What Dreams Are Made Of: Episode 52

 

✒Episode_52

 

 

 

 

Chrissy and Nikloi left the hotel in his car and went to his home. Mrs Smith was staying with Mrs Clark at Swaroski Residence. They reached there quickly and went in together. Both her mother and Mrs Clark were too happy to see Chrissy. Mrs Smith couldn’t stop herself from being overwhelmed, tears running down her face, on seeing her dear daughter well after the dreadful incident.

 

She had never wanted to leave her side but Nikloi had insisted that she stay with his aunt at his place. She had seen it in his eyes, that his concern was genuine. Knowing that he would take care of her daughter, she had finally agreed because she didn’t want to cause him any more trouble. He had not said it, but she could see he was deeply affected by Chrissy’s state. She decided it was better to be away, lest she herself falls sick and instead of being able to help her daughter, she would become a burden to Nikloi.

 

So she had come home but her heart had been stuck at the hospital. Seeing her daughter walk in with Nikloi was a delight to her eyes and she expressed her happiness by shedding those stupid tears which had been threatening her since the time she had heard of the news of Chrissy’s hospitalization.

 

 

Chrissy had hugged her mother and both the Smith ladies had, as usual, silently communicated their love to each without any need of words. When they had both calmed down, Chrissy had felt far better.

 

 

Mrs Clark had feigned ignorance initially, being upset with Chrissy for doing the vanishing act but had quickly hugged the girl who was so dear to her. She was too happy to finally see her again and warned her never ever to try ignoring her or else she may take it seriously.

 

 

Chrissy found that Mrs Clark had been especially attentive to her mother’s needs and both the ladies had become quite comfortable with each other in such a short span of time. All three of them were sitting on the couch, with Nikloi standing a little away near the window, when Henry had walked in on the happy company.

 

Seeing Chrissy he had quickly come to her and pulled her up from the couch, “Chrissy, are you all right? I was so worried for you.” He said, his voice full of concern and real fear.

 

Chrissy wanted to allay his fears but to her own shock, she saw Henry’s face was bruised up at a number of places. He still had bandage around his head and he was walking with a limp. Focussing on his leg, she realized his left leg was actually covered in a red thick plaster like scroll.

 

“Oh Henry! What did they do to you? You look so..”, she was unable to complete her words because of the deep pain in her heart. Henry had to go through all this because of her. She felt guilty and miserable.

 

Mrs Clark had also got up from her place and was next to Henry to give him support. “You shouldn’t be walking around, young man. Doctor told you to stay in bed for a week”, she said, urging him to sit down on the couch.

 

“I heard Chrissy’s voice and I couldn’t stay back without seeing it for myself if she was safe and okay”, Henry said while trying to pull her down to sit next to him.

 

 

Nikloi came to stand next to Chrissy and said in serious tone, “I had told you she was fine.” He put an arm around her waist, stopping her from sitting on the couch next to Henry.

 

“Yes, but I had to see her myself”, Henry replied, still holding Chrissy’s hands. Chrissy was acutely conscious of Nikloi’s arm around her. They had covered lot of ground yesterday but they still had a long way to go. Especially when it came to their relationship in front of others. She didn’t want to hide anything but she needed time to let her mother know how deeply she had got involved.

 

She looked at Nikloi and Henry one after the other, not knowing what to say. But seeing Henry had gone through too much of a risk, all for her, she couldn’t ignore his concern. “I am fine, Henry”, she said, smiling sweetly to him.

 

Henry face lit up. “That is such a relief. I am glad it turned out to be this way with…” Henry

 

was not able to complete because Nikloi cut him in.

 

 

“I have to make an announcement.”

 

Nikloi moved towards the centre of the drawing room, pulling Chrissy along with him, thus making her break her hand contact with Henry. All four pairs of eyes were trained on him. Chrissy was surprised with this sudden move and was looking at his face for any clue.

 

 

But Nikloi was hardly affected by any looks or stares. He continued with his usual, emotion-less face and care-free attitude, “I am marrying Christina on twenty seventh of this month.”

 

“What???”

 

He was received by a unanimous shock by all four of them. But the biggest shock was to Chrissy. She felt the earth pulled away below her feet and would have actually fallen had it not been for the firm hand around her waist. She was staring at his face with large, round green eyes but he seemed to be oblivious of her

 

 

reaction except for when she tried to move away, his grip tighten on her, keeping her where she was.

