Chapter 276

He was a good cook and the food was really good, a good meal in the morning. He had prepared pineapple French toast, scrambled eggs with green onions and mushrooms with Mexican spice that added a special kick to it and had grilled some bacon to go on the side. To top it all he had served her favorite fresh squeezed orange juice accompanied by a cup of tropical fruits which she knew was definitely from a can but the way he had served it made her feel like she was in the tropics. For a minute she thought if he was actually a chef as he presented the platter. It was a unusual square plate with scrambled eggs on the left, heaped on its own topped with a single strawberry, to the right was the perfectly cut relatively small pineapple French toast triangles, four of them arranged beautifully with powdered sugar and cinnamon sprinkled on the top. At the top he had made a small bowl out of some breakfast cookie crumbs and had filled it with the tropical fruits and a couple of mint leaves. Right next to it, just above the scrambled eggs was a very finely sliced piece of bacon grilled to perfection with a drizzle of pomegranate chipotle sauce adoring it. Right next to the plate was the orange juice served in a heavy square glass with a circular piece of thinly sliced orange decorated on one side of the glass. She loved the way it looked and it tasted; it was amazing even though she was not really hungry, the presentation gave her an appetite. She enjoyed every bit of it and ate everything except the bacon but out of curiosity tried the sauce on top of it.

She wondered how many other skills he has up under his sleeves; he didn't cease to amaze her; it was quiet evident he liked her, she wondered if this is how is all young women or just with her; then she remembered the girl who had accompanied him last time. He never mentioned anything about her and she was just curious to know more about the two of them but didn't want to be too nosy. They talked about many things and kept the conversation light and airy. More than that, he was absolutely charming and she had no clue what time it was and that it was actually Monday. He had also turned on some pleasant music on a very low volume when they had started eating but over the conversation she had not noticed that until he got up and took her plate and walked over to the kitchen while she sat there feeling satisfied not just by the food but the company too. The music was very pleasant and he closed her eyes for a minute it enjoy the environment all included before it ends. After a couple of minutes he walked over to her and asked her, "May I have this dance?". She opened her eyes and smiled; he took her by her hand and walked over to the area between the TV and sofa and held her by her waist and gently danced with her. They both laughed about their outfits, hers a days old and no nice shoes and just barefoot and his, the top from his PJ's and a sweat pant for his bottom. He gently did a western swing and caught her eloquently and did a couple of twists. And they did a push around for the next one where they went right heel, right toe, and right heel, right together and wee laughing in between as they were thoroughly enjoying it. He asked her if she knew the sixteen steps. She nodded in disagreement and he asked her about a couple more like the Sweetheart Schottische, the Western Barn dance and the Fox Trot. Looking at her expression he said, "Let's try something new and just go with the flow." Before she could say anything they were on the move and he was mixing and matching all kinds of moves from different styles and they were having a blast. He mixed in a couple of moves from the cha-cha and the Tango and their eyes were in par with their movements and were much closer to each other than they were before. They were starring at each other, their eyes interlocked and their grip gently tightening with his hands around her waist and they were just moving in the same place. He brought her closer and his eyes shifted from hers to her lips and she cold feel his breathing so close and his lips barely touching hers. Her cell phone sang with a melodious tune and the two froze with their eyes exhibiting a completely different expression.

Chapter 275

The loud noise woke her up; she rubbed her eyes and pushed the blanket that was covering her and sat up and looked in the direction of the noise. It came from the kitchen; he was cooking; he had dropped something and hence was the noise. She didn't see him but she could hear the noise of cleaning. She continued to look in the direction and within a minute he appeared carrying the broken plate and a garbage can. She couldn't help but laugh at him; He looked very funny with messed up hair, some white stuff that looked like flour covering his nose with a red dot in between looking like a clown. His left sleeve was rolled up to his arms and the left one completely covering his hand. He smiled at her and apologized for waking her up and walked past her to dump everything in the trash. She turned around and looked at him, now with his back facing her; she struggled to control her laughter by covering her mouth with her hands. She waited until he entered the bathroom and she broke into laughter; she laughed so hard water came out of her eyes. He came out from the bathroom, looking clean and nice with both sleeves folded up to his wrist. His face was clean and no flour etc and he had also combed his hair a bit.

