All too soon there was a now familiar sensation of being shaken roughly awake with the accompanying sound of "Wake up dammit" and the fragrance of peppermint and Anjali's perfume.
I sat up with a start and stood up from the bed and immediately fell flat on my face as my knees buckled. As usual my body was not awake yet.
As I caught my breath and looked up, I promptly lost it again. I had fallen exactly in front of a pair of strappy glittery high heels with pretty feet in them. These led to a pair of incredibly long and flawlessly smooth legs starting at the ankles and continuing up past the knees to widen into shapely thighs which continued up till they disappeared into the dress that hugged them tightly from mid-thigh. This guided my eyes upward to the perfect hips which narrowed into a slender waist and widened in due course into two immaculate globes, their contours silhouetted against the ceiling.
As I had looked up, my head had turned with my body. So now I was lying on my back staring up with my mouth wide open.
Then she was looking at me over those globes. "Do you know what time it is?"
I was about to answer when she started tapping her feet causing a small muscle in her thigh to pulse and distracting me again.
"It is 6:30 pm and I have been waiting in the lobby for half an hour. Can you please get up and get ready?", she continued in an irritated tone.
I managed to get up and discovered that the dress was low cut in front showing off a perfect cleavage that I knew I wouldn't be able to keep my eyes off unless I looked somewhere else entirely. So, I looked up at the ceiling.
"What are you looking at up there?" she asked.
"Nothing" I said. "How did you get in here?"
"I paid a housekeeping woman to let me in when your sorry ass didn't come down by itself. Will you look at me!" The last line was in a dangerous tone, so I looked down and as expected right into her cleavage. Her hand came up under my chin to adjust my head so that I was finally looking at her face.
She was dressed to the nines and looked stunning.
Her gaze softened as she realized the effect she had on me. "Go get dressed" she said.
I quickly picked up my bag and pulled out my clothes. Luckily, I had packed some good clothes as a 'just in case'.
I was just about to start when I looked back to see her looking at me again. "Umm, could you wait outside please. I'll be right out" I said.
"If you think I'll stand outside your door waiting for you, you sorely mistaken. I am staying right here. You can change here or in the washroom." she said
I chose washroom.
As we walked out of the room, I offered her my arm and she took it. We walked toward the lift with me trying to get my head together. But I was not too worried. Nothing bad could happen. We would have a few drinks, then dinner and be back within a few hours. If our lunch together was any indication, I would even have a great time especially with such a beautiful woman as my companion.
I looked down and saw her looking at me with that crooked smile on her face. A weird thought crossed my mind that she was reading my mind. I quickly turned my mind blank.
To fill the silence, I said, "There is a nice place I know where we can have dinner. Good ambience and food"
She thought for a few seconds then said, "No, I feel like some good music. Let's go someplace that I know."
I nodded in acquiescence. The lift came and we got in. We were the only ones in the lift and her perfume filled the space. Closing my eyes, I took deep breaths to compose myself. That didn't work since her perfume simply flooded into my lungs leaving me disoriented and breathless. As the lift descended, each passing moment felt like an eternity, amplifying my discomfort. The proximity to Anjali, though undeniably exhilarating, was also unbearably unsettling, a constant reminder of the boundaries I dared not cross. Luckily, we reached the lobby then and I could get out of there.
The car we had used in the morning was waiting for us outside. I was a bit surprised since I hadn't spoken to the driver. But Anjali had obviously arranged it. We got in and she told the driver where to go.
It was a really posh club that we were going to. I had never been there and likely to be out of my element there. I started getting a bit nervous. But I kept my face composed because I could feel her eyes on me.
"Ever been there?" she asked.
"No", I answered. "Actually, clubs are not really my scene"
"Really?" she laughed. "Let's see if we can change that tonight"
We reached and walked in. It was quite crowded with a lot of people on the dancefloor. The tables were to one side and looked over the dancefloor. Anjali walked up to the captain and said, "We have a reservation for two. Name of Anjali"
The captain checked his list and said, "Right this way ma'am" and led us to a corner table.
I was surprised again. It was obvious that Anjali had booked in advance since she definitely hadn't booked while we were together. I looked at her. She shrugged. "I had a feeling that we would be coming here so I booked in advance."
The table had a couch on one side and chairs on the other. Anjali walked to the chair and the captain pulled it out for her. I went the couch thankful to have a wall on one side which I could lean against if I got tipsy.
As the captain left, Anjali quickly got up from her chair, came around the table and slid in beside me. I now had her sitting close to me without the space between us as I had hoped. I looked at the wall on one side and Anjali on the other and started feeling trapped.
She however smiled disarmingly and acted like she done nothing unusual.
"Let's get some drinks shall we?", she said while gesturing to the waiter.
I had made up my mind. I needed my mind clear around this woman. I would stick to light beer only. But I never got the chance. As soon as the waiter came to our table, I opened my mouth but got shushed by Anjali who then proceeded to order a bottle of whisky.
"Ummm ma'am." I started, caught off guard by her abrupt intervention. "I actually wanted…."
"It's okay", she interrupted, her tone brooking no argument. "You and me, we have a lot to talk about. We'll need the whiskey"
"Okay sure" I said uncertainly.
"So tell me Das, why do you think I am smart and dangerous?" she asked.
"I actually thought…"I started and then paused.
She was looking at me and this time she wasn't smiling. Her face had changed. There was a dangerous glint in her eyes; a potent reminder of the danger that lurked beneath her deceptively calm exterior. Her gaze had again turned sharp.
I was saved by the drinks arriving. The waiter served them and left. As the waiter departed, leaving us alone with our libations, I found myself ensnared in Anjali's unwavering gaze once more. Gone was the warmth and amiability that had characterized our earlier interactions, replaced instead by a steely resolve.
"You think I am smart and dangerous, and yet you underestimated me," she said, her words laced with an intensity that left no room for doubt.
Caught off guard by the sudden shift in her demeanor, I struggled to maintain my composure though cold tendrils of fear had started creeping up my spine like silent specters of doubt.
"I don't understand ma'am" I said.
She slid closer to me and drew up one leg on the couch so that she was fully facing me now. Her face was now less than a foot from me and hard as steel.
"You think I don't know?", she said. I smelled peppermint mixed with alcohol as she said this. And I knew that I was in trouble.
I harbored a secret unknown to anyone on the team and I thought that I had hidden my tracks from Anjali as well.
When my ex-bosses, the two area managers, had plotted to cause trouble for Anjali, they knew what to do but not how to do it. They lacked the technical expertise in data or excel to do the actual manipulation of data. So, they had turned to the best data analyst they knew. Me. Discreetly, I undertook the entire data manipulation task, and created the intricate web of interconnected data that obscured any evidence that sales had been deliberately suppressed. I had even coached them on how to present the data convincingly, so that they wouldn't get caught.
Had I said no to my ex-bosses then they would have been unable to execute their plan and Anjali would not have been in this predicament.
Now she knew and I didn't know what she planned to do to me. Though I tried to summon the courage to face whatever lay ahead, I couldn't shake the nagging feeling that I was hopelessly outmatched in this perilous game of cat and mouse.