บท 13: The Devil was her Escort
At the college Nirvana Sonowal was famous not only for her ability to hold the attention of the whole class during the lecture and extract better performance from her students, she was also well known for her simple gorgeous look. She was attractive without even trying hard. Nia always wore pastel colour plain saris, often with a small border, to the college. Her chiffon saris had become a craze among the girls though they could not wear sari to college.
Today she wore a white cotton handloom sari with a violet border. Her hair neatly tied in a low bun, gave her a professional look. The overall appearance of the woman was that of an intelligent academician with graceful look. Earlier when Yougal Lucas was changing the tyre of her car she caught him stealing glances at her. He might have seen her as a stiff and dull looking head mistress of a Girls High School. It was not as if she cared about what he thought.
But that was her thought. The truth, unknown to her was that, he found her attractive. No, he actually found her breathtakingly beautiful. Only Nia was too busy avoiding eye contact with the man to notice the admiration and tenderness in those beautiful hazel eyes he inherited from his Scottish grandmother.
In her white sari with the small violet border he saw Nia as the goddess of learning, pure and illuminating. When he stole a few glances at her, he found the magic, mystery and melancholy, all gone from her beautiful eyes. The look she gave him was full of apathy and subtle disdain. Yougal felt sadness brewing up in him.
*******
After the classes were over Nia returned to the faculty members' common room and there Rhianna was waiting for her. After the usual chit chat and enquiring about Nia's mom and grandma, Rhi reminded Nia of the dinner at Nicholas' parents'. She told Nia to be ready by seven in the evening. She and her mom would pick up Nia and that would save the latter the trouble of driving alone to Mr and Mrs Adam's home.
As she drove to her apartment Nia wondered why she did not mention to Rhi about her morning encounter with Yougal Lucas. The two friends shared everything with each other. 'Well, almost everything, except a few incidents from the past and some details from the present which can't be divulged even to Rhianna at this point.' Nia amended silently.
'Anyway,' Nia told herself, 'Meeting Yougal Lucas in the morning hardly falls in the category of secrets that need to be shared.' To her, meeting that man was no serendipity. She did not want to call it a mishap either, because that would make her a petty person. But she did not ask for help, right? Rejecting the unasked for help would have been foolish. Nia consoled herself, deciding that argument in her own defense.
*******
In the evening she decided to wear a long cotton shirt (Kurta) reaching to her calf, halter neck, sleeveless and with slightly loose, ankle length white cotton pants. The shirt was a peach blossom pink from fabindia and her smooth wheatish skin glowed in that colour. There were fine needle work in the thread of same colour in the bust area. Nirvana wore her long wavy hair loose. She examined herself in the mirror. The Kurta hugged her figure at all the right places. Her makeup was always minimal.
Black kohl applied on the lower line of the eyes made them appear bigger and brighter, and red lipstick added to the natural luscious look of her lips. 'So this is it, not so bad for you, Nirvana Sonowal.' She complimented herself. She never worried about how she looked and never realized that she was a real beauty in a natural way, like a fresh wild flower. Rhianna, Ayesha and nowadays Mahua, were always after her, nagging about her lack of care about her appearance.
She sat on a sofa in the living room and leafed idly through the pages of a business magazine while waiting for Rhi and her mother. It was seven-thirty five. No sign of Rhi and her mom. At the sound of the doorbell Nia got up from the sofa and went to get the door. Assuming it was Rhianna, she did not look at the person and opened her mouth to tell the other girl how late she was.
"Lord Rhi, why are you always late? It's now sev...." The remaining of the words stuck in her mouth and she stood still like a tree struck by lightning; blanched, lifeless, while her lips were open with a slight O shape. But her mind started racing in split of a second. 'Oh god! Why is this man here? Did he stalk me to home in the morning? Is he some kind of secret pervert?'
Yougal Lucas stared with amusement at the myriad of emotions displayed on the face of the woman standing before him. The ever so cool Nia Sonowal showing emotions and that too a different one at every second, was a sight worth millions. His lips curved into a slight smile. 'She is so interesting. Every time she shows a different side of her.' He would not have been so amused if he had known that she also labelled him as stalker and pervert.
He was so immersed in his admiration for the woman that he failed to notice that she had already changed back into the ice queen.
"What are you doing here? Have you lost your way to somewhere?" She barked in a not so low voice.
That brought him instantly out of the dreamland. His heart was doing somersaults at the sight of the beauty and at that endearing confusion and suspicion she showed on earlier. He feared she would hear the loud thumping of his treacherous heart. But at this moment the most important thing was to come himself clean before the enigmatic woman who looked at him with slight disdain.
"Hi! Rhianna has asked me to escort you to the Adam house." He informed her with a smile while he thought to himself, 'Yougal, dude you've a rough ride ahead. She already forgot you squatted on the road and changed her car's tyre in the morning. You'll need lot of patience and hard work.'
Yougal Lucas' words did not help to clear Nia's confusion. She mumbled to herself more than to him,
"But she and her mom were to pick me from home. Where's she?"
"Her mother has a headache or so I'm told and won't be going to the dinner. Rhianna has gone with Nicholas."
His words puzzled her more. If Rhi went with Nicholas, why they could not pick her up. She did not realize that she had voiced her thoughts aloud until the man replied, as if he had read every thought that were in her mind, on her face since the beginning.
"Nicholas wanted to show something to Rhianna, so couldn't come for you and asked me instead." Yougal Lucas was amused. For a woman with such high IQ, she definitely had low EQ.
Till now he had been enjoying the myriad of fascinating sides of the woman in front of him, that captivated him like zillions of bright stars in a night sky. It was a rare opportunity to witness this, just as the blood moon was. Nia's next question was like a bolt of lightning and thunder from a malicious goddess.
"Why didn't they send Mark? It was strange." Actually she wondered if her friend was up to something. That woman wanted to play the match maker for her. Sending Yougal Lucas to escort her to the Adam house for dinner might be Rhianna's game plan to set her up with him. Rhianna was afraid of ghosts. Nia remembered. 'I should someday disguise myself as ghost and pay a visit to her at night.'
"Maybe because they thought you hated his company." In his irritation Yougal Lucas forgot that it was he, whom Nia hated most. "If you are done, we should better be going." He added the last sentence a little roughly.
His rough tone brought her back from the fantasy of frightening Rhianna as ghost. Not the one to stay behind when the person she had to deal with was this devil, Nia joined in a hurried and angry tone,
"Oh sure, why not? It's a waste of time trying to figure out who should have been here. It's unimportant to bother about who I'm to be picked up by."
Her sharp tone, though low, caused him to look at her sharply and with displeasure. But Yougal Lucas could not see her face as she had turned her back to him to pick up the door keys and the clutch from the table. He consoled himself that he had earned the hard words and that scornful tone.
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