Zaroorat

What are we? (4)

It had been 2 days since she had seen Aditya which was the longest time they'd been apart since he'd returned from Paris. But she kept telling herself that it had to be this way because she couldn't give him the love he wanted and deserved. She couldn't love him. She didn't love him and sooner or later he would realise that he didn't love her either and then things could go back to normal.

'No' she thought, 'nothing is going to go back to normal. It can't now.'

Just as she was having another one of her daydreams, she heard a knock on her cabin door.

'Ma'am, Saira Kumar and Kunal Babbal are here to talk about the mehndi and sangeet function. Are you ready?' Shawn asked.

'Yes Shawn, I am. Let's go.'

She followed him out to the conference room and when she entered she was immediately enveloped in a warm hug.

'Hi Zoya!! I'm so glad you were free today!! I'm freaking out about my mehndi outfit! I really need your advice.' Saira started rambling while still hugging Zoya.

Zoya tried to calm her down and slowly pulled out of the embrace. 'Relax Saira, everything will be fine. Take a seat, have some tea and we'll figure it out ok?' Zoya smiles reassuringly and Saira was immediately comforted.

'Hi Zoya, how are you doing?'  Kunal stepped forward to hug Zoya in a much calmer, more controlled manner. She hugged him back and everyone sat down.

Zoya had been working on Saira's wedding for over a month now and there was another month to go before the big day which would be held in Delhi. Zoya and some of her core team would be travelling there a few days beforehand to ensure everything was in place and would stay throughout the wedding to ensure it went as expected. It was the first time Zoya was going to be out of Mumbai for an event and while she was nervous, she was also confident in her and her team's abilities so was excited for the challenge.

In the time that she had been working with Saira and Kunal she had become a great source of support for Saira who, while being an incredibly mature and successful businesswoman herself, was very anxious about her wedding and would constantly need to be assured that the decisions she was making were correct. Saira trusted Zoya's abilities and her tastes so would come running to her over every minor inconvenience.

Kunal was a lot calmer about the whole situation. He loved Saira and wanted to marry her. He wasn't that bothered about outfits, the food or the decorations. As long as she was happy and they could be married he was willing to go along with whatever Saira wanted and today Saira wanted to see Zoya and so he came with her.

'Sorry Zoya, I know I come to you for every small problem but I'm confident you'll give me good advice and so I always turn to you. I hope you don't mind.' Saira looked at Zoya sheepishly.

'Of course not Saira. I want you to be happy on your wedding day and whatever I can do to facilitate that, I will do.' Zoya smiles reassuringly and touched Saira's hand. While Saira began showing Zoya the outfit options she had narrowed her decision down to, Zoya was hit with a line of questioning she didn't expect.

Kunal had been on his phone when he suddenly looked up and asked, 'Zoya where is Aditya? I didn't see him in the office when I came in? Is he off today?'

Zoya suddenly stopped what she was doing and looked up at Kunal.

'Um yeah ummm actually he's sick so he hasn't come to the office for the last 2 days. Is there anything you need? I can do it instead?' She was holding her breath awaiting Kunal's response.

'No, not right now. I was hoping he would be around, just so I could chat with him. But I'm expecting him to be there in Delhi at the wedding. He's helping you with all the arrangements right?'

Zoya was speechless. Over the last few weeks since Aditya had been in the office, him and Kunal had built a rapport. While Zoya spent her time calming Saira, Aditya had befriended Kunal and allowed him to relax and have someone to lean on and have 'guy time' during the wedding planning process. Zoya was nervous about how she would tell Kunal that Aditya may not be back. But that wasn't a problem for today. She would deal with it when the time came and so she just nodded to acknowledge Kunal's comments and continued helping Saira while Kunal went back to his phone.

Saira and Kunal left about an hour later after Zoya had finally managed to calm Saira so Zoya went back to her daily routine until the end of the day.

On the other hand Aditya had been wallowing at home for the last 2 days. He didn't know what to do with his life. His love life was in shambles and so was his career but with everything going on with Zoya he couldn't focus on his pilot's license. When his mother asked why he hadn't been going to Zosh these last few days, he told her he'd taken some time off. Since Anjana has never been fond of Zoya, she took this response as a sign that their friendship had suddenly started to disintegrate. While she was grateful to Zoya for bringing Adi back with her lies about his family being missing, she still didn't like the girl. She felt like Zoya reminded Adi of Pooja and all the pain he had been through so the less time he spent with her, the better. So when Adi told her he wasn't going to work for a few days, she didn't push him.

It was 8pm on Friday night and Zoya was packing her stuff to go home. While Saturday and Sunday were off days for her employees she decided she would come into work to distract herself.

Just as she was packing her bag she noticed her phone started ringing. She looked towards and noticed it was a call from Arjun.

Zoya and Arjun had become friends around the same time that Aditya and her had formed their friendship but Arjun was more than that now. He was Noor's boyfriend and so her future brother in law who she cared for dearly, so while getting a call from him wasn't that odd, it was unexpected.

Noor wasn't in town so maybe he wanted to talk about her. Just before she was about to pick up the phone, she froze.

No, this wasn't about Noor. This was about Aditya. She immediately started panicking and reached to grab the phone but was trembling so much that she dropped it under the table.

She fell to her knees quickly and tried to get her hands on it as fast as possible.

She picked up and hurriedly said,

'Hello...hello Arjun! Kya hua! Kya hua Aditya ko! Bataiye hume! Please kya hua hai!'

Arjun responded with equal panic.

'Zoya! Zoya please kuch karo! Bhai phir se Paris ja rahen hai. Please kuch karo Zoya! Unko roko please!'

Hey all! Thank you to everyone who's reading the story! Please leave comments too! Much love!

Meera