

y said happily. “It would be a pleasure indeed”, he added.

 

Chrissy found herself getting stuck between the insistence of Mrs Clark and Henry. She wanted nothing but to leave as soon as possible but didn’t know how to excuse herself without appearing rude. She also knew that a certain man in the room had no more inclination to have dinner with her than she had but he didn’t seem to be saying anything contrary to the invitation of the mother and son duo.

 

 

She looked at him hoping he would put an end to this discussion but he didn’t take any efforts to speak. Instead he just continued to scrutinize her face more intently.

 

She looked at Mrs. Clark & Henry’s eager faces and told them politely, “Thank you but I am sorry I can’t. It’s already late and my family is expecting me at home for dinner. Thinking we would be through with our meeting, I had told them that I would be home early”.

 

Both, Mrs. Clark and Henry were disappointed with her reply.

 

Mrs. Clark was first one to recover. “It’s ok child. I understand, family comes first. But we should have a meal together sometime soon once you have helped me close the deal I am looking for. Now, Nikloi must drop you to your home.”

 

Chrissy was glad she could escape the dinner invitation without hurting her but her last line put her back in her panic state.

 

“No, no. That won’t be necessary”, she said quickly.

 

“Aunt Martha, I am expecting a business call from one of our overseas hotel”, came from Nikloi.

 

“I can drop Chrissy home. I will be more than happy”, said Henry.

 

The three of them looked at each other at the immediate contrary responses.

 

Mrs. Clark said in a no-nonsense tone, “You can take business call later, Nikloi. It is getting late and it is not ok to ask Chrissy to go alone at this time. Please drop her home”.

 

Aside she said to her son, “I need to sleep now. Henry, would you please massage my head, son”.

 

Henry wanted the opportunity to drop Chrissy home. He was really looking forward to spending more time with her after accidentally meeting her at the home. He was quite impressed with her at the party but hadn’t yet found the time to pursue her further. This meeting was a God send gift to him. But he knew his mother needed him and he couldn’t disregard her request. So he gave in to her request and it was decided that Nikloi would drop Chrissy to her home.

 

 

Chrissy was definitely not happy with the arrangement but she had realized, Mrs Clark wouldn’t let her go on her own. And the lady was already too tired. She didn’t want to trouble her further and decided the best way was to get over with the journey at the earliest.

 

She said goodnight to Mrs. Clark and Henry and moved out of the room behind Nikloi. If she noticed that Henry had shook her hands a little longer than necessary, she didn’t react. Nikloi took her through the house and entered a lift. Chrissy followed him.

 

The lift seem to be going underground to the basement parking. In spite of the huge dimensions of the lift, the moment its door closed, she started feeling claustrophobic.

 

This was her first time alone with Nikloi after that party night. In fact she had avoided all sorts of interactions with him as much as possible, whether public or private. But being in that lift with him, she was reminded of each every second she had spent in his arms that night when he had forcibly kissed her after those terrible insults.

 

 

 

She breathed a sigh of relief when the lift door opened to lead them into a parking lot! If she was conscious of the muscular man at her side in the lift, she was now visibly sweating. After their last debacle, she didn’t want to be him in a parking lot. She didn’t want to be with him anywhere. Period.

 

 

Unaware of her internal conflicts, Nikloi strode to his car at a fast pace and quickly reached his car. Opening the door for passenger seat, he quickly got into the driver seat from the other side. He had started the engine but Chrissy still didn’t get in after him. It took her few more seconds to overcome her hesitations, but then gathering all her wits, she got in the car be

 

fore he could make a sarcastic comment on her.

 

 

Once inside the car, Nikloi smoothed the car on to the road. She squeezed herself into as small as possible and pushed herself into a corner at her side. If Nikloi saw her hugging herself tightly, he didn’t say anything. In fact he didn’t seem to be

 

 

saying anything at all. He was looking straight without even a single glance towards her. She was conscious of the driver but he seems to be oblivious to her presence. There was a stark look on his face, devoid of any expression and there was no way to know what was going on in his mind.

 

 

The car continued to eat up miles on the road and her body continued to be extremely strung up with each and every nerve being on high alert. A faint gasp escaped her mouth when his knuckles brushed up the side of her thigh. In spite of it being hardly audible, she was sure, he had heard it because of complete silence in the car. When he questioningly looked at her, she immediately turned her face to the window. She didn’t want him to face him or his questions. All she was praying in her heart was to reach her home as soon as possible.

 

Just when she started recognizing the familiar surroundings of her home locality, he pulled up the car at a side and killed the engine. It was her turn to look up to him questioningly. What did he want now, she wondered? A quick dash of involuntary desire coursed through her body thinking at the possibilities of what he may do to her but she forced her heart and her mind to stop thinking on those lines.

 

“Impressing Aunt Martha was quite a remarkable move but if you have any ounce of brains in your head, you will stay clear of both her and Henry”, he said icily without any preamble. She was quite taken aback with this sudden and accusing statement.

 

“What do you mean?” she asked.

 

“You know very well what I mean, Ms. Smith. Your talent seem to be working equally well on men as well women. In addition to Henry, now Aunt is also smitten with you”, he said in a mocking tone.

 

“Oh please stop that nonsense. I am not going after them to impress them. Neither do I have any wish to do so”.

 

“Yet your charm seems to be working so well”, he commented.

 

“You are the only man I know who thinks of me like that”, she said annoyingly.

 

“And how many men have you known?” he asked derisively.

 

 

She seemed to be tongue-tied to that question. She wanted to tell him none but no voice came out of her mouth.

 

“How many?” He continued coming closer to her seat.

 

“Looks like you are surrounded by men always. And what chance do they have to escape that face, full of innocence and elusive beauty?”

 

Beauty? She? What was he talking about? And why did it sound like an insult?

 

But before she could respond to his ridiculous comments, his hand touched her face with the back of his fingers. The touch was very light, almost a caress. Chrissy’s breath was held in a suspension. She was unable to breathe, move or utter a word. Her world was completely suspended with that touch.

 

He found her beautiful? Her whole mind was going crazy with those words and the touch. She knew she had to do something to break that connection or she will be lost in his charm forever. She didn’t want to give in to him for any reason. Definitely not because he called her beautiful.

 

She quickly turned her face away from him and his touch.

 

“Please stop this charade”, she said earnestly.

 

 

 

“You will do well to learn from your own words. And remember what I said. I still don’t like repeating myself”, he said pressing his lips tightly together, his face turned hard and devoid of any expression. With those words, he started the engine and focussed on his driving. Within minutes, they were in front of her house. He waited for her to step out of the car. Once she was out, he did a u-turn and went back the same way without waiting for another second, leaving her still standing at her door.

 

Chrissy was left far more confused than ever. The whole day had turned out to be full of complicated learnings. And Nikloi Swaroski continued to baffle her. The more she tried to st

 

ay away from him, more she was thrown in his path and he missed no opportunity to trample her pride in ashes.

 

 

Why did he treat her like that? She may get answers to world’s most complex life threatening issues but not to that question.

 

 

 

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