Her Prince Charming

CHAPTER 4

Her years of practice with Sakshi and Soha had gifted her with enough patience to tolerate this nonsense. That's why she hadn't provided Russell with a chance, till now, to fire her. It didn't mean that she wasn't reaching at the end of her patience though!

"And considering I asked Russell to arrange a replacement pair of boots for you several hours ago..." Manik continued slowly.

"Oh that's my fault!" Nandini interrupted him quickly. She couldn't afford to have another ugly scene with Russell. The man had been dogging her footsteps ever since she had started working at Malhotra's and had been barking at every opportunity and even when there hadn't really been any opportunity. If Russell received another call from Manik Malhotra reminding him about the replacement of her boots than he would certainly blow up something. No, she really couldn't afford that! "I haven't had the time yet."

"Really?" he murmured.

"Yes, really" Nandini tried to speak in a firm voice, aware that this man was now standing mere inches away from here. Because of her boot's heels she was almost reaching to the level of his eyes. And she was also aware that he had kissed her and she had accidentally touched him where she shouldn't have! His perfect face. That scene brought red color to her cheeks. "We've been very busy this morning" she said quickly in order to stop herself from concentrating on that moment. "Besides, it's only one boot. And it isn't that damaged, and it was my fault anyway." She hoped that he wouldn't give her legs that lingering glance again. She was still shaken from the last time he had done it. Although that steady brown gaze on her face wasn't exactly calming either. Manik opened his mouth to contradict her but Nandini beat him to it. "There's no need to replace my boots."

"Fine, Nandini" Manik wasn't smiling any more. "I'll call Gel in the shoe department myself when we've finished here. You can go and see her during your afternoon break, if that's what you prefer."

What she really preferred was him forgetting the whole incident and if he really didn't intend kicking her out of the job then letting her get back to work. Because as far as she knew, she had attracted a lot of attention for today. She didn't want or need any more of it.

"Alright. Can I go now?" she asked, eager to escape before he changed his mind about firing her for defying his orders. Besides, her lunch break was about to get over in a few minutes, a glance at the wrist watch told her. If she was late than Russell wouldn't waste a moment in holding her at gunpoint.

"Not yet" Manik said easily. He seemed least concerned about the length of time she had already spent up here. "Actually, I've been reading your employment file-"

Nandini's head snapped up. "You've been doing what?"

This man was the owner of hundreds of stores having thousands of responsibilities on his shoulders where as she was merely a temporary sales girl, so why on earth was he taking such an interest in her file?

Could it be because of that kiss they had shared in the lift? No, no. That wasn't possible! Harshad had called her a lousy kisser. They had tried to kiss once when they had returned after watching a late movie show. But something had stopped her and she had backed out at the last moment. She had kissed him on his cheek instead. When they had broken up, when Harshad had broken up with her basically since he had found Soha more beautiful, he had added that one of the reasons he couldn't be with her was because she was a lousy kisser. Her pride had received a big blow after that and she hadn't come out of her room for one whole week. It had taken many enormous bars of chocolate along with hurling some extremely bad abuses for Harshad by Aryaman and Riddhima to make her step out of her room.

It had taken a bit of time but with the help of her friends Nandini had realized that Harshad didn't deserve her where as she deserved someone a lot better than him. She had even started believing that she wasn't a lousy kisser, and after today's morning she was sure of it! She didn't know whether Manik Malhotra had liked her kiss or not but she did know that on a scale of one to ten she would definitely not rate her kiss zero. Of course, Manik's kiss had surpassed the score of ten as well but then, he was an experienced thirty years old man for God's sake! She was sure that he was the man who had had lots of practice in kissing and now was capable of delivering a perfect kiss. He would have had the chance of kissing more expert females who kissed better than her so it ruled out the chances of him taking a personal interest in her file because of that kiss!

"I went through your file" Manik continued calmly as he turned slightly to pick up a folder from the top of his desk and opened it to glance at its contents. "According to this, you have A-levels in Mathematics, Economics, English, French, Spanish and German." He was frowning as he continued. "With a first class degree in Social Science and Business Studies. And your last, apparently first job was with Malcolm Hawkins of Hawkins International." He looked up with his blue eyes narrowed on her speculatively.

Nandini watched him quietly. Her body had stopped working. The only thing that filled her mind was confusion, that why was this man interested in her qualifications?

"Aren't you-over-qualified to be working as a salesgirl?" Manik asked softly.

Of course she was over-qualified! But she couldn't tell him about the things which weren't written on her application that had resulted in her taking this job or rather any job! at Malhotra's.

"I don't understand why are you interested in my job profile" she finally whispered softly, not knowing what else to say. She couldn't tell the truth, of course. But the question of why was he interested in her file was nagging her.

"The thing is Nandini..." Manik stood up. His one eyebrow rose mockingly as she automatically took a step back away from him. "The thing is" he repeated "that I need a PA for the next six months or so. And with these qualifications, you appear to be more than qualified for the post. So, how about," he leaned forward "you giving up the job of salesgirl" his mouth quirked with amusement "which you obviously aren't enjoying-"

"I never said that!" Nandini gasped.

"-in order" he continued as if she hadn't interrupted him, "to become my PA for a minimum of six months?"

Nandini couldn't believe her ears! He just couldn't be serious!

So far in their acquaintance she had attacked him with her umbrella, threatened to report him for his...forget that!, called him several rude names, and instead of firing her as she had expected him to do, he had turned around and offered her a dream job!

And a job, which she couldn't possibly accept.