Major O: A Bad Boy Military Romance

by R. R. Banks

  She reached over for her tablet and set it on the dresser, propping it up on its stand and opening it. With a few clicks, her tablet was buzzing and her daughter appeared in front of her. “Mom, what’s wrong?”

  “Just because I call you on the tablet does not mean that anything is wrong,” defended Sulagna. “I just wanted to talk to my daughter for a few minutes.”

  Mina laughed as she looked away from the screen before turning back to look at her mother. “What are you all dressed up for? Aren’t you in Sydney?”

  “Yes, I am still in Sydney,” she replied softly. “And if you must know, I have accepted an invitation to attend dinner tonight with Jacoby Burgess at his home.”

  “What!?” squealed Mina. “Are you kidding me? You’re actually going to go out with another man?”

  Sulagna looked panicked. “I mean, yes, is that ok?”

  Mina smiled. “Of course it is,” she replied. “Why would it not be ok?”

  “Well, your father passed away six months ago and I thought that perhaps it was a bit too soon,” she explained. “I didn’t want to upset you with that news.”

  Mina continued to laugh. “Mom, it’s sweet that you would worry about me, but please don’t. I’m incredibly happy that you’re going out with another man tonight. Maybe it will end well for you?” she asked playfully.

  “Mina Patel!” scolded Sulagna.

  “What? A girl has needs too.”

  Sulagna shook her head in disbelief. “I’m also going to be talking to him about the plan that we have in motion regarding the acquisition of Nathanial’s shares in his company. This meeting is also for business, not just pleasure.”

  Mina nodded. “Of course,” she said. “I spoke with Hannah and Dillon earlier and they’re both prepared for what all is going on. I also got a text from Dillon a few minutes ago saying that he was surprised at a restaurant in Sydney by Nathanial and Alexis. With that being said, Nathanial could be abreast of everything before the night is over and you could be in for a very awkward phone call.”

  “I’m not in Sydney for phone calls,” explained Sulagna. “I will meet with Nathanial tomorrow to explain our position and to make sure the transition goes smoothly.”

  “What transition?” asked Mina. “As little as he did before, what makes you think there will be any need for him to do anything now? Jenkins is useless now just as he has been for the past few years.”

  Sulagna shook her head. “Mina, we always try to treat people with dignity, no matter their short comings.”

  “Yeah, and in business, he has plenty of short comings,” quipped Mina. “I’ll make sure everything is running smooth here in Wellington. Don’t worry about me and have fun tonight. Even if it’s just for business, you deserve to have a good time.”

  “Thank you, Mina.”

  “I love you, mom. Have fun.”

  Sulagna ended the conversation with her daughter so that she could continue to get ready. She walked over to the closet and grabbed the turquoise dress that she picked out earlier and slipped it on before walking over to the other side of the room and putting on the black shoes she wore earlier in the day. With beautiful gold studs in her ears and a golden pendant around her neck, Sulagna looked elegant and ready for the night’s dinner. She grabbed her belongings and walked downstairs to find a taxi waiting for her. She stepped in the back, giving the man the address before taking off toward Jacoby’s penthouse, which fortunately, was only a few blocks over.

  After a quick, five-minute trek through the city, Sulagna arrived at Jacoby’s apartment building. She walked up a small flight of stairs to find the doorman waiting on her, where she immediately introduced herself before being allowed to walk in. “You look beautiful, ma’am,” said the polite doorman as he turned his key in the slot by the elevator to open it for her and allow her access to Jacoby’s penthouse.

  “Thank you,” she replied as she stepped on the elevator with the doors closing behind her. She looked around the plain elevator as soft music played overhead. Without a stop, she arrived at the top floor of the building within a minute; stepping straight off into the foyer of Jacoby’s penthouse apartment. She walked in and immediately took in the scenery. The room was dark, possessing a warm ambience as she walked slowly along the walnut hardwood floors. She turned her head and admired the artwork on the cream-colored walls, noticing the painted images of women and children filling the space, providing an aura of comfort.

  She walked through the foyer and entered the living room, noticing the same ambience about it and how it connected to a small eating area where the table was already set for the two of them. “He went all out,” she thought to herself as she continued to analyze his dwellings. The kitchen was right behind the table, connecting seamlessly to living room.

  “I see you found my domicile,” announced Jacoby as he walked in from a hallway. “Did the doorman give you any grief?”

  “Men don’t give me grief, Jacoby,” she said with a stern, yet somewhat playful look. “They allow me to do what I want, when I want.”

  Jacoby chuckled. “Is that how your marriage was so successful?” he joked.

  “I’m sure that’s how your marriage was,” she retorted quickly. “It is always in a man’s best interest to allow the woman to control things.”

  “I don’t know how I feel about being controlled,” he replied playfully. “In all seriousness, how was trip here? Did you find it ok?”

  Sulagna smiled. “I gave the driver the address from my phone and he brought be right here. There was nothing difficult about it.”

  Jacoby nodded. “Fair enough,” he replied. “I can give you the grand tour if you’d like, but this is pretty much it. There are three bedrooms behind me but everything in my penthouse is pretty much up here.”

