A stranger in a life can bring you happiness or scatter your life into pieces.
------------------------------
There will be a situation in your life where you will be stunned and unable to think of anything. In short, your brain freezes and there will be no words escaping from your mouth. I was in that condition when I heard about it.
It felt like I was getting these kinds of brain freezes a lot and definitely, they were not the good ones. I think everyone is thinking of surprising Avni.
"Did he really tell that?" Were the words that left my mouth when I came out of my shocked state.
"Yes, and you should report to him. He would like to have a word with you." Karthik nodded his head towards the closed door of my new boss and went back to his work.
"Oh, I would love to have a word with him," I mumbled and cracked my knuckles.
I placed my hand on the door handle and stopped for a second. I closed my eyes and thought of some possibilities.
I have two options in front of me.
One, I can barge in without knocking and get a good scolding as he hates being interrupted.
Two, I can knock and wait for his reply. It may give me some brownie points while speaking with him.
I pondered over the two possibilities I have and choose the second one. I knocked on the door and waited for his reply.
"Come in." I pushed the door open and went inside. I closed the door behind me and stood in front of his desk.
I observed him as he was working on some papers. There were no hangover symptoms on his face. He looked mighty fine dressed in a blue suit. The color suited him a lot. His hair fell over his forehead; he looked devastatingly beautiful without even trying.
He lifted his head after a moment and I stared right into his beautiful blue eyes. His eyes held no emotion but the sunlight in the background made his eyes shine. I was lost in them that I forgot what I wanted to tell him.
He cleared his throat, and I observed him stare at my forehead for a moment. I looked at him waiting for him to speak. I expected some reaction from him but all I got was a blank stare and an accusing look for looking at him secretly. I was not embarrassed; I can stare at my husband as long as I wish.
"Yes sir," I asked him with a sweet smile on my face when he didn't respond for a long time. He glared at me but I kept the innocent look on my face.
He threw a file making me glance at the poor folder. "Take this file. I want you to run a background check on everyone. Check the information you got with the information we got on them. Then make a report of your own. I want it by the evening." He informed me without lifting his head. I tried to open my mouth but he beat me to it.
"What are you doing here? Take this file and leave! Get me my coffee in five minutes." He said glaring at me. I got startled with his loud voice and nodded my head.
"Yes sir. I will get it in five minutes." I took the file and rushed towards the door. I place my hand on the handle and stop for a second.
Why did I listen to him? I am not his assistant! God, his commanding tone will have me running in the opposite direction without any second thought. But I was determined to get some answers from him.
I turned and stomped towards his desk. He looked at me with blank eyes. We kept staring at each other; I didn't blink my eyes and kept glaring back at his blue eyes. Slowly, I got lost in the beauty of his eyes. They reminded me of the ocean. Like an admirer of it, I got lost in its depth.
Our staring contest broke when he blinked his eyes. I blinked my eyes and diverted my gaze from him to erase his thoughts from my brain.
"What do you want Ms. Arya?" I glared at him after listening to him call me that name.
"I am Ms. Arya now! Great." I raised my hands above my head in frustration.
I felt dejected because of him, I expected a different reaction from him, after yesterday night, I hoped that we were past our differences but I think he was still holding a grudge against me. I didn't consider that he will change my name completely.
But I am not a person to accept defeat easily, he forgot who I am, I will show him what I can do.
I placed my hand on the desk and leaned forward. I observed him taking a quick peek at my displayed cleavage. That quick glance gave me a new surge of confidence.
"What are you doing Ms. Arya?" My dear husband flustered seeing the smirk on my face. This is the first time I caught him flustered.
"Oh, you are calling me a Ms. now. So, I am a young unmarried girl looking for a possible suitor." The smirk on my face grew when his face got red with anger. I know that Abhi can't control his anger. I poked around his possessiveness a bit; I wanted to get a reaction out of him.
I lean a bit down, giving him a clear view of my cleavage. I did a victory dance in my mind when I noticed him trying hard to divert his eyes from the display.
"So, Mr. Goenka. You are telling me to ignore the marital duties and be a happy single woman. Am I right, sir?" I waited for a beat to see his reaction, as expected he didn't waver.
Fine, I have bigger guns to pull. "Ok, sir. You will have your coffee in 5 min." I left his office adding an extra swing to my hip.
