"What the hell just happened?" Anikaa questioned herself disbelievingly, shaking her head, astounded.
"Mam...," started Rachel but Anikaa interrupted her.
"No. How can I run away like that?" muttered Anikaa, a mix of horror and perplexity clear on her face as she regarded her own action.
"Perhaps you should embrace your feelings for Raymond," suggested Rachel reluctantly.
Anikaa looked at her as if she had just sprouted a tail.
"I have no feelings whatsoever for him," said Anikaa sternly.
"Then why did you run away like that?"
"Because, I don't want to lead him or be rude to him and spoil our business relationship. After all, Sturrocks Corporations is one of the biggest organisations in the world."
The answer sounded as unconvincing to Rachel as to Anikaa herself. Anikaa closed her eyes and leaned back her head on the seat, trying to calm her mind. No! She needed a distraction. Talk about something else.
"But, what was with Josh?" asked Anikaa straightening up.
This was the moment Rachel was eagerly waiting for. She jumped in full acceleration into the story, recounting all the happenings on the table in detail during the auction.
"...I swear he was sitting beside me for full hour or so and was weirdly predicting the auction prizes."
"Predicting?"
"Yes, I mean who will buy what and will pay how much, what people are thinking as if he was reading everyone's mind."
"That's very strange," said Anikaa, half-listening, her head still swimming with images of Raymond's handsome face.
"And Mr. Opal said that Josh wasn't there at all. How could it be possible? I am sure I'm not mistaken and I wasn't drunk," groaned Rachel.
When Anikaa didn't comment, Rachel asked her one more question that whirled in her mind for the evening.
"Mam, why did you bid for your own painting?"
"To add more funds."
"But how did you know people will pay more?"
"Coz I bidded for my own painting."
When Rachel opened her mouth with a befuddled expression but said nothing, Anikaa explained.
"By bidding on my own painting, I stroked the basic human instinct- 'curiosity' in everyone's mind. Why is she buying her own painting? What is it about this painting?....There's got to be something very special, and so driven by their curiosity people bidded- more and more."
Rachel gaped in amazement.
"But what if they hadn't?"
"We were in a room full of the most enterprising pioneers of the century. The hell they would."
"Did you plan that beforehand?"
"No. And for god's sake, close your mouth," chuckled Anikaa.
"Sorry...yeah."
"Are we...," started Rachel when Anikaa's phone buzzed with Raymond's number.
"I'm not picking it up."
"But mam....,"
"No Rachel, not tonight. I am not in the mood."
YOU ARE READING
ANIKAA & THE ESCAPE- BOOK 2 OF ANIKAA SERIES
FantasyJiyu has been caught, but is it the end? Mukund, Anikaa's painting gallery manager is found unconscious in his office; Protiva, Milan's old friend is knocked out cold in her house. However random they are, Anikaa has established a connection between...
