Julie & Kishore by Carol Jackson Read Free Book Online Page A

from an inkling growing inside me, while looking at that flower, that my answer
to Linda would not be ‘no.’ As Linda stared at me waiting for a reply, I knew I
could do it, it felt, well, right. I was going to take the plunge. I turned to
her and with my heart racing, tried to speak but all that came out of my mouth
was, “Ummm.”
    “Go
on,” she said. “Really Julie, what have you got to lose?”
    True,
what did I have to lose? Knowing I was
taking a big step, I
tore a piece of paper from my notepad and wrote down my home phone number and
gave it to Linda. With a huge smile of achievement on her face Linda trotted
back to Kishore’s office and handed him the piece of paper.

 
 
    CHAPTER TEN

 
    The Hindi word for girl is
lardakee.

 
    Kishore
had been in the photocopying/faxing room and was heading back down the hall to
his office when he caught sight of Julie and Linda on their way towards the
lunchroom.
    Was
this his chance?
    He
decided he’d spent more than enough time thinking about her and trying to pluck
up the courage to talk to her and he couldn’t think of any more lame excuses as
to why he should join Julie and Gillian in the boardroom.
    Every
time Julie walked past him, smelling undeniably of vanilla musk, he’d been
stuck for something to say, which he felt made him look silly in her eyes. If
he did find the words they were only silly, blabbering outpourings.
    If
something wasn’t done soon then his chance would slip by. Today was the day and
this was the time, he was sure of it.
    He
knew what he felt called for desperate measures but what?  

 
    With
his empty mug in his hand, at least it would look like he had a motive, he
convinced himself to go to the lunchroom. It was just his luck Linda was coming
out. It was now or never, he could feel it in his bones, he couldn’t lose his
courage and talk himself out of it again.
    Julie
looked so sweet sitting at the lunch table with her head bent over her work,
her hair shimmering, like flames dancing in a fire. As she glanced up and
smiled at him , it gave him the courage to go on. Kishore felt his
heart beating rapidly in his chest as he stealthily picked up one of the
carnations from the vase on the table. Feeling sick with nerves, he gave the
flower a quick flick to shake it free of any water, thrust it towards her and managed a smile.
    Just
as Julie raised her head, saw the flower and took it from him, Linda came back
into the lunchroom. Kishore, like a stunned deer, retreated as fast as he
could, half running down the hall, he just arrived at his office door when
Linda caught up with him. He was glad she did. If it were left up to him, well,
he would probably still be trying to pluck up the courage to talk to Julie.
Linda, acting like the boss she was, drilled Kishore as to why he gave Julie
the flower. He could only manage to answer a tiny ‘yes’ in answer to Linda’s
questions but in his head it was a different situation, the reply he was
desperate to shout was, “ YES! THIS COULD BE MY ONLY
CHANCE, PLEASE GO NOW AND GET HER PHONE NUMBER, HURRY!”

 
    He
believed, as a man, if a girl gives you her phone number it constituted as a
‘yes’ - yes she would go out with you. She wouldn’t give her number to just
anyone, would she?    
    As
Kishore entered his office to wait for Linda’s return, he felt pretty wound up
and his heart was beating far too fast. He couldn’t sit so he paced backwards
and forwards, taking his handkerchief from his pocket , he wiped his sticky palms and forehead, the anticipation was far too great.
After an extremely long ten minutes, Linda finally came back with a triumphant
smile on her face - she was clutching a slip of paper in her hand.
    As
Kishore took it from her, he felt so happy,
it was as
if he had just been handed the Nobel peace prize, He wanted to jump up and down
with joy but he managed to control himself long enough to thank Linda once or
twice or ten times over. As he opened the paper