Pride vs Prejudice

Chapter 6

It had taken almost two weeks of regular working at the office under him, for Lav to have some confidence in Ria. She had put her all into the work. There had been times when she had lost that one odd contract to Shiv, much against her annoyance, but Lav was generally happy with her track record, especially since she had done a lot better than the rest of his team had. It also helped that he had been pulled into other businesses by her father, allowing her some leeway in coming up with solutions and business plans around new proposals.

"Okay. Thank you Mr Bhalla" Lav said to the person on the other end of the call before cutting it.

"Lav at least don't get into calls when we are having dinner" Jaya told him softly

"It was really important" Lav commented before turning to his father

"All calls these days are important" Jaya muttered under the breath, which didn't get missed by Ria. She smiled at her mom, before listening to her brother's conversation with her father.

"Papa, that was Bhalla" Lav told their father, seriously "He has a land that might work well for that Echo Hotel proposal"

Sharad nodded "So what is the problem?" he asked calmly

"Kapoors might be vying for the plot adjacent to it. They could also go after this one. He thinks they are interested in closing this in the next day or two" Lav explained

"So why don't you go and check it out?" Sharad suggested

"I would, except we have that site inspection at the Pune unit. I want to oversee it. Just in case" he said quietly

Sharad nodded "No. You are right. One of us has to be there. Khedkar is inspecting, right?" he asked looking at Lav. Lav nodded "He doesn't like us much. He will try his best to find issues even when there are none"

"We cannot afford to leave it to the operations managers" Lav agreed

"I have to be in Delhi to talk to the ministry to clear our license so that we can sign that franchise deal. We have finally gotten some time with them, after months" Sharad mused aloud

"I could do it" Ria jumped in. She had been looking for more opportunities to show that she could handle things beyond the project proposals.

"Do what?" Lav asked

"Check out the land" Ria suggested eagerly

Lav looked at her apprehensively "You have never done any land deal before" he put in bluntly

"Can you take the time out to visit the property, Bhai? No! Papa cannot either. Where does that leave us? With Kapoors getting the land without much effort?" Ria pointed out.

Ria knew her brother enough to know that he would never be okay with that. She hated playing this card, but he never seemed willing to hand her more responsibility without Kapoors being brought into the picture. It was ironic that Shiv, and the Kapoors, who loved to see her lose, were unintentionally helping her gain more responsibility that she wanted.

Lav scowled before muttering "Fine!"

"Lav! Sharad! How can you send her there on her own? It won't be safe!" her mother exclaimed "What if something happens? Where is this land anyway?" she asked

Lav seemed ready to reconsider as did her father. They were extremely protective of her.

"Mom, I was in New York. Alone for 7 years. It is far more dangerous there" Ria said softly, holding her Mom's hand, trying to reassure her "Besides, it is not even going to be like NY, where I use public transport. I will be going by our car and coming back as soon as I check the land out"