Not wanting to embarrass him, she just giggled and got up and concentrated on folding the comforter and tried to push up the bed to make it back into a sofa. He walked over to help her and said, "Sorry! The noise woke you up. Hope you had a good night sleep. Well one good thing came out of it, you are laughing compared to how you were last night. I thing me looking funny had accomplished something" and smiled. She giggled and nodded and walked towards the bathroom to clean herself up. She was surprised to see that there was a disposable single use brush and paste that is usually given in long distance flights laid out for her. She felt that was very thoughtful of him and appreciated him very much. In about ten minutes she had brushed her teeth and freshened herself up and stepped out of the bathroom and walked towards the kitchen. He was cutting something with his back to her and she couldn't help but laugh looking his hind side covered with flower. It clearly covered the sitting area, and was evident that it had formed into a paste, maybe glued onto to his bottom so well; It was even funnier since he had no clue about it and her taken care in cleaning his face and hands. He turned around with an exclamation in his face wondering what was so funny. She tried to tell him but she was so consumed with laugher he could hardly make out what she was trying to say. When she kept starring at his bottom, he realized and ran his fingers only to find out that now his hands were sticky.

Chapter 274

She still looked pale but the improvement was that she was talking now but her eyes were still gazed upon the TV which was not anymore which made it very clear that she was not herself. He held her close trying to make her feel better as the words that came out of her were not very clear. He suggested that she go to bed and not think about it as everything is fine and she is safe and there was nothing to worry about. She slowly turned towards him with eyes wide open and her face almost pale made her lips look blood red overpowering the almost worn-out long lasting pink lipstick that adorned her lips. Slowly words came out, "I might be dead. I almost got into the car with him. I am not sure what came over me, I decided against it in the last minute and decided to take my chances and here I am Alive! I have never had such an experience in my life before. I was with him a few minutes ago and now he is in an ambulance. He is as old as I am and his birthday is couple of days before mine and he was even asking me if I wanted to celebrate it together as he was going to be in town next month". She was breathing heavily with her chest going up and down accentuating her curves. He helped her with her breathing by taking deep breaths with her and it took a couple of minutes for her to feel better. He was glad that he was there to help her through this and he was slowly starting to like her even more as he realized that there indeed was a gentle interior hidden inside the powerful exterior. For the very first time he was considering what his sister and Carissa had said. Also for the very first time he thought that maybe there is a reason why they bump into each other.

Holding her that close and looking into her eyes and those blood red lips almost touching her reminded him of the dance floor and he took major effort not to act on an impulse which was hold her tight and kiss her lips. He wanted to loosen his grip and move away from her but he couldn't, the more he tried the more difficult it seemed to do so. He pushed her hair towards the back and gently ran his fingers through her hair and said,” I will get you a glass of warm milk; drink it and go to bed; you will feel better in the morning". She nodded in agreement and he got up and went to the kitchen to get her some warm milk. While the milk was warming up in the microwave, he watched her looking scared on the sofa-bed with her chin resting on her knees with her hands hugging them. He felt pity on her, he never though he would see her like that, a strong beautiful women completely shaken up. He thought to himself, who wouldn't when you encounter a near death experience. He remembered the accident he encountered a couple of years ago and how scary it was. The microwave beeped and he picked up the milk and walked towards he and sat next to her and gave her the milk. She took it from him with a gentle smile and took a sip. She looked so vulnerable, he couldn't bring himself to leave her side; He rubbed his hands on her shoulders and realized how tense her muscles were. He said, “You are so tense, your muscles are so tight", and ran his hands behind her neck and gently massaged her neck. She put down the empty glass of milk and closed her eyes.

Chapter 273

He went into the room and changed into his PJ's and came back with a comforter and a pillow. She had turned on the TV and was surfing the channels and asked him what would be the local channel as she was curious to find out what the accident was about. He asked her to try a couple of numbers and left the comforter and the pillow on the sofa that was extended into a bed now and walked over to the kitchen to get a glass of water. He helped himself with a glass of water and asked her if she wanted some. She didn’t respond to his question so she asked her again and as she didn’t answer him the second time he peeped over from the kitchen to get a better look at her and he noticed the expression on her face which clearly explained why she hadn’t answered him.

