WILD HEARTS

CHAPTER 26

Siddharth was changing into a fresh shirt. He debated whether to shave or not. He had a decent stubble going on and he knew Shehnaaz liked it. He used to be conscious of their age difference all the time at first and would do everything to not appear any more older but she surprised him by saying how much she liked his appearance the way it was and absolutely forbade him from changing anything.

"You are a sexy man and I want you to look it. Actually, till I met you I never knew how attracted I could be to an older man." He remembered her words. She had stumped him that day a bit. And he had loved every minute of it. Needless to say the night that followed was one they wouldn't forget in a long time. He had come 3 times. And he came hard. Never had he had an experience like that ever. That was the power she held over him. Thinking about that night stirred up sensations in his belly. Damn, now was not the time. He was missing her, like always and he was about to spend his evening in company that he despised. He sighed going back to buttoning his shirt. Today had not been a good day anyway and the evening was about to get worse. Putting on his clothes his mind drifted back to a somewhat unsettling meeting he had with his partner that afternoon.

"Are these numbers for real?" Siddharth asked, looking at the document in front of him, somewhat incredulously.

"Unfortunately, they are. I had the same reaction." said his financial head, Suresh.

"But we have almost a monopoly with the Ahujas. We build everything for them! Suddenly why are they sending us this?"

"I have no idea Siddharth. I'm equally shocked. I don't know kya chal raha hai unke saath."

"They want to break the contract? They can't, right?"

"This year they can't but I don't know what they will do next year. We have to talk with the legals. And Siddharth? There's something else you need to know. There's a rumour that M&H also might pull out next year. Nothing is confirmed of course, but my guys told me this rumour has been floating for a while."

"What?"

Suresh remained silent.

"This is not good at all. This will bring us big losses. We need to have meetings with them asap. Put it out as a-a working lunch on revision of our terms and conditions."

"Ok. But we'll have to wait because Harish is out of the country for the next couple of weeks."

Siddharth sighed and then calmed himself. "Ok. No worries. We've gone through shittier situations, this is nothing. We'll sort it out. Let me know the day, no the hour, Harish is back in India."

He didn't want to attend this dinner as usual. He had more pressing issues to take care of. But he also knew it was an absolute impossibility to get out of this situation. He had to grit his teeth and pull through the night. Tomorrow he would be where he belonged anyway. So just this evening.

However, Siddharth had perhaps underestimated just how screwed up the evening was going to be. The dinner was in the house with family but Sonia had booked the banquet in Taj where she was hosting a cocktail night for her birthday. And she made sure that he absolutely had to attend. He had no excuse because he had already committed before he knew about the party.

They were just finishing dinner when he asked Balbir Uncle, "Uh, Uncle what is the status on the rest of the paperwork?"

"Chal raha hai beta. Ministry mein laga ke rakkha hai kisi ko. You know how it is. Chakkar kaatne padenge aur bhi. These things take time. Ho jayega don't worry. Maybe thoda aur time chahiyega but ho jayega. Patience," he smiled.