The Holiday Affair: A Match Made In Hell Novel

by KASI, MV

  "I see," said Srishti quietly, feeling slightly shaken up.

  Not because her fiancé of seven long years was with someone else. It was because she wasn't feeling heartbroken or any kind of loss about losing Gaurav. Most women would definitely be in despair hearing such news, but she only felt relief, and the only fact she was worried about was how this entire thing would affect Shah and Bhatia's partnership going forward.

  Opportunity cost. Benefits. Deals. They had become the foundation of her life ever since she started her own company.

  When did I become so calculated and unfeeling that I don't even miss Gaurav?

  Sapna touched her hand gently. "Srishti, we didn't want to tell this to you before when you were with him, but he's been an ass to you for a while. Your relationship was going nowhere for a long time. You both seemed to just hang on because your families are intertwined in businesses and you didn't want to cause trouble."

  Srishti had been thinking along those lines too, but she didn't want to admit it.

  "That's not completely true. We did love each other—"

  "Maybe. But you have to agree, it was more of a friendship than true love."

  Srishti was quiet.

  "And whenever you were together, he behaved as though he was doing you a favor by being in a relationship with you. He was always sulking that you weren't paying enough attention to him. And you spent most of your time trying to make up to him. It wasn't fair to you."

  God, is that how her family saw her? As a desperate, pathetic, female who tried to hang to a man, even if he didn't want her?

  "Srishti, that's not entirely the reason why I came to visit you."

  "What happened?"

  "Gaurav's new fiancée, she has spoken about you to the tabloids."

  "About me? I don't think I've met her," Srishti frowned. "At least I don't recall ever meeting her."

  "Yeah. I don't think you must have met her either, but she claims that Gaurav spoke to her about you and that...he called you...that..."

  "What is it? Tell me."

  "That woman claimed Gaurav shared some intimate details of your relationship."

  Srishti was silent for a while. "What did she say?" she asked.

  "She said..."

  "I don't really care at this point, Sapna. Just tell me."

  "Are you sure?"

  "Yes!"

  "Okay. Let me show it to you. You'll find out anyway." Sapna took out her phone and began to play a video.

  Srishti frowned when the video showed a petite woman in an expensive looking dress chatting with a group of similarly dressed friends. She was talking about a few upcoming events and trips she had planned to go and spoke about several other topics that Srishti had absolutely no interest in.

  "Sapna, can you please just scroll through and get to the part that's actually relevant to me?"

  Sapna nodded.

  "...his previous relationship was meant to be doomed. Because men want women who let them be the boss in their own homes. Unfortunately my boyfriend's ex wasn't the kind. She always did as she wanted, and he was the one who had to compromise most of the time. He's also told me a few intimate things about their relationship which I don't mind sharing. Maybe because it's a public advisory or something..." There were giggles around her. "Apparently, sleeping with her was like sleeping with a laptop. Well, laptops get warm sometimes, but she apparently never did. She was always cold and selfish...in and out of bed."

  Sapna stopped the video immediately.

  "Srishti...those are her opinions. I'm sure Gaurav didn't—"

  "It doesn't matter Sapna. Even if he did, I don't give a crap," she lied, even as heat crept into her face.

  "Are you sure? Because you just looked—"

  "I'm fine Sapna. Why didn't you call me to tell me this over the phone, rather than coming all the way to my workplace?"

  "I did try calling you from past two hours. I wasn't able to connect the call."

  Srishti frowned and searched for her phone.

  She found it under the huge stack of research papers and sales reports she had been using for the presentation.

  There were close to twenty missed calls and messages on the phone.

  A few of her cousins and friends sent her odd inspirational messages.

  'Life is like a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.'

  'When one door closes, another opens.'

  'What is broken is broken.'

  'Don't lose hope Tee. We are there for you, not matter what.'

  Srishti noticed that her phone ringer was set to a silent mode. She must have forgotten to set it back to the normal mode after her meeting that evening.

  As soon as she changed back her phone setting, her phone began to ring audibly.

  "Hello?"

  "Is this Miss Srishti Shah?"

  "Yes."

  "Hello Miss Shah. I'm calling to talk to you about your relationship with Mr. Bhatia—"

  Srishti cut off the call with a frown. "What the hell? How did they find out my number?" she asked.

  "Who?"

  "Someone asking me about my relationship with Gaurav. Probably some gossip column reporter."

  Her phone went off again.

  "Miss Shah, we would like to get your side of what went wrong with your ex—"

  She hung up again and glared at her phone.

  "The same guy again?" Sapna asked.

  "No. A different one, but asking about the same thing. They want to talk about my break up with Gaurav."

  Over the next few minutes, her phone kept ringing and she ignored them.

  "I've heard those people can be quite persistent to the point of harassment," said Sapna.

  But when her phone began to ring in a tone customized to her mother's number, she answered it.

  "Srishti, where are you?" her mother asked.

  "Still at work, Ma."

  "I see." There was a pause. "I know it's a little late, but can you come down to our place tonight? Papa and I want to talk to you about...uh...something," her mother spoke hesitantly in an odd tone.

