He saw Rhianna's glamorous self slowly approaching them with a bright smile on her face. Nicholas, Arvind Saxena, his girlfriend Eeshani, Mark and he were talking at their table, drinking wine. His eyes automatically searched for a certain person who he expected would be trailing behind Rhianna.
To his disappointment she was nowhere to be seen. When Yougal Lucas Sinha heard from Nicholas that Rhianna would be coming with her friends he looked forward to seeing her again. Without realizing it he even counted the time. Since the time he arrived at the party he had been impatiently waiting for her.
He remembered Rhianna telling at her birthday party that Nia hated parties. This was especially a business party of the Adam Investment Company to celebrate its success and use it as promotional event to lure investors for the Adam real estate investment company. It was foolish of him to expect her here. Yougal Lucas was now angry with himself for hoping that she would come.
At the beginning he did not understand why he even wanted to see her again and again. Ever since he met her at Rhianna's party that woman had been constantly in his thoughts.
In his frustration Yougal Lucas wondered if it was because that was the first time he had met a woman who had completely ignored him and had treated him with subtle disdain. He might be a cold man but that did not stop women from trying to make advances at him, inventing excuses to get close to him at the social gatherings which he rarely attended.
But this woman did not even care to be nice to him except the one time when she had rummaged through the toys at the toy section of the Mall to give him the Dora toy. That night at Rhianna's party he sensed a subtle hint of animosity in her aura as Rhianna introduced them. Her strange comportment might be one of the reasons that piqued his curiosity about her but more than that he was intrigued by the mysterious aura of that woman.
She could be a fairy or she could be a witch, with magical powers. The mesmerizing liquid brown lakes that her eyes were, they acted like magic wands. It had not been three weeks since he saw her for the last time at the mall on that rainy day, sipped tea with her at the restaurant. But he still missed her beautiful brown orbs, her beautiful face and her.
When Nia looked at him that night at Rhianna's party with a blank expression on those beautiful eyes she appeared formidable and unapproachable. Yet Yougal Lucas felt drawn to her, like a hypnotized person ready to follow her to the edge of the world.
He shook his head as his consciousness registered the crazy thought. He was amazed at how his self control ran haywire where this strange woman was concerned. Only a few weeks after knowing Nia, Yougal Lucas had stopped wondering at what was happening to him. That woman had been constantly in his thoughts for the last four months.
'Maybe at first I was only curious to know why she seems to hold a grudge against me but now I know I'm in love.' He remembered how in the beginning he tried to explain to himself the reason for the sudden interest in a woman.
That night in the party he saw how she was unfazed by the attention Mark Adam poured out on her. She was indifferent and emotionless as she brushed aside Mark's flirtation as some nonsense. 'But she is not attracted to him now, is she?' He was worried. Mark Adam was after all an attractive, rich man who seemed serious about her.
"Hey, where are you lost buddy? Has the cold guy at last been daydreaming of some beauty?"
Yougal Lucas snapped out of his inner world and looked at Arvind Saxena with a scowl on the face. The irascibility he felt at his friend's light hearted remark made him wonder whether he was angered because he missed a certain stranger or that Arvind's remark was actually a truth he was not ready to acknowledge even to himself because he was angry with her.
He was intrigued by that cold woman and would definitely like to know more about her. He frowned at how he was affected by a woman whom he had met only a few times, that too for brief moments. If she were here, he was certain that she would hardly spare him a glance. But she invited Mark Adam to take part in the celebration back at her family home, gave him the opportunity to bond with her family.
He was furious at her, jealous of Mark, and very unhappy with himself. But Yougal Lucas Sinha could do nothing to forget her lovely face, and those mysterious icy cold lake like eyes with the unreadable look in them.
"Hey you two, it's high time you two find your soulmates and plan the happy life." Arvind said, this time pointing with his chin at both Yougal Lucas and Mark.
"I don't know about him but I was happy the way things stood till Rhianna's birthday. I didn't want a nagging wife at my back. I hated drama." Mark said what he would always say, while sipping his wine and winked at Nicholas.
"What do you mean? That I'll be a nagging wife to Nick? Why don't you admit that you can't stay without dating four women at the same time?"
Rhianna retorted angrily at Mark. Arvind's girlfriend Eeshani joined in. The two women together cornered Mark and they started to make fun of his playboy nature. Amidst their mocking and bantering, along with the talk of marriage and life partner by his friends, Yougal Lucas found himself drifting away.