If You Could Stay

14. Naira

"Yes! Thank you, God! Thank you!"

I squealed in relief and victory. I might look like a complete fool right now, but I don't care. I finally found and booked a venue for the shoot. And it only took about 5 hours and 47 phone calls. Indira certainly didn't make this easy. She somehow managed to reserve all venues commonly used by both the Goenkas and Singhanias. But I wasn't giving up. Naira Singhania did not give up. My smile widened so much, my cheeks started to hurt.

For a moment, I forgot where I was. But then I felt a heated gaze on me. I looked up to see intensity, amusement, and something else dancing in those enigmatic eyes of his. Then I remembered where I was. On Kartik Goenka's office floor.

While I knew I looked like a hot mess after countless hours of frustration, Kartik looked like he had just begun his day. Not a wrinkle in his clothing, not a hair out of place. He didn't even loosen his tie. I cleared my throat and sat up straight. Well, as straight as I could while sprawled on a marble floor.

"I booked a venue," I told him.

"So I heard," he replied in amusement.

I huffed. While I worked so tirelessly, he sat at his computer doing God knows what. He hadn't said a word about any progress from his side.

I continued. "We need to make sure the venue location is need to know information. Those who don't need to know it, shouldn't be told. There's a lot—stop looking at me like that!"

Kartik blinked, seemingly coming out of a trance.

"Like what?"

I hesitated a beat before replying, "Like you don't hate me."

Genuine confusion lined Kartik's face and his voice lacked his usually icy tone. "Miss Singhania, I don't hate you."

I blinked, unsure of what to say.

"Well you don't like me either," I muttered under my breath.

He tilted his head slightly as if to think. "That's true."

Before I could respond, a loud growl filled the quiet space. With a mortified look, I glanced down at my stomach. I couldn't remember the last time I ate. With everything going on, I had skipped lunch and it was well into the night now. If Kartik noticed the loud growl coming from my stomach, he didn't say anything. Instead, he was too busy typing on his phone.

I'll just eat when I get home. I had more pressing matters on my hands. Although now we had a venue, there was still so much to do. We still needed models, lights and camera crews, and a photographer. So I got back to work.

I was pulled out of my focus zone when there was a knock on the door.

Kartik's voice broke through the silence. "Come in."

I looked at Kartik in a slight panic, wondering why he would let anyone into his office at this time, especially when I was on the floor like this.

But to my relief, Inaya walked in. With four giant brown bags in her hands.

"Your dinner, Kartik sir."

Kartik nodded. "Please set it up."

Inaya glanced down at the bags in her hands and then around the room. An awkward silence filled the room as she wondered where to set up the mountain of food she had just brought in.

"You can set it up on the floor," Kartik instructed.

My eyes widened in surprise, but Inaya didn't even react. Instead, she got to work unloading each package. The delicious smell of the food floated into my senses and my eyes almost rolled to the back of my head from the pleasant aroma. Kartik was going to eat all that? By looking at him, you could never tell he ate like a hungry caveman. But who was I to judge? I only hoped his Luciferness had retired for the night, and he would share some with me. I was starving.

"Thank you, Inaya. You may go home now. It's late."

Inaya nodded at Kartik and dropped a small container of pills on his desk. "Please remember to take your medications after dinner, sir."

Kartik gave a curt nod and Inaya exited the office.  I was too busy staring at the 26 Italian dishes spread out in front of me to think deeper into why a healthy-looking man like him would need to take all those pills. 

"Eat."

I looked up. "What?"

Kartik didn't remove his eyes from his computer. "It's very late. You must be hungry. Please eat."

I gaped at him, my eyes wide. "This is all for me?"

Kartik's lips curved up in a small smirk. "Not all. One dish is mine."

My jaw dropped. "But there are 25 more dishes left."

He shrugged, looking bored. "I didn't know what you liked."

"So you ordered the entire menu?!" This time I was sure my jaw hit the floor.

Kartik stared at me like he couldn't figure out why ordering a restaurant's entire menu was absurd. I saw the name of the restaurant on the bags it came in. It was a very expensive Italian restaurant. And he had ordered the entire menu. For me.

A pool of warmth filled my chest at the thought. My mind was spinning with a thousand questions, but I was too hungry to think straight, though I managed to get out a soft, "thank you."

I put down my laptop and went to grab a dish, but hesitated.

"What happened? You don't like Italian?" Kartik must have noticed my hesitation.

"No, I actually love Italian. It's just that I feel weird eating by myself, especially since you paid for all this food. Would you eat with me?" The question left my mouth before I could even think about it.

Kartik looked at me for a moment. I almost took the question back but then he rose from his chair and unbuttoned the button on his suit jacket with one hand before sliding it off his shoulders.

I could only freeze and stare, mesmerized by his simple action of just removing his suit jacket. I had never seen him in anything casual. This was an unknown sight to me and the world seemed to move in slow motion as my eyes stayed glued on Kartik.

He slowly rolled up the sleeves of his crisp white shirt until they stopped right below his elbows. Then he tucked a finger behind the knot of his tie and leisurely tugged it looser from his neck.

Oh my...

I totally did not focus on the way his broad shoulders filled out his shirt, or how his veins ran from his toned hands to his fair forearms. Or how the mere sight of him this laid back made my stomach do a hundred summersaults.

No, I absolutely did not focus on any of it.