More Than Friends ✔

53- "She's Pallavi Khurana, our new graphic designer."

When Adhvik and Pallavi met on voice call the next time around, she took the opportunity to complain about his rude ass behaviour that morning. He apologized of course but not without pointing out on how she was being a nuisance. One thing led to another and they got involved in a heated argument that ended up with cutting off the call in a fit. Argument was a rare visitor in a relationship like theirs which was why it caught Pallavi off-guard, leaving her more bruised and lonely than before.

But this was Adhvik and Pallavi we were talking about. He called her after two days of radio silence (he messaged her earlier but she barely replied) and apologized. Eventually, things retracted to normal between them.

* * *

The recent Covid restrictions and partial lockdowns affected the nature of her job too. Placement companies like ‘Hello services’ had little to no interviews lined up for their aspirants. Infact the management had a plethora of financial problems on their own plate to deal with. Pallavi was yet to receive her last month's salary.

She had a strenuous time working in the agency. Her boss insisted her to make fifty calls in a day and convince the aspirants in a humbling way in order to reach their goal. Except for that one splendid candidate who got selected in Airtel, she hadn't shown any other desirable results for the past two months. More precisely without Deepali. She recalled how impressed their boss was with them in the beginning. The sisters worked wonders as a team but now that Deepali resigned, Pallavi was left to her own devices.

Due to the shortage of the company's finances, they started relieving a few of their employees. Pallavi wouldn't be surprised if she was next in the line. Thankfully, lockdown 2.0 covered it up. They had no choice but go temporarily out of business. Honestly, she was relieved.

Pallavi promised herself to find a suitable job in the meanwhile though she broke her own vow by chilling at home. This continued for one month until she called one of her colleagues and found out that he had resumed working in Hello Services by recruiting candidates at home.

“But I wasn't informed about anything. Heck, I even asked sir about it but he said there was no work right now. Bloody liar!” She reasoned, completely perplexed. What's more, she called her manager only to hear the same shit again.

A month later, Pallavi got to know about some other employees who had returned to the office in secrecy. It was only after she talked to two of her close colleagues (they were a couple) when she realised the company never had any intention to take her back. Neither those two colleagues she was talking to. They were all secretly fired. Was she that incompetent in a job? It was nearly Mansur all over again. 

Though Pallavi was distressed, she hadn't lose hope like before. Firstly, there was no Adhvik. Besides the young couple she hanged out with, there was nothing memorable there either. Hello Services wasn't as bad as Mansur but not spectacular either.

Secondly, she had a freelance job. Yes, our dear protagonist had already anticipated something like this. She should thank her boredom because if it weren't for that, her lazy ass wouldn't have searched for online jobs in the first place.

Her job was simple— to design  travel images graphics for Instagram posts and websites. Sometimes even Covid posters. The monetary reward wasn't much but the experience made up for it. It was her first graphic designing job.

Her employee was impressed with the use of faint pastel colors that went along the exotic locations of India. It was designed to look like a stroke of a brush. Her part-time work surely helped her gain confidence to apply for jobs, mainly internships. She couldn't— no— she wouldn't bear to sit yet another jobless year buried in misery and insecurity.