Page 140 of 12 Years
Mudit and I walked up to the stage.
Tania emerged from the wings, pushing a trolley with a massive five-tier cake on it. The cake, dressed in an off-white and blue fondant, had an elaborate floral design running all across it. It looked so beautiful that it seemed sinful to even consider cutting it. The only thing more beautiful than the cake was Tania. Did I tell you about her?
Tania and I had started dating six months ago. It began when Sophia, the girl I was dating before Tania, had to go back to Romania. Before Sophia, there was Juliette, and I may be getting the order wrong, but before her, I was with Ruby, Katherine, Krisha and a couple of other girls whose names I forget. It all started with Amelia, of course, who Mudit introduced me to six years ago. A deal, an arrangement or simply two people meeting each other’s needs—call it whatyou want, but the system worked for me. All the fun, and none of the drama.
‘Cut the cake, sweetie,’ Tania said in her thick Ukrainian accent.
See, she even calls me ‘sweetie’. Who said this was only about sex? There’s love and caring involved as well, even if it’s part of an understanding.
I took the knife from Tania and cut the gorgeous cake, slicing across one of the tiers. The entire crowd applauded and sang ‘Happy Birthday’ in unison. Many of the men, particularly the married ones, were busy checking out Tania, while their wives cast disapproving looks in her direction. I could sense they were all burning with envy. Tania was their worst nightmare.
My beautiful twenty-four-year-old Tania had a perfect hourglass figure. And she knew what to wear to highlight it. For instance, the silver-grey Prada dress that she’d worn for the party ended at her upper thighs and clung to her like second skin. I know it was from Prada because I’d bought it for her. Her eyes matched the dress. Her golden hair reached all the way down to her hips.
‘Happy birthday, my darling,’ she whispered in my ear as she fed me a slice of cake and hugged me. ‘We celebrate our way later.’
Wow, I still couldn’t believe that I’d been against this system until a few years ago. Mudit had found me heaven on earth, and idiot me had resisted it.
This, however, wasn’t the only major change in my life. The last year had been an eventful one. In Mudit’s words, we finally went from being paper rich to real-bank-account rich. Thecompany moved to a large new office in a modern building in Downtown Dubai. We did a secondary placement, which meant the founders got a chance to sell some of their own shares for cash. Mudit used some of the money he received to buy a boat and a fancy racing car, confirming my suspicions about his massive midlife crisis. I kept most of my money in the bank, but I did splurge on a new villa on the Palm. I liked the water view, and the beach was right outside my house.
I got off the stage and mingled with the guests as the waiters went around serving the cake to everyone.
‘Happy birthday, Saket. What an amazing party,’ Richard Morris, the managing director at one of the private equity firms that had invested in us, came up to me.
‘Thank you, Richard,’ I said.
‘I should thankyou. SecurityNet has been our most successful investment,’ he said.
‘Glad to hear that, man.’
‘I’m here in Dubai for a few days. Let’s discuss the IPO strategy? Next year, right?’
‘As they say here, inshallah,’ I said.
‘Five,’ Richard said, holding up his hand, with his fingers all open.
‘What?’ I said, smiling.
‘You know exactly what five means,’ Richard said, laughing as we clinked our glasses.
I did actually: A five-billion-dollar IPO valuation was already being discussed amongst our investor group.
‘The only thing that personally matters to me is that our customers love SecurityNet. Valuations and money shall follow,’ I said.
‘That’s why I love doing business with you. It’s never just about the money or the deal. It’s always something personal,’ Richard said.
‘Yeah, I’m learning though. To separate the personal from the deal,’ I said.
Riyaz, my driver, pulled into the driveway of my villa. I gently shook Tania to wake her up. She’d nodded off in the backseat, with her head on my shoulder.
‘We’re home,’ I said softly.
‘Hmm? Oh,’ Tania said sleepily, lifting her head. ‘Too much champagne, baby.’
‘I know. You even drooled on me,’ I said, pulling her cheek lightly.
‘I’m sorry, sweetie,’ she said, giving me a peck on my cheek.
Riyaz stopped the car at the porch, right near the koi pond, and opened the door for us. Tania and I got out and walked into the house. The high ceiling inside made my foyer feel like the lobby of a chic contemporary hotel. I still found it hard to believe that this was my house. That I owned it. That’s the thing about suddenly coming into a lot of money. In reality, you’re wealthy. Psychologically, however, you’re poor. Sometimes, I feared that the people I’d hired to take care of things around the house would come and ask me what I was doing here.
