The Reluctant Matchmaker by Shobhan Bantwal Read Free Book Online Page B

then?”
    â€œSure. Thanks, Paul.”
    When I informed Mom, she beamed. “What did I tell you? He is interested.”
    â€œNo, Mom!” I snapped. “Can’t you understand that any kind of personal relationship between him and me would be ... improper?”
    Mom shook her head. “If both parties are interested, it’s not sexual harassment or anything. Coworkers fall in love and get married in almost every office—despite the rules.”
    â€œWe’re not exactly coworkers. He’s my boss. He’s the boss of everybody who works at Rathnaya.” I realized I was yelling, venting my frustration on my mother. It wasn’t her fault that I stood no chance with Prajay. I softened my tone. “I suspect he’s going out of his way to be kind because he’s afraid of a lawsuit.”
    Mom’s eyes widened. “How can he think that? Respectable Konkani folks don’t go around suing people.” Then she turned thoughtful for a moment, and a slow smile settled over her face. “You know what? I still think fate literally threw the two of you together. Karma can be very strange at times. See, now he’s sending you flowers and offering you a ride.”
    I took a deep breath. Mom had to be reined in. “Don’t go around thinking such things. And please, please don’t say anything to anyone. This is strictly business, okay?”
    â€œOkay.” Mom nodded, but the subtle twinkle in her eye didn’t diminish. My aunts would be hearing about this soon. I knew she was itching to get her hands on the phone. Nothing I could say was likely to change Mom’s way of thinking. She was making big plans to get rid of me the old-fashioned way: marry me off to the first guy who showed interest.
    And she was convinced Prajay’s actions were a sign of interest.

Chapter 5
    I n a way Mom was right. Fate had taken me to a company called Rathnaya and then literally put me in the path of its CEO. To that extent I did believe in karma, but I didn’t for one minute think it had happened for good reasons.
    I’d never even heard of Rathnaya until a year ago, when I was desperately looking for a job. I’d come across their ad for a marketing /PR manager on the Internet and applied for the position. After two interviews I’d ended up working for Paul.
    At the moment, I was sitting with Mom, Dad, and Maneel in the family room, after eating a family dinner. My injured foot was propped up on the coffee table. The swelling was down, and the pain had lessened.
    Mahesh was on call this weekend, like he most often was. The poor guy worked all the time.
    I observed Maneel sitting cross-legged on the carpeted floor, TV remote in hand, flicking through channels. Although I’d never say this to his face, my big brother was a nice-looking guy, with Mom’s lively eyes and dark, curly hair combined with Dad’s sturdy build. Maneel was popular with girls.
    At five-foot-ten, he wasn’t exceptionally tall, but he was muscular and lean. He was also bright and earned a lot as a stockbroker. For one so young he had quite an impressive investment portfolio. Lots of matrimonial inquiries regarding Maneel came to my parents from the families of eligible girls. Maneel had been dodging them, claiming he wasn’t ready for marriage yet.
    I knew for a fact that Maneel was playing the field. I’d seen him flirting with girls at restaurants and popular spots where my friends and I hung out. But we Shenoy kids had our own unwritten code of honor: I’d say nothing about Maneel’s girlfriends to my parents, just like he and Mahesh, although protective of me in typical brotherly fashion, didn’t discuss my business with the rest of the family.
    Dad looked comfortable in the recliner, reading an engineering magazine, while Mom sat at the other end of the couch I was sitting on. Her feet were tucked underneath her hip, and a phone directory sat in