Love Takes Time {Completed} {#Wattys2017}

25. Tête-à-Tête

                Wishing all the readers a very Happy New Year, 2017. Special thanks to those who leave comments and let me know exactly what they like and don't like, although that might not change anything in the story. Winks. Thanks to lovely readers who click on like button always. It helps me to know if a particular person read the chapter or not. I would be lying if I said I wasn't expecting more likes on this story. Last, but not the least thanks to all the silent readers without whom the story wouldn't have got so many reads. Thank you all once again. Hope you all have a great year ahead.

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                   Shanaya went to Abhimanyu's room not knowing what it was about. He was pacing the room talking with his mom on cell. He gestured her to sit. She pulled the chair to sit, and looked around his room. Last time, she was in his room, she was so focused identifying him from his back that she didn't see his office at all. It was a big room with a mahogany executive desk with utility drawers. There was a mac book, landline phone, pen stand, notebook, lamp and a table calendar on his neatly organized desk. His swivel desk chair was made of leather, and there were two chairs opposite his desk for visitors, one of which she was sitting on. With vertical wooden blinds pulled out, the glass wall of his office overlooked the beautiful buildings of other companies in the business park. She noticed a medium size bookshelf in a corner against the wall with rows of books on Robotics and AI(Artificial Intelligence). She also noticed a book 'Robots-How to Tame' with a bookmark in it, on his table A countertop desk ran along one side wall with a desktop, printer and one more phone on it. There was also a computer chair same to one in cubicles next to it.There was only one clock on the wall of his office. There weren't any pictures on wall or photo frames on his desk.

              He quickly ended the conversation saying, "Sure mom, bye mom, I'll see you later in night." He looked at Shanaya, and extended his hand to shake hands to which she responded by giving her right hand into his.

Abhimanyu: Welcome aboard. I am so happy you could join us. I'm looking forward to your contribution in our Robot Development. I'm sure with your help, we will very soon be patting the back of Peter.

Shanaya: Thank you, sir. I hope I live up to your expectations.

He narrowed his eyes that were looking at her, and smiled a little from one side of his lips .

Abhimanyu: For that, you have to drop that 'sir' first.

She stared at him.

Abhimanyu: Oh, c'mon, Shanaya! Nobody calls me 'sir' here. I am same age as you. I am younger to most of my employees, and they don't call me 'sir'. We don't have this culture of calling anyone sir in our office unlike our college where we called our seniors sir. Juniors or seniors, everybody calls everyone else by their name. So, you have to call me by my name. I hope you know my name.

Shanaya: Yes, Abhimanyu. She nodded her head and couldn't hold back the smile.

Abhimanyu: Now, that you know my name, it's good. He smiled back.

Abhimanyu: Look Shanaya, it's not that we don't know each other. We may not have been best friends in college, but we were acquaintance. Now that we are here after more than five years about to work in the same project, I think it will be good if we get to know each other a little. Not like an employer and an employee, but like two people who were college mates, engineering mates, batch mates. 

      He found his attention drawn to the word 'mate' the he used many times . What the hell was it with this word 'mate' in his head. Of all the words 'mate' was the most appropriate word to refer to someone who wasn't exactly a great friend but was with you. He quickly shrugged the word off his head.