WHEN NYLA PASSED by Hyeon's desk, the women gave her a tentative smile.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to yell at you," she said with a minuscule smile. "Thank you for the other day, I needed it."

Hyeon nodded once. "Well, if your ready to work, George is waiting in your office for you."

"This early?"

Hyeon pushed the bridge of her glasses closer to her face. "He's been waiting since the office opened."

Nyla sighed before stepping into her office. George had already made himself comfortable and was sitting on the desk across from her seat on his phone.

"Good morning George."

George put away his phone at the sound of her voice. "Morning. Hope you're feeling better today."

Nyla merely raised an eyebrow.

"You had food poisoning?"

Nyla blinked once before recovering. She realized that was the story Hyeon must have told the other office members. "Yes, I spent most of the day in the bathroom, it was quite bad."

"What's worse is that the board members have been asking why you have been seen around Marcus Reed the past week."

Nyla took a seat at her desk. "Do they have someone tracking my movements?"

George sighed. "No, probably not but Nyla you don't need be to tell you had you can't piss them off. Going to Reed behind their back is doing exactly that."

Nyla booted up her laptop. "Well you can inform them that they have nothing to worry about—since Marcus declined any offer I was making."

George looked surprise at her proclamation. "Really, why?"

"Thought it was too risky of an investment."

"So, you're giving up on that project now?"

Nyla shook her head. "No, I have someone else who's interested in partnering up with us for project."

"Who?"

Nyla knew he wouldn't be happy with her answer, so she didn't give him a straight one. "It's not a done deal yet so I rather not say."

George didn't look very happy at her words.

"Since you're here, could you make sure that the expansion plans are on my desk by this afternoon? I'll be flying out in a couple of days, so I want to take a look at the location before making an offer."

George nodded. "They will be on your desk by three o'clock."

Nyla gave him a smile as he walked towards the exit. "Thank you."

He smiled back before shutting her door. Nyla picked up the phone and dialed Hyeon.

"Get me Darius Giordano as soon as you can."

"I'll get right on it." Hyeon replied.

Putting the phone down, Nyla smiled to herself. Her head felt much clearer than yesterday. She had a plan, and now all she had to do was execute it.

♠♠♠♠♠♠

Her phone rang, and she picked it up, "Nyla Malhotra, how may I help you?"

Darius laughed on the other line. "You really do have your customer service skills down, don't you?"

"Darius," she said in surprise. "Why are you calling me right now? I thought I sent over all the plans for the carnival."

There was a snort on the other side. "Last time I checked, it was your secretary getting in contact with me."

Nyla almost slapped her forehead. She'd forgotten he fact that she'd made Hyeon call his office.

"Yes, I wanted to talk to you about the deal you offered..."

"What about it?"

Nyla sighed, it felt like she was losing somehow but she didn't know why. "Is it still on the table?"

There was silence on the other line for a while. "Possibly, it depends on what you have to offer, and we can reach an agreement."

Nyla pumped her hand in the air but in doing so, she hit the penholders on her desk. She watched in horror as the pens scattered across the desk.

"Oh shit," she swore.

"Is everything alright?"

Hyeon burst into her office. "I heard a loud noise, what happened?"

Her assistant noticed the pens scattered across and made a move to pick them up, Nyla shook her head and covered the end of her phone. "Don't worry about it, I'll pick it up after I'm done with this call."

Hyeon nodded and softly shut the office door behind her.

Nyla returned back to her call. "Sorry about that, a couple of pens fell of my desk. What were we talking about again?"

"The suggested deal?" Darius reminded her.

"Oh yes, are you free for a meeting today?"

There was a pause and she imagine Darius was sitting on a comfy chair flipping through his electronic calendar. "I'm pretty busy today but I can fit you in for a dinner."

"Dinner?" Nyla questioned. She almost never went out with clients for dinner. It seemed to personal, almost like a date, but not quite. "Are you about to fit me in another day of the week?"

"Dinner doesn't work for you?" Darius asked.

"No, it does, but I just don't prefer it..."

