Chapter 76

It took Merlyn three days to decide. At the end of this period, she felt no more certain than she had that night in the limo when Steven had proposed. But she had arrived at a state of acceptance that felt right, felt good, felt very good in fact.

It didn't matter that she wasn't madly in love with Steven. She did care deeply about him, and that was sufficient basis for a relationship. After all, she told herself, if I was still in Goa, my match would have been arranged years ago and I would have been Mrs Somebody by now.

At least this way, she got to know the man intimately before they solemnized the relationship. Even though it had been just a few weeks, she knew so much more about Steven than she had known about any man before.

Much more than Hemant, for instance, her ex-boyfriend who had dumped her over a cellphone -- while she was in the office loo, for God's sake! There were practical considerations too. After the last few weeks of luxury and international jet-setting, she couldn't go back to the bank job.

Not that she wasn't happy in her career, but it was a glass ceiling. She wasn't likely to go up much further. She believed that despite this being the millennium, banks in India don't encourage or even allow women to rise to the topmost management positions. It was just the way it was. And she didn't fancy spending the rest of her life at a middle management level. Jumping from bank to bank, firm to firm, industry to industry, growing a little richer in pay each year, a little poorer in the soul. Always playing second fiddle to a man.

Besides, she had to admit, she had now had a taste of real affluence. And she liked it. Hell, she loved it. She loved being able to go anywhere in the world without thinking of the expense. To be able to buy any dress, any item of jewellery, any electronic product, virtually anything within reason. To be able to attend a lingerie fashion show in Paris in the afternoon, attend the opera in Milan in the evening, and dine in Berlin at night. As in fact, they had done, just the day before, just because Steven felt like "going out".

She liked this life, she liked the way she lived with Steven, she liked the thought of living this way the rest of her life. And she didn't feel an iota of guilt about it. No middle class moral confusion for her. She loved a good life, if she could get it. And with Steven, she sure as hell could get it. Along with a relationship that was truly mature and satisfying -- physically, emotionally, mentally. And a man who genuinely cared about her.

Come to think of it, it was like getting married to Robert Redford in Indecent Proposal. And she didn't even have the encumbrance of a husband she was in love with to complicate matters. And the price wasn't a million dollars for one night. It was a million dollars every night for life!

But of course, that was putting it too cleverly, too cheaply. She did care about Steven. And while money was an important part of her decision -- isn't it always? -- it wasn't the only consideration.

And that was why, that evening, when they were in the limo again -- going to a charity art auction at the Yerba Buena Gardens organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art -- she put her hand on Steven's thigh and looked at him with a strange bittersweet smile on her face.

"The answer is yes," she said.

And he swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing visibly behind the black bow tie.

And it was proof of their compatibility that she didn't have to explain what she was saying yes to. He had been waiting for her to say exactly those very words.

He even had a date set for the marriage, if she was ready to go ahead that quickly. The answer to that was yes as well.