  Crap. Her mother was never the kind to be hesitant. They must have heard or seen the video. That odd tone was pity and concern for their only child who was sort of humiliated publicly.

  One thing Srishti couldn't bear was pity directed towards her.

  "I...uh...I can't meet you and papa tonight, Ma," Srishti told her mother.

  "Why not?"

  Srishti was silent. Feeling humiliated and guilty for worrying her parents.

  Sapna stared at her and then took the phone from her hands.

  "She's preparing to go to a weeklong holiday, Aunty."

  "Holiday?" Srishti's mother asked her in a shocked tone.

  Srishti wondered what was so shocking about taking a weeklong holiday.

  "Yes. She's been asking me to plan it for a while now. And luckily she realized that she was free to go this week..."

  "Srishti..." her mother said gently. "Are you alright, baby? It doesn't sound like you. We just heard that Gaurav—"

  "I'm fine Ma. I'm totally fine. I've been so busy with work that I forgot to mention about this...this holiday I had planned a while ago."

  There was a considerable pause. "But you've always been busy. And you haven't taken any sort of break or holiday in over six years, even though I kept insisting you take one," her mother said.

  Six years?

  Srishti thought back to when she had last taken a break.

  Apart from a few odd days while she was severely sick with a flu or cold, she hadn't taken any sort of break from work.

  Crap.

  "I know. But Sapna has been talking about this place for a while now. And I thought I did need this break to recharge myself."

  Sapna and Abhinav owned a travel agency. They both had really been asking Srishti to take a break for a while now. So it wasn't completely a fabrication.

  "Okay..." her mother said skeptically. "So where exactly is this place?"
>
  "Kandy, Aunty. It's a beautiful place in Sri Lanka," said Sapna. "They have beautiful mountains, rainforests and tea gardens. Abhinav and I bought the place a few weeks ago. It will be perfect for Srishti to relax for a week."

  Srishti raised her eyebrow at Sapna.

  "So you're flying tomorrow Srishti?" her mother asked.

  "Yes."

  "See you next week then, baby. Enjoy your much deserved break and call me when you reach there."

  "I will, Ma."

  Srishti hung up the call and collapsed on her chair.

  She looked towards Sapna who was busy typing away furiously on the phone.

  "God. I feel like crap. I don't know why I just lied to my mother."

  "Don't worry. It's not a lie anymore. Because it's true," Sapna smiled victoriously.

  "What is?" Srishti asked.

  "Your weeklong holiday. I've just blocked it on my name so it's not listed," Sapna told her proudly.

  "What? What are you talking about? I can't afford to take a break at this point."

  "Everybody needs a break, Srishti. Especially someone who works as hard as you. And after what you just heard about Gaurav, you deserve—"

  Srishti's phone rang again.

  It was her aunt, Mahi. So she answered it. She knew that if there was one person who wouldn't pity her, it would be Aunt Mahi.

  "Yo champ, how's it going? I just heard you are off to a vacation of some kind?" a cheerful voice asked.

  News travelled fast. Her mother and Aunt Mahi were quite close. And Srishti knew that her mother always called to discuss and sometimes take advice from Aunt Mahi, when it came to dealing with her stubborn daughter.

  "Yeah. To uh...Sri Lanka. A holiday home near...near..." Sapna held her phone screen up to show a picture. "Kandy, Sri Lanka. Apparently, it's quite beautiful and peaceful there." Srishti was sort of impressed by what she was seeing on the screen.

  "That's cool. I'm so glad you finally decided to take a break. It always helps to decompress."

  "I guess so. By the way, Sapphire Labs wants to close the deal—"

  "Hey. You are on vacation. So no talking about work or even thinking about work for the next whole week. When you come back refreshed, you can jump right in. Alright?"

  "Okay."

  "Pamper yourself during this break. When you get back, I want to hear what a great time you had."

  Srishti smiled. "Sure. I'll try. Say hello to Samrat Uncle and Dhruv," she said before ending the call.

  Immediately her phone began to ring again and picked it up on habit.

  "Hello, Miss Shah, can you please talk to us about Miss Pinky—"

  She cut it, and sank back into her chair, staring at Sapna.

  "Looks like I'll be going on that weeklong holiday after all."

  "It'll all be taken care of. I'll book a flight for tomorrow morning and have someone pick you up from the airport. There's even a caretaker onsite if you need his services," said Sapna with a smile.

  Over the next few hours, Srishti called and delegated her tasks to the other executives of the company. They all seem surprised. And everyone had the same thing to tell her.

  That the holiday break was long overdue.

  She ran through the mental list of why she had to force herself to go.

  1. Her fiancé or rather her ex-fiancé broke off with her.

  2. Her family and friends pitied her.

  3. There were gossip columnists calling her to ask whether she was really a cold fish in and out of bed.

  Were they really strong enough reasons for her to run away? She didn't know. But all she knew was that she felt resentful and hated herself for running away to lick her wounds.

  CHAPTER 8

  Srishti's flight landed in Colombo sometime in late morning. She was quite groggy due to lack of sleep. She had been up most of the night, making calls and then packing for the trip.

