|| Tera Ban Jaunga ||

2. First Impressions

"Right Siddharth", she replied without looking at him. His name didn't really matter to her, only the advantages of being partners with him. And for that to work, she had to pretend to be at least decent with him.

He made himself comfortable on the chair opposite to where she sat. Her chair was a sleek, black, upright chair while his was a simple white one.

He sipped his tea, that Roshni's assistant bought for him, while keenly observing how everything was kept in an orderly fashion. Her files in the drawers stood up straight, she was very peculiar when it came to these things.

She took the files out without messing up her organisational system.

He tapped on the table with his nails, creating a scratchy, jarring sound while humming.

Roshni became irritated and grew impatient, as she waited for him to say something. But all she sensed was his never ending gaze on her.

"Great another creepy businessman", she thought. She was used to many businessmen flirting with her, she even caught them staring on many occasions.

So his constant look on her didn't really shock her. He had been smiling so much since he came in, that Roshni was surprised his face wasn't sore yet.

"So are you just going to stare at me, or say something", she muttered loud enough for him to hear.

He diverted his gaze and cleared his throat flinching in his seat.

"So Roshni, tell me a little about yourself", he broke the silence.

She was surprised at his gesture, most businessmen, would dive straight to the deal part, but he was interested in really getting to know her. What was there to say, other than her name?

She curled her fingers up and swiped a strand of her hair behind her ears, she didn't like this question.

"What do you want to know?"

"Anything".

She scratched the back of her neck, why couldn't she answer this one question. If it was the old her, she would've chattered non stop about herself.

"Come on, a successful woman like you, can't even answer one question?", he furrowed his eyebrows.

"Actually Mr.Khurana I would like to skip through the formalities and get to the point, since our companies are facing a crisis", she curved her lips in a cheeky manner.

"Come on, anything.".

She glared at him, she hated being challenged, her defense mechanisms instantly kicked in. What was even left of her to describe?

'Perhaps he was trying something on her', she thought. Maybe he was attempting to flirt just like the other particular businessmen.

"Look Mr.Khurana I don't know about you but I take my work very seriously, this is a business proposal, not some date that you're going to ask me to describe myself. So if we could just cut through the crap and get on with it.", her tone was unbearable.

Siddharth was taken aback, for a while at her cruel outburst. Siddharth sensed the seriousness in her tone, he didn't like people who were so uptight for no reason. He had no tolerance for people who degraded others by using their attitude. What was the need?

Yes it was a business world, but his view was that, since both companies wanted the same thing, what was the need to be so harsh? He just wanted to get to know his potential co-worker, was that so bad?

He decided to cover it up with a smart reply, "First, its Siddharth, second, I know its not a date, I have a brain you know. Loosen up, I just wanted to know a little bit more about you, we could be potential partners after all", he shrugged.