Chapter 6

An unpleasant surprise

Ari was standing in line on the cofee queue in a gigantic building in New York City and doing some mental calculations. She had just emerged from a workshop held for Andersons International personal secretaries. Anderson International, the company Ari worked for, had branches all over the world and every year, the executives organized a conference where all Anderson International workers of all level - from Managing directors to personal secretaries and even security personnel - were taken through fun but rigorous trainings, tests, meetings and workshops just to ensure that the standard of competency which Anderson International had held for decades was maintained. Sometimes, if a worker was discovered to be no longer professional or fails some of the tests given in the conferences, they would be fired during the course of the conference. Despite these, the two week Anderson International Workers Conference was something all the employees from all branches looked forward to because it was a fun-packed event. Apart from the joy of meeting employees from various other states and countries, the promotion and retirement ceremonies of Anderson International employees took place during this conference. The first Saturday was for the promotion ceremony when the names of employees who had been exceptionally diligent during the year and would be promoted in their respective branches would be called out and a dinner would be held in honor of them. The second Saturday graced the retirement ceremony. Anderson International board of committees really appreciated their workers and held the dinner to celebrate workers who had clocked sixty-five years of age and could no longer continue working with the company.

It was this dinner, the retirement ceremony that kept Ari racking her head and mentally going through the outfits she brought for the conference. She had brought along four dinner gowns for the events and had worn one of them for the promotion ceremony: a short, lacy, purple gown that had enhanced her curves and brought her lots of admiring eyes and compliments. Now she had three others to choose from and as she took her coffee and walked to the lounge with the intention of sitting for a while before leaving for her room, someone bumped into her and if she hadn't been holding the cup very tightly, the entire content would have spilled on her very gorgeous and very expensive suit.

"Oops! I am sincerely sorry" said the young man who bumped into her. "I was in so much haste, I...... oh heavens, Ari?"

Ari looked up suddenly, startled. Her eyes had been glued to her dress, trying to assess the damage done and already wondering if it wouldn't be too late to get the stains out if she waited for four days when she would travel down home before laundering it. His scent hit her first, woody and musky, entirely manly and strangely familiar. Something about that scent brought about a familiar feeling of nostalgia. She knew that scent. Then she looked at his face and the world stopped still.