Monica and Natasha found it hard to believe this new piece of news. When Monica and her friends who disliked Nia learned that she actually could afford but did not care about the so called high society life, they were foolishly angry. They could not insult her anymore as a jealous bitch.
Monica termed a new phrase to insult Nia. As she chose mostly simple dresses Nia earned the name 'Sadhvi'. That was female ascetic in Hindi.
"Are you sure you didn't hear it wrong? She's a professor at the business school of the university." Monica smiled at her rich partner.
He scoffed at her, "Nicholas Adam introduced me to her. You think Nicholas Adam goes around spewing nonsense."
Nia did not want Rhianna to join her leaving the latter's fiance Nicholas who was sitting with his friends. She saw Yougal Lucas with them. She had no wish to meet the devil again. The investor she met during the meeting in the morning was with Monica. Nia saw him leaving his table and coming her way. She did not like to stay and face Monica and Natasha's venom.
She hastily tried to leave and walked to the aisle that led to the exit. Sania Roy and her twin sister Tania stopped her and sat on the empty chairs at Nia's table. The twins liked her, though they were not as close to her as Rhianna. They both worked in the Adam investment company, one as an analyst and the other as fund manager.
Sania and Tania waived to a waiter and asked him to bring coffee and fruits. The popular male and the female singers invited to the event were singing on the stage. Nia felt relief washed over her. But to her dismay it was short lived as she noticed Monica's angry eyes on her. It was like running away from the devil only to bump into the demoness. She did not even know why Monika hated her.
Arrogant Monica and her entourage hated the mysterious aura around Nia as it added to her appeal and attracted men to her. It was as if she was a bright light and the men were some giant moths. Monica thought she should be the one in whom men were more interested. The seemingly apparent yet ambiguous vulnerability of this beautiful woman encouraged the jealous rivals to bare their fangs and bite her.
Tania noticed Monica's angry glare and gave out a small laugh, "What is the demoness doing here?" She was rather loud and made sure that Monica heard her.
Nia grimaced. She did not want to draw attention of people. She asked Tania to ignore the other party.
"Do you know why she hates you? It's because Rhianna and Nicholas' mom have been trying to pair you with Mark and Monica had always had her eyes on him. She heard about it as they had friends in the same circle."
"Ohh..." Nia did not know what else to say.
They thought Monica was also jealous because she did not like how men's interested gazes were on Nia whenever she was in a party. But as far as Nia was concerned Monica could have Mark Adam or all the men she fancied.
Actually Nia found that funny because she and Mark had not even crossed each other's road before they met at Rhianna's party and rarely afterwards. 'Oh wait, we met on the road by the violet forest. He seemed to have an odd way of creeping up on people, Rhi called him to the mall while I was with her, he also came uninvited to my home. That's a lot of meeting the man.'
But she was clearly not interested in any man and least of all in a playboy. Her priorities were well defined. Those included her family, the shelter she ran, her jobs and the art cafe that she owned.
When Nia saw Mark Adam walking to their table, she also noticed Monika's eyes gleaming and smiling brightly at him. But he did not even look at her as he walked by her. As Mark stood beside Nia's table and smiled at her, she saw the other woman glaring at her.
Yougal Lucas thought that Mark looked like a fool wearing that wide grin on his face. He saw Monica glaring at Nia and was angry with Mark for being the cause of that glare. He did not realize that he was jealous of Mark. Mark being Mark could easily approach Nia even though she brushed off his charm. Yougal was envious of Mark Adam's easy going way.
He felt a little happy that she ignored the other man. Yougal Lucas did not want her to be with a playboy. He did not want her to get hurt. Mark dated beautiful women but he never entered into a relationship. At the moment Yougal Lucas forgot that it was he who had hurt someone though unintentionally.
The women who dated Mark knew what to expect from him. It was a different matter that they held secret hope to tame him. Yougal Lucas knew that Rhianna and Nicholas' mom had been trying to pair Nia with Mark. And it seemed the playboy was genuinely interested in her after meeting her in person.
Yougal Lucas knew it was impossible for a man to withstand the magical charm of that woman. He was just plain jealous, though in the past he did not understand the emotions he was entangled with. He knew very well that he was angry.
He heard Arvind asking Nicholas, "Where's the genius consultant you've talked of?"
Mark Adam heard Arvind and laughed. Before Nicholas could open his mouth Mark replied, "Here's our genius beauty."