Hello, Mr. Major General (1)

Chapter 192 - You Must Believe Me (3)

Kartik looked at Shehnaaz with undisguised admiration in his shimmering, sultry eyes. “Very astute. You never fail to live up to my expectations.”

Shehnaaz: “…Professor Sen, you haven’t answered my question.”

He raised a cocktail glass and took a sip. He was in a good mood, and it showed on his face. “Devika got into trouble in the US, and one of my subordinates defended her in court. This is why I know so much about her—we have to conduct thorough background checks on our clients, after all.”

Shehnaaz frowned slightly. She shot Kartik a skeptical look. “Is that so? That must have been quite the coincidence.”

Kartik “just so happened” to bail Devika out when she was in trouble? And Devika “just so happened” to be Sidharth’s former comrade-in-arms?

Shehnaaz was openly interrogating him, questioning his
honesty, and Kartik did not like it. His attitude cooled as quickly as smoldering coal in ice water. He fixed his icy gaze upon the crowd before him, and gave a snort. “Of course it wasn’t a coincidence. I only bailed her out because I knew she was Mr. Shukla’s former comrade-in-arms. There, are you
satisfied with my answer now?”

Shehnaaz was confused. Her instincts told her that the matter was not so simple, but the more she thought about it, the less credible her intuition seemed, even to her. Why would Professor Sen do that? What did he stand to gain from messing with Sidharth?
Shehnaaz could not come up with a plausible answer. She could tell, deep down, that Kartik was especially nice to her, but she wasn’t so shameless as to think he was attracted to her. Kartik’s actions confused her.

Kartik saw the hesitant, dubious look on Shehnaaz’s face, and felt better. He waved a waiter over and handed him his empty cocktail glass. He turned to Shehnaaz to ask: “Are you hungry? What do you want to eat? I’ll get you some food.”

Shehnaaz was the type to start feeling hungry when she was nervous. She nodded, and said, “I’ll get the food, Professor Sen. What do you like to eat?”

“No, I’ll do it. How can I let a young lady serve me? That would be much too ungentlemanly of me. I grew up abroad, so you’ll have to forgive me if I seem unfamiliar with the
way you do things here in India.” Kartik added the last line sarcastically; it was a direct jab at Shehnaaz, who had accused him of not understanding the
Hindi language earlier.

Shehnaaz’s face colored. She followed him to the buffet table, thoroughly embarrassed. She mumbled, “I’m sorry, Professor Sen. That wasn’t what I meant…”

“That’s okay, you don’t have to apologize. I can never be truly angry with you, you know,” Kartik said simply as he tousled her hair.

Shehnaaz, however, was too busy sneaking restless glances in Sidharth’s direction to catch Kartik’s doting tone.

…

“Sidharth, how have you been?” Devika smiled pleasantly at Sidharth as she handed him a plateful of food.

The plate was stacked: Devika had filled it with grilled duck tenderloin, crispy chicken fillet, fried cumin lamb, prawn-and-bacon rolls, crab meat salad, cabbages leaves, a
few cherry tomatoes, and a generous portion of crab cheese
dip on one corner of the plate.

“How’s that? I have a good memory, right? I got you all your
favorite food.” Devika smiled, her eyes curving into happy crescents. There was an unexpected hint of tenderness in her stately, dignified features. “…I used to prepare these for you every night.”

Sidharth accepted the food, but removed the fried cumin lamb from his plate with his fork. He smiled and said, “Thank you, but I don’t like mutton.”