Behind Her Cool Exterior

The FIRST encounter

“What, in the name of God, are you doing here?”

Sana had practiced her lines over and over again while waiting. She had planned to play on her little familiarity with him and lead the conversation from there. She had assumed, or rather hoped, that he wouldn’t judge her on the basis of who her father was. But obviously her hopes had been far-fetched because Nikolos’ voice didn’t really hold any warmth of meeting an old acquaintance, she thought dryly.

“Well...Are you going to stand and wait for an invitation to speak?”

“I have come to meet you.” She replied coolly to his outburst.

“Yeah, I can see that.” said Nikolos with a raised eyebrow.

A little irritated at his sarcasm and obvious reluctance to talk to her, she took a deep breath and mentally warned herself that she was the one who will lose more if she started saying what was really going in her mind after facing this egoistic, rude and discourteous side of Nikolos Starkis. Normally she didn’t have any problem in keeping her emotions in check in presence of others, but there was something in his tone that annoyed the hell out of her. ‘Stay calm Sana.’ She thought.

“I have come to talk to you about my father.” But that is only possible if you stop behaving like a bully, you i***t.

“And what is it you wanted to say about him? Personally, I feel there is nothing to talk about that subject. The matter is long dead and buried. It is rather late for you to come and defend him now, you know.” Nikolos said, looking bored.

“I haven’t come here to defend him.”And trust me, I wouldn’t have come to you of all people if I had a choice.

“So why are you here then?”

She closed her eyes for a moment and inhaled deeply. Opening her eyes, and looking directly at Nikolos, she said “I have not come here to defend my father. I wouldn’t be here if he had done something wrong. But I know that my father is not guilty. And that is what I want to talk to you about.”

Nikolos stared at her blankly before what she was saying finally dawned on him.

"Tell me Sana, are you drunk?” he asked finally losing his cool.