 

Mrs Clark and Henry were still speechless. The date was less than a month away! It was Mrs Smith who recovered the earliest. “That is so wonderful, Nikloi. Congratulations to both of you”, she said, probably because she was the one who knew Nikloi the least in the room.

 

Mrs Clark looked at Henry with concern in her eyes but he lowered his eyes, nodding in affirmation. Mrs Clark took a deep breath but smiled nonetheless. She came close to them and said to Nikloi, “Finally, God gave you brains! This is the first good thing I have heard in ages. I am so happy for you.” She kissed him on both his cheeks.

 

Turning to Chrissy, “Oh darling, this is such a wonderful news indeed. Obviously, I had chosen you for Henry..”

 

“Mom!” Henry squealed from behind.

 

But Mrs Clark continued as if there was no interruption, “but I am glad you are still going to be my daughter-in-law. You mustn’t call me Mrs Clark now. Call me Aunt Martha. We are family now.”

 

Chrissy was still too dumbfounded to react to any of this. She could only smile to Mrs Clark as she kissed both her cheeks.

 

Henry came forward and stood next to his mother with her support. He shook Nikloi’s hands while wishing him congratulations. Both the men exchanged a knowing look and something was communicated between them with unspoken words. Chrissy couldn’t fathom what it was but when Henry turned to wish her, she could see genuine happiness in his eyes.

 

“I am truly happy for you, Chrissy” but before she could say anything, Nikloi tugged at her waist again.

 

“Now, if you will excuse us, I have to take my fiancée out. There are things to be completed before the marriage “, Nikloi said to everyone and pulled Chrissy along

 

 

with him. The word fiancée rang like a foreign word to Chrissy’s ears. She could only smile weakly at Henry to show her acceptance of his wishes and later to Mrs Clark and her mother. Her mother nodded.

 

“Yes, yes. We must get to it too. You are hardly giving us any time for preparations. There is so little time and so much to do”, Mrs Clark said to Mrs Smith and both ladies got busy and excited discussing all that had to be done.

 

Nikloi took Chrissy out, made her sit in his car and drove it out quickly. Once alone in the car with him, Chrissy came to her senses. She turned towards him and asked

 

“What was that?”

 

“I know Henry is as much of a brother as I will ever have and he is a great guy and I trust him with my life, but have mercy on both of us. Stay away from him”, Nikloi said while looking straight ahead on the road.

 

“What? What are you saying? I..”

 

“We both know Henry is in love with you”, he said looking in her eyes. “He is too much of a gentleman to cross his line after today but you must play your part. Don’t make it too hard for him. STAY AWAY”, he said the last two words menacingly softly but Chrissy got it for what it was.

 

“So is that what it was all about?”

 

It was Nikloi’s turn to look at her questioningly.

 

“Your announcement! It was all to keep Henry away from me!”

 

“Well.. yes..that ”

 

“I don’t believe this! How could you? How could you make so little of something as impor

 

 

tant as marriage? And how could you involve my mother in all his charade?” She cried, tears filling up her eyes.

 

“Wait! Listen..”

 

“No! No, I won’t listen to you. When everything you say is just another lie. Everything is so very easy for you but do you have any respect for others’ feelings and emotions?” She almost screamed. “And here I was.. thinking you are… I was such a fool…”

 

Her cry-induced-hiccups didn’t let her complete. She put her hands on her face to hide her pain and hurt.

 

“Christina..”, he said but she was beyond listening.

 

She didn’t know how long she sat there in his car like that but when she finally looked up, the car had come to a halt in front of Royal Le Swaroski hotel entrance. She was further confused. Why would he bring me here? She thought. But before she could voice her confusion, he came around the car, opened the door and took her hand to take her inside.

 

 

It all happened too fast. She couldn’t understand anything. Before she could ask him anything, he took her to the hotel museum. The place she had built with Nikloi. What surprised her even more at the museum was that there was no staff. It was all empty except the beautiful pieces she had curated with lot of research and hard labour.

 

 

Reaching the centre of the museum, he turned her around and said, “Christina, please listen to me. I know it came out all wrong and that I should have spoken to you before announcing it to others but I couldn’t hold myself back there. I had to let them know.”