  “I love how open it is,” she said.

  “Aye, that was a must for me,” he replied. “I love how everything out here connects. There is a space to eat, a space to entertain and a space to cook, but there aren’t any transition points. There are no doors or walls separating the area, which ultimately, I love.”

  Sulagna nodded. “It’s also very warm in here. I love the dark colors and the ambience.”

  Jacoby smirked. “Thanks, that was another thing that I really wanted to have. I prefer, if at all possible, to live in a cave. I think better, sleep better, and ultimately just live better if I’m in a dark, warm setting.”

  “That’s good to know,” she continued. “So, you summoned me here to feed me?” joked Sulagna as she looked around the apartment.

  “I did, and if you’d like to have a seat, I’ll bring it right to you,” replied Jacoby. “It just finished.”

  The two sat in the dining room of Jacoby’s penthouse and looked over the food he prepared: baked chicken with a lemon Alfredo sauce served on a bed of angel hair pasta with steamed asparagus. As she stared at the beauty in front of her, admiring Jacoby’s handwork in the kitchen and how he was able to prepare a dish so magnificent in such a short time, her thoughts continued to dwell on what she was doing there. “Am I disgracing the memory of my husband?” she thought to herself as she still examined the food in front of her. With her mind wandering, she did her best to suppress it. Appearing to be invested in Jacoby and why she chose to come to eat with him. Her mission was simple: ensure that he was on board with the takeover. Though torn, thinking about what she needed to do and say kept her motivated as well as driven.

  “Is it ok?” asked Jacoby as he noticed Sulagna staring at the food. “I can always call in something if this isn’t up to par.”

  “Oh no,” she replied, shaking her head out of her trance. “This is beautiful. I was simply amazed at how perfect this looks.”

  Jacoby grinned as he poured a glass of red wine and placed it in front of his plate. “Red?” he asked as he held the bottle out and offered it to Sulagna, who nodded softly. He reached over and poured the wine into the glass in front of her plate befo
re placing the cork back in it. “I remember at one time you preferred red, but your husband and daughter both preferred white. How awkward did that make wine purchases at your home?”

  “It wasn’t awkward at all,” she replied with a cheeky smile on her face. “I bought all of the wine.”

  “Hah!” he laughed. “You’re a woman who knows how to get what she wants,” he stated with a coy smile before sitting down in the chair adjacent to Sulagna. “Have you always been this way?”

  Sulagna reached forward and grabbed her wine. “Honestly, ever since I could remember,” she said as she brought the glass up to her lips and sipped on it. “When I was a child in Delhi, my father encouraged me to speak my mind and my grandfather demanded it. He lived through the end of the colonial periods in India when they drove out England, so he instilled in my father the need to stand up for oneself when oppressed. My father, never oppressed by a foreign country, encouraged me to be my own woman and forge my own path. You see, the caste system in India is a real thing, and, though my family’s status allowed us to operate in the upper echelon, the Brahman caste, my father felt that the system was archaic and hampered the human spirit.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Jacoby. “I thought the caste system was a product of the Hindu religion?”

  “It is,” she replied as she reached for the fork resting beside her plate. “It centers on the concept of reincarnation and how if one lives a good life, they will be reborn in an elevated class. My father, against the wishes of his family and my mother, turned his back on the Hindu religion and converted the entire family to Catholicism, something that I still practice to this day. We started giving to the community, especially to those who were less fortunate than us. My father was an engineer, responsible for building and designing roads and buildings. He amassed a fortune through hard work, determination, and always making sure that he was prepared; something that he instilled in me. However, with the caste system in India, no matter how hard you work or how determined you are, you can never escape that rung on the ladder.”

  “To counter that though, no matter how poorly you perform, you will never be relegated,” quipped Jacoby, using a football reference to pique Sulagna’s interest. “One could say that the caste system is like a football league where there are no penalties for poor performance.”

  Sulagna took a bite of the chicken as she listened to Jacoby’s remarks. “Right, but there is also no reward for exemplary performance either,” she replied, swallowing the small bite before answering him. “The entire point of the caste system is to reward people for their work at the end of their lives. Many of my best employees were supposedly of a lower caste and I helped to elevate them to a life that was better than those above them. However, because of their beliefs, they were always stuck in that caste, even though they had bettered themselves right then. It’s a faulty system and one that really should be adjusted.”

  “But you would have to adjust the teachings of an entire religion,” stated Jacoby. “I don’t think that’s possible.”

  “It probably isn’t, but, if there is a will, there is a way,” smiled Sulagna. “When people are involved, anything can happen.”

  Jacoby laughed as he started to eat, slicing into his food while Sulagna continued to eat. “So how did your late husband handle your definitive attitude?”

  Sulagna smiled at the reference of Amin, conjuring up fond memories of him again. “Honestly, we were very similar in that we both knew how to go out and get what we wanted, something that, fortunately, our daughter also possesses. He was in medicine and loved saving lives. He lived to enrich his patients’ quality of life instead of just prolonging it. Amin wanted to change the world by fighting the diseases that crippled it. He cared deeply for all the people he came into contact with, not just his patients or his family. Amin pushed me to become a better person just as, I hope, I pushed him as well.”

