Broken But Beautiful

43. Two..One...and Zero.

Nandini

I entered my office in a hurry, being extremely late and weirdly noticing no one was there outside my cabin, where there should have been a few, at least. I had a considerable amount of patients lined up today from 11 in the morning. It was now 11:45.

Sleeping with Manik Malhotra, dead batteries and Mumbai traffic were sometimes the worst things in the world, in the case of timing at least.

I threw my bag on the sofa and went to have a sit. There wasn't a single file on my desk. This time, I really frowned.

Yash already sent all my patients home? Without asking me?

I plugged in my phone and called her, as she was nowhere to be seen. She picked up the phone in three rings.

"Hey, Nandini," she said quite cheerfully, "What's up?"

Excuse me?

"Yash," my frown deepened, "Where are the patients and where are you?"

"Huh?" Now she sounded confused, "Patients?"

"What? I had patients from 11 today, remember?"

"Yes but, Nandini..." Her voice trailed off as if she just had the big realization of what was going on here. I tapped my foot impatiently, "Well? Yash?"

"Nandini-" she said slowly, "Actually, Madhav sir told me to clear you schedule for next five days yesterday- and gave me a leave,"

I sat there, still for a minute. Not even breathing. Or it seemed like that. I tried to open my mouth and speak, but there seemed to be no voice in my throat in the first place.

What the actual fuck.

"Nandini-?" Yash spoke up nervously from the other side, "Madhav sir didn't tell you...?"

"What does my reaction tell you, Yash," a robotic voice, I realized mine, spoke up.

Weird. And there I was thinking I didn't have a voice.

"Nandini!" My door clicked open and there he was. The man of the hour. I looked up at him, emotionless. Or I felt that way for this time being, at least. For some reason I had gone to a complete state of blankness and I couldn't just, come out.

"What the hell are you doing here?" He frowned, standing in front of my table, "It's our engagement the day after tomorrow! You should be home preparing for it. What are you-"

And that was it. The push I needed. Emotions back.

"Yash," I said to the phone in an exceptionally loud voice, red hot anger suddenly coursing through my body, "You're my assistant, right? I'm the one who's supposed to grant you leave or do anything with my schedule. Nobody else,"

"Nandini-" her voice went lower, "Shit, please don't be mad. I'm so sorry-"

"I'm the one who hired you, Yash," I said aloud again, staring at him in cold eyes, "You're not supposed to be on leave without my permission. Where are you right now?"

Madhav stared back at me with an amused smile, infuriating me further.

"Uh, Nandini..." I had a feeling she was biting on her lips, like she always does before giving me a news I didn't want to hear, "Actually I had a five days leave so I traveled to Goa with my friends-"

I shut my eyes. She was a good assistant, but she was so fired right now.

"I hate to be an intruder, Nandini," Madhav slowly walked behind the table, "But Yashaswini is actually the hospital's employee, not yours. She just 'works' for you," he took the phone out of my trembling hand, "So all her leave and payments are from the hospital,"