What Dreams Are Made Of – Episode 4

Episode_4

“Mr Swaroski, I need to speak to you,” but her voice didn’t come out as strong as she had intended. There was no reaction on his face. She cleared her throat and tried again, “I am Christina Smith. That antiques shop at the back belongs to me,” she said pointing her hand towards the shop.

The moment those words left her mouth, she realized her mistake.

“Uhmm, I mean it did before, maybe not really to me but…” she spluttered in confusion. He raised an eye brow, still not saying a word. She didn’t know why she was being so hassled and how he could unnerve her so much without saying a single word.

She took a deep breath to steady her racing pulse and tried again. “I have lease license of this shop. But now it belongs to you. I have received this letter today morning and it says I have to vacate the shop within two months.”

She quickly pulled out and showed him the letter. He still didn’t say anything, but she could see lips pressed together in a thin line. She desperately wanted him to say something, tell her that her shop is safe but nothing of that sort happened. Before she could think of something else, he finally spoke.

“Then you better do.”

“What?”

He rolled his eyes and said, “Vacate your shop within two months.”

“I am doing no such thing. I have worked hard to establish that shop and I plan to keep it that way,” she responded immediately, highly annoyed by his response.

Her response didn’t make him any happy either. He pressed his lips together and said, “Then you should prepare to speak to my lawyers. They are being paid to get you vacate the shop.”

He said it as calmly as wishing her good morning. She was appalled by the way he was talking about his lawyers and her as if they were not human beings but mere pawns in his scheme of things.

“But I don’t want to vacate!” she repeated emphatically, in frustration.

He coolly replied, “I am not here to listen to wish lists of naïve girls. Move, now. You are blocking my way.”

This angered her even further. Whom does he think he is calling naïve? She would show him.

“I am not moving till you hear me to out,” she said, folding her hands in front her. He pressed his lips close together. But apart from that there was no other expression on his face. There was another man in suit who had come up behind him. He tried to say something, “Sir-,” when Nikloi cut him short by raising his hand above, telling him to stop.

“Listen girl, you have wasted enough of my time. I do not do my businesses standing in front of a cafe,” he said sharply.

“Well, we could go inside the cafe if that suits you better,” Chrissy responded immediately.

She didn’t know from where she was getting this courage to answer him back like this. She had never spoken to a man of his level, certainly not in this manner. May be the fear of losing her shop was fueling her to go on without being afraid.

His eyes turned a darker shade of blue and he stared at her intensely. His gaze was drilling holes in her face and she could feel the heat emanating out of her body. If they continued like this, she would turn into ashes very soon.

She wanted to move aside, break the connection but couldn’t. She wasn’t sure if this was because of her anxiety to save her shop or it was something else but move, she couldn’t.

“I can see you are quite keen on having coffee with me, but I am sorry, I will have to disappoint you. There are things, far more important than socializing, that need my attention,” he said with a completely straight face.

Before she could understand his jibe, she heard someone call out her name.

Looking back towards her shop, she saw Rick coming to them.

“May be your friend can help you with your coffee plans,” he commented, again with a neutral face but she could see his eyes had turned completely dark.

Suddenly, she felt her newly acquired courage leaving her. What was this man talking about? She thought. She wasn’t interested in having coffee, not with him, not with anyone. She wanted to keep her shop, her Dreams. Rick had almost reached h

er side by then and had a puzzling look on his face, wondering what she was doing with Nikloi Swaroski. She turned towards Rick and Nikloi used her distraction to get to his car door. Seeing him trying to leave she spun around towards him, but he just gave her one more of that chilling look, making her stop at the spot.

With that final look, he got inside the car and the other man in suit followed him. Before long the car speeded away and along with it, Chrissy could feel her shop also drifting farther and farther away from her.

➖➖➖➖➖

It had been almost a month since that first and disastrous meeting with Nikloi Swaroski. Chrissy had been trying everything since then to save her shop. She had met each and every person who were either owner or working in her complex. None of them were interesting to save the complex. They were either heavily

compensated or knew better than to cross Nikloi Swaroski. She then met government officials, land department, etc but didn’t get any support from there either.