  “When it came to what Amin wanted, especially for his family or for his patients, he would not waiver or compromise,” continued Sulagna as she sipped on her wine. “He was just as stubborn as I am for the most part, especially when it came to our daughter. Mina had to have the best of everything. She had to have the best education and be surrounded by the best people. I had to dial Amin back slightly when it came to Mina’s friends, because unfortunately, no amount of influence we have would have impacted our daughter and her decision making when it came to them. I strove to empower Mina to make great decisions while Amin struggled a bit with this. He wanted the best for his daughter but he didn’t want to let her fail, which fortunately, I was able to convince him was acceptable.”

  Jacoby chuckled as he swallowed a large bite. “I understand that completely,” he stated as he took a sip of his wine. “Annette was a wonderful woman, but when it came to our children, she was the ultimate micro-manager. She tried to regiment every second of their days to ensure that they achieved maximum productivity.”

  “So, she treated child rearing like a business?”

  “Isn’t it?” rhetorically asked Jacoby. “When you really get down to it, what’s so different about running a business and raising a child? You have to schedule them, train them, analyze their performance, set standards, and hold them to it. Raising a child is just like running a business because it is success oriented.”

  Sulagna thought for a moment while she chewed. “You can’t fire a child,” she replied quickly. “No matter how they perform, you cannot terminate them.”

  “Well no, you can’t, but that really is one of the few differences,” continued Jacoby. “I mean, you don’t even have to like them, just like employees. Everything is about results and performance and when it comes down to it, children are like employees who have really good contracts.”

  She laughed as she took another bite, looking down to see her plate was already halfway empty. “There’s more in the kitchen if you’d like for me to get you some,” said Jacoby with a sense of satisfaction. “I’d hate for my good cooking to go to waste.”

  “It’s fantastic,” she replied politely. “I don’t think I’ll be able to finish this plate, much less another helping; but thank you.” She paused briefly as she grabbed another bite and placed it in her mouth. “So how long did it take you to really realize that your wife was gone?”

  Jacoby nodded slowly as he listened to Sulagna, clearly bothered but knowing she meant well. “It took a good year before I quit coming home and thinking she’d be here.”

  “It took a year?”

  “Yes,” he continued. “The way that I’ve always worked, I would take time away from home because of work, but whenever I came home, I knew she’d be here waiting on me. I always thought I’d walk in, discover a great smell from the kitchen, then find her waiting on me to give me a warm embrace and telling me that she loves me. After about a year, I finally stopped coming home and thinking she would be here. I finally reached a point where I knew she was gone.”

  Sulagna shook her head. “I guess we all process grief differently,” she said as she sipped on her wine. “I knew the day after the funeral that Amin was gone. It was a very difficult period of days, and while I still dwell on the memories of him, I’ve already gotten to a point where I feel that I’m over his loss.”

  “Are you ever really over the loss?” asked Jacoby. “To this day, I still miss Annette.”

  “Of course I still miss him, but, he was sick for so long, I feel like I prepared myself for him to leave me,” she explained. “As difficult as it was, I knew it was going to be tough so I prepared myself for it. Unfortunately, there is no amount of preparation that makes losing a loved one easier, but I feel I did the best that I could. My mind still wanders and I still miss him, but I feel I’ve done the best that I can to keep my mind right and move on past his loss.”

  “My mind is always dwelling on Annette,” said Jacoby as a small smile crept over his face. “I always think back about how she interacted with our children and how great of a mo
ther she was to them. How lucky they were to have her in their lives.”

  Sulagna smiled while looking across the table. “I suppose both of our late spouses were great for our children.”

  “I guess so,” answered Jacoby. “I mean, Annette and I had a wonderful relationship and I will always love her, but I feel that she would want me to be happy. I feel like, after two and a half years, it’s time to start moving on.” He paused briefly as he looked at Sulagna as her mind started to wander a bit and her eyes looked away. “Dealing with grief is not something that comes easy and it is different for everyone.”

  “I know,” replied Sulagna. “Everything that I have read says that everyone deals with grief differently and that there are no two similar instances or scenarios. As much as I wish that there were a sure-fire solution, I’m afraid that is impossible.”

  Jacoby nodded. “Do you like to have quick results?”

  “I prefer a more proven method,” she continued. “I’ve always been one to ensure that the path is, not only well traveled, but verified repeatedly before traversing. It’s always served me well, except for in this instance when I really want to ensure my grief is kept to a minimum.”

  “Again, I understand,” said Jacoby in a comforting tone as he pushed himself away from the table. “Can I get you anything else?” he asked as he reached down to grab Sulagna’s empty plate. “I have a lot more where this came from. Unfortunately, I never learned how to cook for two people.”

  “No, I’m full, but thank you,” she said with a warm smile. “Dinner was fabulous. I don’t think I have had a meal like that in a long time. Do get me the recipe so that I might try to copy it sometime for when my daughter comes to visit.”

  He smiled as he walked around a column and into the kitchen, looking over a counter at Sulagna. “I can do that,” he said as he placed both of their plates in the sink and started to wash them by hand. “Do you cook for your daughter often?”