"Well, I'm flying out in a couple of days so I'm unable to fit you in. We could try next month," he suggested.

Nyla knew the tone of his voice. Darius knew she was eager to get started on the project and he was merely teasing her.

"Dinner is fine."

"You know, most people would be a bit happier to be having dinner with me." Darius said in a cocky tone, one Nyla didn't like one bit.

"Well let's just say I'm the one percent exception." she said sweetly.

Darius laughed. "You'll be taking those words back by the end of the night. Be ready by eight, I'll pick you up."

Nyla nearly spat out the water she'd been drinking. "You will do not such thing. I will drive myself, thank you very much."

Darius ignored her outburst. "See you at eight," he said smoothly before cutting off the phone.

Nyla swore, he was an insufferable male alright.

♠♠♠♠♠♠

There was a buzzing on the intercom. "Ms. Malhotra, there is a Darius Giordano waiting for you downstairs."

Nyla smiled to herself. If her doorman knew he was talking to one of the most influential men in all of America, the tone of indifference might be tuned down. But then again, there were a couple of celebrities that lived in the condo, but the doorman didn't show any emotion.

"Tell Darius I'll be down in a minute." she said, placing the nude lipstick in her purse.

She checked her reflection in the mirror once more before grabbing the suede jacket and her keys. She locked the door behind her before stepping into the elevator. As she went lower and lower, a feeling of nervousness entered the pit of her stomach. She didn't know why she was so nervous.

The elevator beeped, and she saw Darius standing right by the door. She frowned as she took in his appearance. He was dressed in a pair of dark blue jeans and a snug grey sweater that accentuated his muscles. On his feet where a pair of black high-top shoes.

"I thought you'd never come." he said in a way of greeting.

"Why are you dressed so casually?" she asked.

Thinking they would be going to a fancy restaurant, Nyla had dressed in a black jumpsuit with netting on the top and a jacket over it. She was wearing high heeled boots on her feet and a face full of makeup. Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see that Darius briefly checked her out.

Darius raised an eyebrow. "It's more suited to the place we are going."

Nyla made a move to go towards the elevator, but Darius lightly placed his hand on her shoulder. "If you change right now, we will never make it. God knows how long it takes for women to get ready."

"You should have told me!"

Ignoring her protest, Darius ushered her outside to where his car was waiting. She slipped inside the vehicle and shut the door herself before he could do it for her. She was being petty, but there was nothing like standing out in the crowd because of the way you were dressed. She already stood out with the skin colour—this night looked like it was going to be a rough one.

"You're stressing out too much," Darius said as he sat in his seat. "You need to relax."

"I would be relaxing at home—with a bottle of wine if someone hadn't suggested this meeting." she added.

Darius simply laughed. They drove in comfortable silence for a while before arriving at their destination.

"We're going to a pizza place?"

"Don't be so snarky."

Nyla frowned. "I'm not. I'm just surprised, that's all."

Darius locked the car door before they walked to the restaurant. He held the door open for her and she muttered a quick thanks. As soon as she entered the restaurant, she was hit by the aroma of pizza.

"Where do we sit?"

Darius shrugged his shoulders. "Anywhere is fine with me."

So, she led him to a relatively quite corner of the room and the two of them sat down from across one another. Nyla took the time to gaze at her surrounding. On second glance, it didn't seem like a normal pizza parlour.

There were comfy looking leather seats and green plants to give the room some colour. The lighting was soft, almost giving it a romantic feel. If she were to describe it in one word, she would use the word homey.

"Are you ready to order?" Darius asked.

She placed her purse on the ground. "I'm assuming pizzas on the menu?"

He gave her a grin, "That would be a very wrong assumption of yours."

She laughed lightly, surprised that the sound at come of her mouth. "Order anything, I'll be fine with it."

He nodded and left the table. Nyla reached for her phone and took the time to read and answer a few emails. She could see Darius' judgmental gaze following her but while he was gone, there was nothing better for her to do. Plus, it would reduce her workload by a small amount tomorrow.

A couple of minutes later, Darius returned to their table and swiftly plucked the phone from her hands.

