His Arranged Wife

Hidden motives

" Shridha, get up. " I could hear the ruffling sound in my room followed by Bhavya's voice who was waking me up. I pressed my eyes before opening them slowly and my gaze landed on the screen of my laptop.

The week unfolded with a lot more challenges and we were forced to be diligent throughout the week in order to not miss the single information we gathered through this tour. 

" When did you sleep last night?" Bhavya asked while grabbing the papers which were scattered around the table and on my lap as I was sitting on the floor with my laptop on the coffee table.

" I didn't sleep the whole night." I mumbled and she froze on her track. She turned towards me and held me by her strong glasses.

" Are you crazy? What were you doing the whole night?"

" I was making slides." I said while checking for my presentation which was completed and due tomorrow.

" You  were doing this the whole night. Oh my god. You are insane. How many hours did you sleep?" She asked while going through the slides and then looking at me. I looked at the screen of the computer for time and then at her.

" Fifteen minutes, I guess." I whispered and closed my eyes as I knew she was going to scold me like anything.

This is what bestfriend for. They will scold you in the name of taking care and you cannot even complain as who complains for being taken care of. 

" If your husband will ask me why his wife has such huge dark circles, I am afraid. I cannot lie." She gave me the most unexpected taunt and I sighed while looking at her.

" Where is Anushka?" I asked as I didn't see her anywhere and Bhavya shut down the laptop.

" She went to grab seats for us as we were getting late." She said and I nodded my head realizing that I was actually late. I got up and ran towards the bathroom asking Bhavya to take out my clothes from my bag. 

It took me just fifteen minutes to get ready and I grabbed my sneakers and pushed my feet into them hurriedly.

" You are wearing these?"

" Yes, I am wearing these." 

" What are you doing?"

" Comfort comes before anything else. However people won't notice. Our presentation tomorrow is so chill. Let's first get out." I said while grabbing all the bags and keys and heading out. 

" Make sure to switch off your phone and mine too." I said as I entered inside the conference hall as most of the people were seated and we both crouched down hiding ourselves from being noticed by our department head.

We finally found seats beside Anushka who threw a glare at us.

" What were you guys doing? What took you so long?" She whispered as I wore my identity card. 

" She didn't sleep the whole night. "

" Why?"

" She was busy making her presentation. "  Bhavya answered for me and Anushka sighed.

" You could have told me , I would have helped. It was my responsibility too, Shridha." She said and I pressed my lips into a thin line.

This is the problem with me. I don't wait for my teammates to contribute as I always think that they may delay my work hence I do all the hard work  and complete everything project, assignment and presentations solely. 

" That's not a problem." I said and she turned towards me completely.

" That is the problem. Why do you have to do everything on your own? You eliminated me from the task, Shridha." She said and my eyes traveled towards the head of the department who was now at the podium and her eyes were glued at us which made me lower my head. I didn't reply to Anushka's words as the glare directly from the stage was enough to make me feel embarrassed.