Ray of light

Chapter 8 - Clover

A couple of weeks passed and one morning, Akshara proposed a Team Bonding Day. She had announced that she had spent all night planning this team bonding event. A scavenger hunt had been organised, where employees were separated into pairs and forced to complete tasks together. Excitedly, she had told him all about her grand plans for it.

Abhimanyu had not had the heart to say no.

Even though he was completely unfamiliar with these sorts of activities and hardly ever engaged in them.

She had come with so much excitement.

With so much light.

In fact, it was very hard for him to say no to almost anything she said.

And especially after the hard work she had been putting into the College project. He had seen less and less of her as she would be putting all her energy into the project and the remaining time was spent being his top-notch assistant.

He did not want to say it openly but he was so proud of her.

But he missed her antics desperately.

Her being around him constantly.

Maybe a break was what they all needed.

And so when he had approved the idea, what he had not expected was the massive squeal that erupted from her throat and the way she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck pulling him into a hug.

A second later, when she realised what she had done, she pulled back straight away and apologised profusely.

Hitting her head, she sighed! "What are you doing Akshu" she reprimanded herself in front of him.

And Abhimanyu watched, chuckling.

If it was not for her cute behaviour, he would be distracted by the devious thoughts going through his own head.

Engaged man.

Engaged man.

Engaged man.

***

The day of the team bonding activity had arrived and everyone was dressed in their active wear. And of course as kismet would have it, our favourite couple had somehow matched with each other. Neither were able to hide the excitement when Akshara pulled Abhimanyu's name out of the hat. Gulping, she looked at him.

And he had smiled, almost like he was waiting for the moment.

And now here they were, deep into the scavenger hunt.

All around Mumbai.

The hunt consisted of completing a certain number of tasks around the city and loading them onto the app. Whoever completed them first would win.

Akshara had released this under a new well-being campaign she had introduced to the company under the organisational psychology board - and Abhimanyu had to admit, it had received incredible feedback. In fact, other companies had even shown interest and sought inspiration in what was being proposed.

Abhimanyu and Akshara had done well, and completed most of the tasks and now there were just a couple remaining. One of them included finding a clover.

Having looked all over for a clover, they could not seem to spot one no matter how hard they tried. Abhimanyu would have chided the activity as being completely childish, but seeing the smile and excitement on her face, his own heart gave in.

Noting the drops of sweat that were forming on her head, he grabbed her arm.

"Let's sit down" he insisted as he brought her to a secluded space on Marine Drive. They were definitely not going to find a clover here but it was worth a rest station.