Billionaire's Lost Crush

Hot chocolate

NAINA

I went through the records for the second time. My brows furrowed in concentration as I tried to get the accounts straight. A calculator at hand, and unconsciously a pencil in my mouth, with my reading glasses, perched on my nose, I stared at the papers.

"Lora!" I called a bit louder for her to come inside my cabin. She walked into my cabin with her usual sweet face. I could not help but roll my eyes at her. Not every time I was in a mood to talk friendly with her.

"This is not gonna work!" I told her when she tried to give me a smile.

"Alright! I am gonna tell the accountant to go through the records once more." She said as she wriggled her eyebrows suggestively. I shook my head dismissively.

"Get me something to drink. My head is bursting with ache." I said as I removed my spectacles and leaned back on the chair. Migraine was one of those things that Kundan gave me, along with a broken heart, and a precious daughter. Pearl is the most precious thing he could ever give me.

"Sure! The hot chocolate would help." She said cheerfully knowing well that I had a weakness for chocolate. I just hummed in reply as I adored the taste of hot chocolate with my eyes closed.

Lora was one of the first people whom I had hired for my boutique, three years back. She was a college girl, who did not enough funds with her to pay for her fee. Her being a homosexual did not provide her any support from her parents or friends. She was all alone, lost and broken, more or less, just like me. Whereas Lora could not be more grateful to me, I found a lifelong friend in her. She is not only a good friend to me but also a loyal employee. I could always trust Lora with a blind eye.

Even after a had my whole family by my side, I still felt lonely. Kundan had made me so weak, by spoiling me with his pampering. It was not that he loved me or anything, he just used to pamper me, so that he could very easily get access to all of my wealth, and seek more of it from my family. Raising Pearl alone was not as easy as it appeared. Even after having so many people by my side, my parents, three uncles and aunts, dadi, Ruhani, Arjun, and Rohit, it seemed to get lonely. My mom, and sometimes used to sleep with me, but still, when Pearl woke up during the night, crying, I sometimes felt that my daughter needed a father too.

I must say that both of my cousins, Arjun and Rohit are more like a father to my Pearl, it is all in my stupid heart. Pearl does not feel any emptiness in her life, it's just me who feels empty, both inside out. My mom and aunts had suggested that I should seek a second marriage, but I could not make my heart understand. What if the second one would be exactly the same as Kundan?

"Here you go!" Lora said cheerfully as she came back with a glass of hot chocolate. I was exactly in the same position as I was when Lora had left my cabin.

"You should stress less." She said with a sigh as I straightened myself to seek the glass of heaven. My daughter loves hot chocolate as much as I love it. I was relieved by the fact that my daughter possessed more of my genes than that her father.

I moaned as I took a sip of the hot liquid.

"You know you make that sound so..." Lora trailed off as I raised my brows in question. Lora's flirty remarks were harmless but they got too much. One look from me and she knew that she should shut up.

All of my concern was the pressure of my mom to get married. I don't want to go through all that s**t again. I don't want to get cheated again. I don't want any step dad for my precious daughter.

"But seriously..." I was pulled out from my thoughts when Lora said with utter seriousness in her words, and continued, "You should stop stressing."

"You know that I can't...you know what my worries are for!" I said as I clutched my aching head.

"Maybe your mother is right... you should get married... " She mumbled.

"Excuse me?" I said as I raised a brow.

She then pursed her lips and went outside. First mom, then dadi, then Ruhani, and now Lora too. All of them are sick! I won't get married, and that is it!

But all of my stress was not because of this growing pressure from mom about my marriage. I was sick and tired of giving away three forth of my earnings to the bloody bank.

Well, yeah... anyone could think that I should have asked my father for the money while I wa setting up this boutique. But I wanted to do all this by my own, without any help from my father. So I took loan from the bank for the same.

And even after three years of the start of the boutique, and I am still paying the debt off. Now, my boutique is quite famous in all over India, as well in abroad, but some of the debt is still left to be paid off. Arjun and Rohit, both had asked me to invest in my boutique, but I refused both of them politely.

I knew they had offered me it because of the family relations, and not because they find me worthy. I want an investor who would invest in my boutique because he or she will find me worthy enough for the same.

The fashion industry is the leading industry in the world, and once I would get an appropriate investor, things might change and my designs would be the leading designs of the world.

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TO BE CONTINUED...