Some of the people working at the site had shared the plans of deconstructing the complex with her. According to the people she met, this was to improve the access to the hotel. Some of them even shared copies of the work designs with her to make her realize there was no option for her but to vacate.

At first, things didn’t make much sense, but she didn’t do anything other than to pour herself over those plans. Slowly a thought started developing in her mind. May be there was a way to save her shop even when there was no complex around. She worked hard day and night to get more details of the project and then she had an idea which gave her slight hope. She knew she had to do whatever it takes to get her shop back, even meeting the obnoxious Nikloi Sawroski again.

Her mother and sister didn’t know anything about the notice and she didn’t want to tell them either. She was hoping she would be able to solve this whole issue without burdening them with the tensions of her work. They wouldn’t be in any position to help and would only worry themselves more.

With all the information she gathered, she knew she finally had a solution and now she needed to meet the man himself to get him to agree to her plans. If he did, she would be out of this with terrible situation and would never see him again.

With that resolution, she had approached his office and was given an appointment of one week later. She spent the entire week in anticipation of the meeting. She was jittery about meeting the man again after their first meeting but at the same time she was hopeful of making him see the logical solution she had to propose.

Nothing could have prepared her for what was in store for her when she actually met Nikloi Swaroski in his territory.

She had reached his office almost half an hour before the scheduled time since she didn’t want to be late. Nervously, she had approached the immaculately dressed receptionist for her appointment with Nikloi Swaroski. She had looked at her from top to bottom and then chuckled as if Chrissy was fooling around. When she had insisted, the girl finally relented and called on her intercom.

Only when Chrissy’s name was confirmed from the other side of the phone, she had straightened up, showing her the way to the lift to reach the top floor for Mr. Swaroski’s office. Her eyes had continued to be doubtful throughout the time till Chrissy had stepped inside the elevator.

Inside the elevator, Chrissy had tried to calm her nerves while it rose to the sixtieth floor.

The opulence of his office had hit her the moment she stepped out of the lift. The place was extremely sophisticated, designed in muted colors. The decor itself was sufficient to make her edgy all over again.

The secretary, Ms White, had also given her a skeptical look similar to that of the receptionist, judging her by her looks and her simple dress. It appeared people like her were not expected to step in this office, especially this floor.

Ms White had finally told her, Mr Swaroski was in a meeting and would meet her in the conferen

ce in some time. She had showed her to the conference room and asked her to wait there.

The room had an extremely large round table, made of some rich dark wood with a smooth polished surface and an all glass wall at the other side of the room. All around the table were black boardroom chairs which she was afraid of even sitting in.

Finally she had went a little further in and sat in one of the chairs. She had not known long she sat there waiting for Nikloi to me but there was no clue of him. The time of the appointment had been over long back. She had thought of going out and checking with the secretary when Mr Swaroski would meet her but had then had decided otherwise. She had looked very busy when Chrissy had approached her last time and she didn’t want to disturb her again, fearing that she might cancel the meeting all together.

So she had waited in all her earnest, hoping the meeting went off as she had rehearsed in her mind more than thousands times in the last one week.

It had been more than two hours over the scheduled time, when he had eventually stepped in the room speaking to someone on his mobile phone. He looked

extremely busy, at the same time, handsome in a tailored suit which fitted his tall body perfectly.

Chrissy had swallowed a gulp of air in her throat. It was the first time she had met him in a closed environment and suddenly the large room had appeared too small to her.

His lithe body and sharp features had made him fit to be a semi Greek god. Chrissy had been surprised by the way her thoughts were running haywire just by looking at him. She had scolded herself internally for such stupid thoughts and had decided to focus only on the purpose of her visit to the businessman that he was.

His dark eyes had been half closed, stressed at listening to the person on the phone. He was clearly annoyed, “I had asked you to do one thing and you couldn’t do even that properly. I already have enough on my plate than to manage your problems too! You better not-”

He had stopped talking mid-sentence as his eyes had fallen upon Chrissy standing in the conference room. Her eyes had become bigger the moment they met his. His eyes had narrowed further. He had scanned her from top to bottom, then as if satisfied with his inspection, had moved close to her. Very close. And before she knew it, he had closed the space between them completely and kissed her on her lips.

To_be_Continued