"Hey!" she cried out in indignation. "I was in the middle of an important email."

"Who were you talking to, the president of the united states?"

"No," she replied tartly. "Just the CEO of Apple."

His eyes widened and for a moment Nyla thought she might be getting her phone back, but he didn't give it back to her. "He can wait."

Nyla was a lost for words.

Seeing her confusing Darius added. "It's not like the email is going anywhere. Besides, he has better things to do than reply to your email at nine in the evening."

Nyla sighed but held out her hand. Darius just blinked at her twice.

"Since you're taking away my phone, I think its only fair that I get to do the same to yours."

Darius dug into his jeans and pulled out his phone. He placed it into Nyla's awaiting palm.

She lowered the volume and placed it face down on the table. Mirroring her movements, Darius did the same for her phone.

"Now what do we talk about?" she asked.

Most of her time, she spent talking about work. Ideal conversation was not her forte.

Darius shrugged his shoulders. "You could tell me about yourself?"

Nyla snorted. "This isn't a first date."

Darius' eyes glittered dangerously. "But it is, isn't it? I need to get to know a person better before I decide to invest with them."

Nyla sighed. "Fine, I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, move to Boston to attend Harvard, graduated, and started working at Renne."

"I could have read that on your Wikipedia profile."

"Well, that's all there is about me..."

"Do you like any sports teams?"

Nyla shook her head. "No, not really a fan. How about you?"

Darius eye's glittered, "Huge baseball fan."

Nyla nodded absentmindedly. She hoped he wasn't going to go off on a tangent about baseball because she knew absolutely nothing about the sport.

Darius frowned. "We need to find something in common, so we don't sit here awkwardly across from each other."

"We could always talk about business..." Nyla suggested.

Darius shook his head. "I'm always talking about businesses, I want to talk about something else."

"Have any special hobbies?"

"Do you count yoga?"

"We shall, for the sake of our conversation. Where do you usually do yoga?"

Nyla began describing her classes at central park and other things she'd experience in her classes. Then Darius began sharing his own central park stories and soon enough, the both of them were laughing about the misfortunes of the others.

Their pizza came soon enough, and Nyla took a bite. "This is delicious."

"Best pizza in New York?"

"A close second," she said with a smile.

Darius placed a hand on his chest pretending to be wounded. "What is your first then?"

"A small place nestled from across central park. You wouldn't think it's a place with good pizza but it's delicious."

"Maybe you should take me there sometime, so I can taste for myself." Darius suggested.

Feeling brave Nyla added, "Maybe I will."

They shared a smile. "I'll take you if you beat me in a round of golf."

Darius winced. "Ouch, you had to bring that up, didn't you?"

"That you're a terrible golf player?"

He shot her a look and she laughed.

"I'm kidding, you're the second-best player in New York."

"Pretty sure I'm the first."

"If you want to put money where your mouth is, I'm free on Sunday to do a bit of golfing?"

Nyla winced. "I'm sorry, I'm going to be out of the country then."

Darius played it off coolly. "Don't worry about it, just text me whenever your free."

"I will." she replied, surprised by how sincere the words were.

She usually played golf with prospective partners but with Darius she knew she didn't have to worry. She could play the best game of her life, but he would never take it out on her business if he loss. Sure, he would sulk about it, but somehow, Nyla knew he preferred to keep business and life separate as well.

"Are we going to talk about my proposal?"

Darius shrugged his shoulders, "if you want to. I mean there isn't much to talk about."

"Not much to talk about?"

"We can have a meeting with our lawyers tomorrow to finalize everything." Darius said.

Nyla nearly spit out the water she'd been sipping. "So, you'll invest?"

Darius gave her a bright smile—one she knew had women tripping over themselves ever where. "Connect the dots, Ms. Malhotra. You now have a genius partner."

Nyla wanted to laugh with giddiness but instead she gave Darius a soft smile. As if understanding how much this project meant to her, he returned it. 

---------------

Happy Holidays everyone! Hope you are having a wonderful time. So  Nyla and Darius have finally gone on a date (business dinner?), what do you think?