He walked over to her realizing that something was wrong and her eyes were completed engrossed onto the television and her face had turned pale. He turned his attention with concern towards the TV and it was about the accident that they saw earlier. He realized that something about it had terribly disturbed her; she was pale and she was speechless and kept starring at the TV. He could see anguish in her eyes and he walked over and held her with his left arm on her shoulder enquiring how she was doing. She tried to say something but she lips quivered and words didn’t really come out of her mouth. He helped her to the sofa bed and hurriedly covered her with the comforter he had brought in earlier. He walked over to the kitchen to get a glass of water.

He sat right behind her and held her in his arms while she drank the water he gave her while her eyes were glued to the television. He gently rubbed her back assuring her that everything is fine while trying to figure out what was that she saw that had traumatized her. He clearly saw alarm in her eyes and he was starting to get worried not knowing what was going on. He turned around and saw what was going on; It was about the accident and he didn’t really see anything distressing on the screen it was a bad accident, involving a couple of trucks and a car of which one of the trucks had collided and rolled over catching fire. The fire had spread to a motel nearby resulting in hospitalization but nothing was dramatic enough to trigger a reaction like what she was having. He turned the TV off and held her close in his arms not knowing what to do to ease her pain. She blinked a couple of times and said, “I was supposed to be in that car”.

Chapter 272

Her expression was quiet evident that she loved both the flowers and his gesture and that made him very happy even though he didn't show that on his face. It actually made him more than happy, wanted him to dance with her all over again and maybe this time over come his reservations and just let his evil part take over. Her eyes looked dazzling even in the darkness of the night and he was tempted to stare into it for a couple of more seconds before he looked at the road. It was even more lucrative as she seemed to be tempted to look into eyes too. He was not sure what was going through him but he was both happy and sad at the same time that she was there. He felt sad about her being stuck somewhere in the middle of the night and at the same time he was happy that he ran into her.

He turned right into the community he lived in where there was gazebo that was hardly visible in the dark. He passed the single family houses and continued to go further. He passed the town houses which were long and slender took the first turn on the right and went past what looked like a lake in the dark. He continued further and turned left at the "T" junction and she could see many huge buildings which looked like condominiums. He drove further and pulled over at one end of the building which seemed to have a couple of levels lower that the others in the middle. He opened his garage with the automatic garage opener from his car and pulled in which seemed to be too long providing enough space for storage on the wall.

He walked over and turned the lights on before she could get out and turned towards her and directed towards the door leading to the stairs for the upper level. He said, "On the other side I have a small basement as this is an end unit". She followed him and the stairs lead them to his family/living room. He had complete home theater that was set up with speakers mounted on either side of the wall. To the left was the kitchen with an island extending towards the room on the half wall making the place look larger. The two bar stools with leather covers added sophistication and extra seating in the room. He came out from one of the rooms at the back and walked towards the couch and pulled out the bed apologizing that he has some boxes that he had completely forgotten about and suggested that she take the bed in the room and he will take the couch.

Chapter 271

It had been just a quick exchange of words and within minutes she was sitting besides him in his car and he had taken a complete turn in the opposite direction and was driving in the opposite direction from his home. She mentioned that it was extremely nice of him to offer to take her home at that hour and she was definitely happy to see him. He smiled and nodded as it was quiet evident that she was worried and was elated to see him. He expressed his concern that it was not a good idea to come alone to begin with and definitely not a good one to stay late at this hour and he was glad that she was okay and suggested that she avoid these situation in near future. She explained to him what had happened and why Pryag couldn’t come with her; she also explained to him about Sara and John’s last minute call and how Mosses was supposed to take her home and why she had refused to go with him as he was a little drunk but politely left out the part what his intentions were as she didn’t want him to know that information as she didn’t want to look any more vulnerable that she felt she already was in his eyes. She also added that how grateful he was for taking her home and thanked him again.