  As soon as she collected her luggage and stepped out, she hailed a taxi to take her to the holiday home. The drive to Kandy was beautiful.

  "Wait here," she told the driver as they made a brief stop at a small supermarket.

  The holiday home she would be staying in was supposedly quite isolated and away from the bustle of stores and tourists. She wanted to stock up on a few supplies since she didn't find the time to shop properly for the trip. And she had also asked Sapna to send the caretaker away.

  Throwing in soap, shampoo and a few other essential toiletries in her cart along with a few local fruits to snack on, she stood in the check-out line.

  While she waited, she checked her cell phone for any new emails she might have received from work. But unfortunately there were no signal bars.

  "Crap, why the hell are my damn emails not updating" she muttered in frustration, moving her hands higher, to see if the bars would magically change to display some sort of signal.

  There was a rumbling chuckle in front of her.

  "Do you need help to hold it even higher for you?" asked a deep voice.

  Scowling, she looked up to glare at whoever was imparting their unwanted wit to her. For a change she had to raise her neck further up, because the man who spoke was almost a giant who towered over her. She was taller than average, but he was quite easily the tallest guy she had seen.

  Damn, the man in front of her was a giant and he was definitely hot as hell. He was lean, broad-shouldered and slim-hipped. He had jet back hair that fell carelessly over his forehead, a short untrimmed beard and mustache on a strong chin, and a jaw with high cheekbones.

  Despite the unkempt appearance, he looked positively mouthwatering.

  While one part of brain was drowning in lust, the other more snobbish part sneered at his cut-off shorts and torn t-shirt, deliberately displaying his tanned, strong calf muscles and ripped forearms.

  He looked like a bum. He probably was one.

  She knew she was stereotyping but she couldn't help it.

  And he was watching her or rather scanning her equally closely. All the while eating a...lollipop.

  It was weird watching a grown man eat something tame and simple like a lollipop. It seemed completely inappropriate the way he twirled the little stick in his large hand and drew it out through his soft lips.

  Crap. Her stomach was feeling weird and fluttery as she stared at his lips. And her toes curled inside her shoes. Never before had she felt like she had been punched in the stomach with a feeling of instant lust and equal amounts of disdain.

  Tearing her eyes away from his face and body, she ignored him by not bothering to reply.

  She heard him chuckle.

  She looked at him again, and he was staring at her in amusement.

  So she narrowed her eyes at him. Die, she mentally told him.

  He grinned.

  "Are you here on business?" he asked, scanning her face and clothes in a leisurely way.

  "No."

  "Visiting family for the holidays?""

  "No."

  "Visiting friends?"

  She frowned with an impatient look. "Is my body language, not clear enough?" she asked him. When he didn't look embarrassed, she told him directly. "I don't want to talk to you."

  He drew the damn lollipop put of his mouth again, only to put it back inside and twirl it. She couldn't look away and felt hypnotized with the slow movements.

  "I figured," he drawled. "But sometimes words and body language are quite different from what the eyes communicate to you."

  She was embarrassed that he was right. But she continued to hold on to her death glare.

  "So, anyway, are you here to visit friends?" he continued asking.

  "Don't you know how to mind your business?" she asked in exasperation.

  "Nope," he said with a grin. "So why are you here?" he asked.

  "I'm on a holiday," she answered to get rid of him. Her words sounded bitter to her own ears, as though taking a holiday was some kind of a punishment instead of for enjoyment. Which was true. She'd rather be in her office, a
t work, than be forced on a holiday.

  "You know, most people look happy or excited when they go on a holiday," he said.

  "I'm not most people," she snapped, feeling the bitterness well up even more, when she was reminded how she had always been called an odd ball for not always craving the 'womanly' things.

  "Well, I can see that. Anyway, you haven't told me your name," he said.

  She arched a brow at him. "No. I haven't."

  To her astonishment, he smiled even wider and extended his hand towards her.

  "Then let me introduce myself first."

  "Not required," she told him icily.

  "Hmm. Are you sure?"

  "Very."

  He grinned. "Alright. Maybe later. See you around then," he said, moving forward to the check-out counter..

  "Good morning, Rahul. How are you today?" the woman at the counter asked him. She was probably in her sixties, but she was beaming at the man like a school girl with a crush.

  "Quite good, Lalitha. Can I borrow your tuk tuk today as well?" he asked the woman charmingly.

  He stood in front of the counter, facing the line. Srishti could see his face quite clearly. He had a grin that he probably practiced in front of the mirror each morning, to impress the women population.

  "Of course, it's yours whenever you want." The woman looked at the supplies he picked in the cart. "Quite a lot of food today. Planning a picnic with someone?" she asked.

  He laughed.

  "No. This is all for me. As you can see, I'm a big man. But I'm definitely going to plan a picnic with you soon," he said in a flirtatious tone, waggling his eyebrows at the older woman.

  The woman blushed and giggled.

  Srishti couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes at his display. And he caught her doing that and winked at her.

  Picking up his bags, he went out towards a vehicle that appeared to be an auto rickshaw.

  He had a lazy, long-legged walk that attracted attention from everyone.

  Including hers.

  "He is really quite something, right?" the older woman's voice asked.