The Man I Hardly Knew.

Chapter ten.

 I look around, trying to be distracted by something else. Irritated about not finding something to do by just sitting there, I walk to the table serving food which is as well the table next to the bar. Baffled, agitated, bored, vexed.- I turn around again and switch to the bar. Flashbacks swim into my memory showing how when I was nineteen, I used to gulp down large glasses of whisky and tequila. The bar was as familiar to me as home. No one would ever ask the name of the girl dancing on the table, fully drunk. No one would ever ask the name of the girl shouting in the bare amidst the loud party music. Because none of those souls were ignorant to the fact that these were things that only Rose Mathilda would ever do. Tempted at first but then hushing away the thought, I instead ask the bar man for a glass of juice. "With ice please," I added. The man gives me a nod and starts preparing the juice. I wait in the meantime, barely observing the bottles in front of me. 
"Four shots of Rum!" ordered a man standing next to me. In fact they are three but only one of them orders for the shots. With my back on to them, I wait impatiently for my juice. I wait and wait. In fact I become more irritated. The wait simply adds salt to my wounds. "Pfffft!" I sigh. Coming to the side with an intention incinerated in the mind of having a chat with me is one of the men who were just next to me. 


"Hey beautiful lady, may I buy you a drink?" he asks. 
I try to cast my eyes down because I have been taught married women are not supposed to meet gazes with other men except her husband: Now to talk to another man is far from being imaginable. With my eyes casted downwards, I try not to look impolite and say: "No thank you." 
"Are you sure?" he questions again. 
"Yes I am." I repeat still staring to the side. 
"If I'm not wrong, you're the wife of Sheraad Chauhaan, the owner of the rising industry H-0-1 right? " 
Alarmed, I commit the mistake of looking at him. 
"Hmm... yes... but how do you know?" came my reply. 
"Well hello. I'm an investor of the company. Sheraad is a great man." he says. 
"Hmm.. yes..."
"Well, where is Sheraad?" Searching on the dance floor as though he knows Sheraad is there, he exclaims: "Oh there he is, dancing!" He looks at me for a while and gives a creepy smile.
"Mrs. Rose will you grace me with the pleasure of dancing with you?" he asks. 
Even more baffled, I struggle with two options in the mind: -"No Rose, you cannot do that. Remember mother in law told you, married women cannot meet the gaze of a stranger?" 


-"But Sheraad has also asked you not to get him embarrassed in the party and ordered you to dance or to have a chat with someone who seems to be acquainted to him because otherwise it's seen as impolite."
Battling on the inside for a while, I finally choose to say yes for the dance since this was the last instruction given to me before coming to this party. This man looks around the same age as Sheraad, in his thirties. Not conspicuously tall, not conspicuously handsome, he gets himself called by the name of Vikrant. Waltzing with his hands on my waist, I try not to catch his gaze as his eyes goes to stare deep in mine. I look away. His face is like the moon, washed out and resolute. I can get the quintessence of his countenance but none of it stays on my mind as I try not to stare at him for too long. His unmoved eyes from mine make me uneasy. His long charcoal black hair shifts from time to time as if in a benumbed wind. A vigorous madness lurks on his face like a rabid-savagery each time he lets out a miscellaneous smile. At this point in time, I had no idea what was going on his mind.

My eyes are stuck on Sheraad and that woman. I observe Sheraad's hands on her back, playing with her through her backless dress, still waltzing. Letting a kiss on her cheeks, she grins and pulls him closer to her. With my hands on Vikrant's shoulder, I clasp onto his collar as I notice how Sheraad has not even spotted that his wife is dancing with another man. I immediately realize that this small act can send wrong signal to this stranger. I relax my hands and rest them normally on his shoulders again. Seizing the opportunity, Vikrant suddenly pulls me to him violently. The music strangely goes even louder at that instance. Conscious, I try to loosen myself from him. But he draws me even closer. I look at him fretfully. I notice how his hand moves from my waist to travel to the other parts of my body. Getting even more conscious, I wrestle to unshackle myself from the stranger who wisely approached me through the name of Sheraad but instantly provides evidences of being a hot headed pervert. I shout to him for help while this creep draws me near. But he does not hear and continues waltzing with his mistress as his wife is being harassed. Nearly crying, I scream on the inside: "I hate you Sheraad! I hate you!" Milliseconds later, Vikrant crosses his limits by landing his hands on my bum. Nothing else comes to my mind at the moment. Only an uncalculated reaction comes up, I slap him hard in the face and push him away as he hits against a table and hurts himself. Disturbed by the chaos, the music stops and everyone turns around to look at me.

Drowning in tears, I feel I have lost my voice and ability to explain. I go on just crying and crying. Some men, probably Vikrant's acquaintances go to help him stand up. His nostrils flutter in the air as this act gets him on his nerves. I spot Sheraad looking at me with a look that said I will pay a heavy price for what I have just done. Looking at him in tears, I secretly beg him to listen to me for once before he makes a move. But he again gives me the same reaction. Completely enraged, Vikrant questions to Sheraad: "What is this Sheraad? Have you not taught your wife any manners?" 
"I'm really sorry about this Mr. Vikrant..." Vikrant does not let Sheraad finish his sentence. 


"Is this how your wife greets one of your biggest investors?" 
"I'm really sorry Mr. Vikrant. I apologize to you on her behalf." Sheraad says. 
"No! I don't need your apologies! Your company will pay a heavy price for this. I'm sorry Mr. Sheraad. But I won't be investing in your company any longer, " says Vikrant as he hold the swollen part of his forehead. 
"Oh no! Please don't do that! I'll make her apologize to you right away," says sheraad as he walks up to me. 
"Rose! Apologize to him immediately!" he orders. 
Not believing my ears, I burst into more tears. 
"I said apologize to him Rose!" 
Unrestrained feelings snap and I run out of the party crying and crying without saying a word, not a single word. Only my cries are heard and tears are seen.

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Hi guys,

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