Considering the situation he felt that was the smart thing to do and when he was about to take the exit he realized that the road was completely blocked and he could see smoke and fire engines and cop cars with light all over. He tried to take a few turns and find other alternate routes but after a holy half hour he realized that almost all the exits were blocked to the highway that he was trying to get to and in the end decided to pull over and ask a cop and seek alternate routes. The cop was not quiet helpful in giving him directions for detour but he was helpful in making it clear that he was not going to go anywhere and the best option to try the following day as there had been a bad accident. He turned to Diya and suggested that it would be better if they try in the morning even though it was already three in the morning. He said that his house was not too far and he has an extra room to spare and that he will drive her back first thing in the morning. Not having much of a choice she agreed to his suggestion and they drove back towards his house.

In order to make her feel at ease he turned on some nice music and she seemed to be enjoying it. The lyrics in the music reminded him of something and he turned towards her and said, “Hope you liked the flowers”. Her eyes were wide open and her face bore a subtle smile of surprise and astonishment and she turned towards in the exact time he turned towards her, staring at each other.

Chapter 270

The last thing he wanted was to think about her, he felt he was turning into someone he was not; especially being attracted to someone who was engaged; it was more like the statement “covet thy neighbor’s wife”. He distracted himself by listening to some music and he was almost close to his home. Things were quiet calm and there was hardly anyone on the road and all most all the store and shops were closed as expected and even the bars that are usually open late at night. He drove quiet slow as the speed limit was twenty file miles and he knew there was a police station nearby and he was not interested in getting a ticket. Well, more than that cops have the tendency to stop someone at this hour and do run a DUI test.

He had had a couple of glasses of wine three to four hours earlier and he knew it was well out of his system by now but still he didn’t want to attract any attention and decided to stick to the speed limit as it would just take an extra ten minutes to get to his home; He would rather reach late that get into unwanted trouble. He drove by looking at the lights and reading the street name that he had never bothered to read before as the traffic is usually heavy and you either buzz by or get stuck in frustration. But today the street lights were quiet bright, bright enough for him to see the expired parking meter on the curb and he knew there will be a ticket on the windshield when they get to the car in the morning.

He saw someone standing in front of the pub he was familiar with, where he used to go sometimes and the lights were on. He looked at the time and noticed that there were two of them and one was a woman. Two things puzzled him, one they usually kick everyone out when it is one at night. The other, why is a woman standing in the front and was all alone. He spotted them far and decided to change to the right lane to get a closer look as he was quiet curious. When he got closer his car came to a complete stop with a screech and he rolled down the window with his eyes wide open and the light on the porch shown directly on his beautiful blue eyes revealing his concern and questions. The last thing on his mind, the person he had least expected to see there, and at this hour was standing tight there with a worried look who seemed to be extremely relieved to see him.

Chapter 269

He wasn't sure what to think about her. He found her fascinating and attractive but he was not quiet interested in her. He was thinking about their conversation and her reaction to all of it and the arguments and in fact he also felt that she was like a kid at times and had smiled and that had even made her mad. Eventually she had been charming and it was fun to actually talk to her alone but he had not expected to be kissed by her and he had blushed. It had been a very interesting evening that had actually left him thinking about the significant women in his life and how different he was today than a few years ago and how they have impacted his life and how they are still making a difference.

As it was quiet late at night the roads were almost empty and the ride was smooth unlike his thoughts. He noticed a resemblance in her that reminded him of his sister and Carissa and he knew that was one of the reasons somehow he was even slightly interested in her. Both of them played a vital role in his life, as a mater of fact was still were even though he had difficulty admitting it to himself. Things that had happened in his past had changed him, and had made the person who he was today and there was no denial to that. In spite of all that he wondered about Diya even though he was not sure why he was interested in her as there was no way anything could ever happen between them.

She was engaged to be married and they were absolutely in love with each other. He has seen the way Pryag looks at her, Carissa was absolutely right about that; He used to look at Carissa all those years ago and he know that feeling and how wonderful it used to be. He didn’t want to come into their life and disrupt their love as his was by someone. He could never do that, not to them and not to anyone. No matter what Carissa and his sister say he will not be the reason for a wonderful relationship to fall apart. With all the thoughts hovering over his head he continued to drive on the right lane as there was practically no traffic. If spite of that entire he felt a surge of selfishness overcome him and he started thinking what if Diya was actually interested in him. He could make that happen only if he were to be around her.