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.