Seduced by a SEAL

Chapter 17

The restaurant that Cassandra had chosen for her meeting with Robert was one which she had frequented quite often, even for a quiet dinner. She liked the place because of the beautiful music that they played here at the corner on a grand piano and also they had a beautiful collection of wine. The name of the restaurant was Knight’s. One days she had just sat at the bar and then had spoken to the bartender about their huge wine collection and the man had said that it used to be a wine bar only a few years ago but now the owners had decided to expand it and attach a restaurant along with it. And Cassandra was thankful for that because the chefs were top-notch and the cook was almost near about awesome.

When she reached the restaurant she found that Robert was already waiting at the bar. He had a glass of wine in his hand and was musing silently when she took the stool next to him and said,” Is this seat taken?”

“Oh definitely not till now, Madame. How kind of you to join me for a drink!!” said Robert with a charming smile on his face and for the first time in all these years Cassandra had a notion forming in her mind that might be, just might be for the slightest moment this was his way of flirting with her. He might be obnoxious as hell but that might be his reverse psychology was working. And as soon as she came to feel that he was not doing this on purpose Cassandra relaxed a lot in her mind.

“You want to take this to a table or you want to keep on sitting at the bar here?” asked Cassandra as Robert took a sip of the wine and turned towards her.

“Maybe in a little while. I have got a chance to enjoy your company now, properly and I am not wasting that all talking shop. But what I want to understand is, you have come back here to California after almost a long time and still then you manage to find the best places in town. I mean, look at this place, it is a gem,” said Robert as Cassandra softly chuckled. And she gestured the bartender for a half goblet of wine.

“To be honest, I stumbled upon this place one day by accident. I was not meaning to go somewhere but then I thought I heard the piano playing and I came inside and I have been a regular at this place since then,” said Cassandra as she sipped the wine after twirling it in the goblet and breathing in the heady woody aroma of the wine.

“You seem to know a lot about wine as well. I just keep on thinking that if you are a mystery then you might be the only one that I might not be able to ever unlock completely,” said Robert as he smiled teasing her. Cassandra snorted in a very unlady-like manner and then smiled. And after that laughed out loud. When she stopped laughing she looked at Robert and said,” Man, I have been engaged for the past two years and found that my fiancé was cheating on me all the time. Even then when he was wooing me I never have been complimented in this way. So it would be almost safe to assume that you are flirting with me.”

“I mean, was I trying too hard?” asked Robert as he smiled sheepishly. Just like a school-boy who had been caught red-handed in doing something naughty.

“No Robert. I would say that you have no idea at all on how to speak to a woman. You never had in the first place which was the reason I was so offended when all that started in college. But now I understand that things are different than what I really think. Dude, what book are you learning flirting from? 18th century on how to seduce a woman?” asked Cassandra as she drank the rest of her wine.

“Not at all. Come on…how old do you think I am?” asked Robert as they both slid down from the stools and went in the direction of the restaurant which was moderately filled. It was not a very busy evening and that made the place a perfect one to have a serious conversation.

“You need to start talking to women considering they are human beings and not from Mars,” said Cassandra as they took their seats on the table that Cassandra had reserved in the afternoon.

“But I do. Although it is never going to be enough for you, is it now?” asked Robert with a soft smile and then said,” Leaving all those aside I think that you are the perfect candidate for what we actually require for our research team. A communications specialist.”

“A what?” asked Cassandra in surprise because she was definitely not expecting this at all. If anything she was expecting to be asked to join the research team.

“A communications specialist Cassandra. You are a trained psychologist and you are also an expert counsellor. The research team consists of people in the academicia who have absolutely no idea on communicating how to do their work. That was something we all had agreed upon when we checked with all your past clients who were raving about your skills. We need exactly someone like you, who will understand what the research is about from inside out and also will be capable of demonstrating that to the investors which we are seriously lacking at the moment. I mean, we do have investors but when working on a research of this level you can never have enough at all,” said Robert as the waiter came and stood beside them in order to take their order.

“If you think that Robert that I am just going to be the face of your project whom you can use as a classical and sexualized weapon for asking money,, rather begging for it then you made a serious mistake. I am not the person that you are looking for. I might be acclaimed and praised in what I do but touting a project and that too, this sensitive research, no, I am never going to do that,” said Cassandra and her voice rang with finality as Robert looked at her shocked.