 

“But let me rectify the mistake”, saying that he pulled out a red velvet box from his breast pocket in his jacket. Opening it in front of her, he showed her a simple but beautiful golden ring with a solitaire diamond at the centre.

 

“Marry me, Christina”, he said

 

 

Chrissy was stunned. She couldn’t blink or move or breathe. She was just too shocked to react. Nikloi pulled the ring out of the box and put it on her ring finger, while astounded Chrissy continued to watch speechlessly.

 

When Nikloi tugged her at hand to say something, she gathered all her strengths to pull out of her trance and finally ask, “I.. Why are you doing this?”

 

“Why? Because I want to marry you”, Nikloi replied immediately.

 

“You don’t have to take this too far. Stop this please. It’s already too much for me.”

 

“Stop what? What are you saying?” Nikloi asked bewildered.

 

“This! This ring, this proposal, this marriage! You don’t have to marry me. You don’t want to marry me. You don’t have to do this for some charade.”

 

“Why would you call it charade?” Nikloi asked irritably, hurt visible in his eyes.

 

“Because you don’t love me! There can never be a marriage without love. I don’t want a marriage without love”, said Chrissy. Her agitated state lending her the strength to get it off her chest, get it all out, no matter how much it pained her to the acknowledge the bitter truth.

 

“And who told you I don’t love you?” Nikloi asked heatedly.

 

Chrissy faltered for a second. She looked up at his face to see anger, hurt and irritation written all over his face. She took a deep breath and spelt out the biggest of her heartache.

 

“You don’t love me. You never said you did”, the words came out as a whisper but Nikloi heard them clear.

 

Nikloi took hold of her arms on both sides, making her jerk her head up and looked deep in her eyes. “Oh Christina! What do you think I have been going through all these months? What do you think I have been telling you whole of yesterday? What was I telling you whole of last night?” He whispered-yelled at her.

 

Chrissy couldn’t help but turn crimson at his words. Lowering her eyes, she said, “That.. that was different.. you desire me… physically.. it has nothing to do with love.”

 

 

 

“Oh but it has! It has got everything to do with love. I have never experienced such feelings for any one. I have been attracted earlier but it was always different with you. I just don’t want you physically. Had it been just sex, I would have been through you long time back.”

 

Chrissy felt the pain at the implication. She tried to move away, but Nikloi tightened his hold.

 

“No, don’t go. Listen to me. I am not proud of all that I did but I need you to understand”, he said pulling her back to face him.

 

He continued, “I tried to ignore you, I tried to shut you out.

 

Believe me I even tried to play it out as plain sex. I did. There was a time when all I wanted was to just take you.”

 

Chrissy found herself turning hot at his words in spite of the situation.

 

“The night of your first party at the hotel, I couldn’t keep my eyes off you. You were such a breath of fresh air among the other scantily dressed women. So simple and yet you had the allure pulling me towards you. But after our not-so-encouraging conversation during the lunch in my room, I had decided to stay away from you. You had made absolutely clear that you didn’t want to be close to me and I was not going to go after you. And then I saw you with Henry and suddenly all my resolve seem to go out of the window.”

 

“I simmered watching the two of you together and then your reaction after Henry left made me flew me off the handle. I was as much as angry with you as myself for having those feelings. I just couldn’t control myself or my feelings and ended up kissing you against my better judgement.”

 

“But you had said you were sorry!”

 

“I was because I didn’t want to force myself upon you again. Especially not after our first kiss. I didn’t want it to be another horrible experience for you but I just couldn’t stop myself. You were looking ravishing in your black dress and it took me everything to stop kissing you and let you go, else darling we would had been

 

 

having sex on that very day”, Nikloi expressed his open desire, rubbing his hard body against her heated body.

 

Chrissy didn’t know how to react to his admission. She was stunned at his words, at the same time, she was kind of excited. Nikloi took her hand in his hands and made her sit on the seat.

 

Going down on one knee, he sat down in front of her and said,

 

“Christina, things never started on the right note for us. But truth be told, I loved you from the moment my eyes spotted you for the very first time,” Nikloi opened up his heart to her while holding her hands against his heart.

 

 

 

Story_Continues