I arranged for the sale of the car on Friday, and got a fairly good price for it. Today was the last day that Sohini would have the use of the car, as it was going to be picked up on Sunday afternoon, so I hoped that even if today's meeting didn't go as well as hoped, she would still be okay for the rides home. Her office was a long way to catch the bus in the morning, let alone the nights. It was late in the year now, and the nights were coming in earlier.

When I got home that evening, I was quite anxious to hear how she had got on with her pay request, and when we had finished our meal and the kids had gone off to their room, we sat down to talk. Sohini explained that she didn't have anything concrete to tell me, we did have some encouraging news.

"Pradip's been thinking of taking on a personal assistant," she told me. "He can't make any promises, but he thinks I would be ideal for the position and he's going to give me a formal interview on Monday. I'd have a bit more responsibility but its much better wages!"

It was excellent news, and I was really pleased for her personally as well as for us. Monday came around, and I was pretty nervous as to the outcome of her interview. She was much later getting home because of having to wait for her lift, and so I had to do the dinner for the kids, but when she did finally get in, she was full of smiles.

"Did you get it?" I asked her as she came bouncing into the kitchen.

"Sort of," she beamed, "I'm on a week's trial, but I'm confident that I'll get it permanently!" As we hugged, Sohini whispered into my ear, "I need to speak to you later though." I looked at her, and the joyous smile had gone, replaced by one which looked slightly nervous. I wasn't sure but I thought I saw her wipe a tear from her eye as she went upstairs to get changed. Luckily the children didn't pick up on it, and when she came back downstairs she was back to the normal Sohini.

When the kids had gone to bed, we sat on the sofa and asked her what she wanted to talk to me about. Sohini put her hand on my knee, and asked me if I really loved her. I replied that of course I did, and asked her to tell me what had happened.

Sohini explained that Pradip had interviewed her formally, and promised her a decision by the end of the day. She had met him at the end of the day for her promised lift and he told her that they would speak during the drive home. Pradip told her as they drove that he was very impressed with her, both by her work and by her as a person, but he didn't tell her his decision until they were nearing home. He pulled up at the road before ours, and asked Sohini how serious she was about wanting this job. Sohini told him she really, really wanted it. Then Pradip put his hand on her knee.

She had changed into a pair of pajama’s and a t-shirt since, but I remember what Sohini was wearing when she came in that evening. She had a navy button-up blouse on and a matching knee-length skirt. I gently pressed her to tell me more. She had been flirting with Pradip for a while now, surely a feel of her knee wouldn't have got her so upset.

"He wanted to know what color underwear I was wearing today," Sohini said quietly, "but he didn't ask. He ran his hand up my thigh and then pulled my skirt up to have a look."

"What did you do?" I was surprised, this was more than I had expected. I knew he was a flirt, but this was tantamount to sexual assault. He had put his hands on my Sohini.

"I didn't do anything," Sohini sighed. "I told him they were white, but he raised my skirt and looked anyway."

"You didn't stop him?"

"No, I didn't want to upset him or anything, plus I was quite surprised. It was a bit out of the blue, you know?" I nodded and Sohini continued. "He pulled my skirt up so he could see my panties, and then after a minute or so, he felt my thigh again. His hand got to the top of my thigh and he tried to touch me there, but then I did stop him."

I was stunned with the forwardness of Pradip. He was Sohini's boss and he had her in a powerful position. He knew how much she wanted - no, needed - this new job, but I didn't expect it to go this far. "Was he okay when you stopped him?"

Sohini nodded. "He said I had lovely legs," She was blushing, and I felt her hand squeeze mine tightly as she continued. "And he told me he would do anything to spend nights with me. I reminded him that I'm married, and he apologized."

"That's it?" I asked Sohini when she finished speaking, and she nodded.

"I start a week's trial tomorrow, if that's okay with you?" Sohini squeezed my hand again.

"We need the money," I told her, and I saw Sohini finally relax.
(TO BE CONTINUED)