I ignored the pitiful looks I got; I kept my head high and walked to my previous office. I closed the door behind my back and observed the room.
It was almost similar to the one I saw back in Coorg. It was smaller than my previous one. A laptop was on the desk. I peeped down at it and found a note on it. With a frustrated sigh, I took the note and read the words on it.
"Stop daydreaming and get me my COFEE." I reeled back in shock. I imagined his face shouting at me for getting his coffee. It would have been epic to watch him shout at me with his veins popped for getting his coffee late. I shrugged my shoulders and comforted my heart that my imagination was quite enough. My husband knows me well; he even placed a note thinking that I will be in my own world. What angered me most was that when did he plan everything? It felt like he did this with proper planning and it did not sit well with my heart.
I made my way out of the room and went into the break room right across the staircase. I quickly made his coffee, pure black like his heart and with no sugar. I don't understand how he can drink bitter coffee. I think that it depends on his heart. Like heart, like the bitter taste.
I took his coffee and entered his room without knocking. He looked up startled at my unannounced entrance; before he can open his mouth I put a sweet smile on my face.
"Here, you go sir. A coffee as you like." I placed the cup on his desk and stood there waiting for him.
Abhi tentatively took a sip from it. After a moment, he started sipping on it more rapidly. I waited near his desk when he savored his coffee ignoring me.
After the last sip, he placed the cup on the desk and gave a satisfied sigh.
"Are you satisfied with my coffee preparing skills, sir?" He looked up with a startled look on his face.
"You didn't leave!" His accusation was a bit comical.
"I understand that you are interested in the coffee made by me. But don't ignore me like that. And how is the coffee I made?" I wriggled my eyebrows for which he gaped at me.
I waited a moment before sighing and waving my hand in front of his face snapping him out of his thoughts. "Hello!"
His facial expressions changed immediately. "Get out of my office and complete all the work I gave you." He snapped and did not stop glaring at me. I huffed out a breath.
"Fine, I am leaving." I walked to the door and opened the door, before leaving his room I turned towards him with a sweet smile on my face. "If you need a coffee just inform me and you will have it on your desk in a minute." With that said, I left him to his silence. I went into my office and started working on the work he gave me.
It took me two hours to complete the work he gave me. As I know all the details, it took me only less time to complete the work. I took the file and left for Abhi's office.
I knocked on the door and waited for him to reply, when I heard his faint come in, I opened the door and walked to his desk. As I placed the folders on his desk with a loud thump, he looked up at me. Then he regarded the files I placed on his desk.
"What?" I asked him when he kept staring at my face and the files.
"How did you complete the work early? I would take a person nearly 2 days to complete the assignment I gave you." I heard the accusation in his voice.
I let out a bitter laugh. "Go on, why you are holding back. Accuse me of cheating and taking others' help. Go on." I urged him.
He looked at me with a confused expression. I answered his question without waiting for him.
"No need to struggle, sir. I will answer it for you." I stressed the word sir. "As you know or not I worked in this company way before you know. So, I think I know all the people in the file. And this work is definitely helpful for me. Now, if you have any other things to be done, please do inform me." That said I turned around and walked to the door.
"Ms. Arya." Hearing him call my name, I turned around and waited for him to continue. But he walked towards me and stood in front of me leaving only some distance between us.
I could feel my traitor heart starting to beat loud. I looked down at his feet avoiding his eye.
"Look at me." His soft commanding tone had me looking at his face without a second thought.
I observed his face, his face looked strained with all the stress he took. My hands were itching to touch his face and ease the stress from his face, I wanted to run my hands in his hair and make him relax. I always want to see simile on his face and his eyes. And just like all my dreams broke I broke out of reviving when he called me again.
"Mmm," He shook his head at my questioning look.
"What do you mean by telling me that the work I gave you helped you?" He asked me patiently waiting for my reply.
My palms started sweating, I racked my brain to give him an answer but I came empty-handed.
"That, I-I meant that mm-, " I heard a knock on the door, making me move fast and open the door without giving Abhi a chance to speak. I saw Karthik outside, once he saw me opening the door he gave me a questioning look. I turned back towards Abhi who was looking at me with furrowed eyebrows.
"I think you are busy, sir. Call me if you need anything." With that said, I scurried out from there.
In the safety of my brand new office, I gave out a huge breathe of relief.
"Avni, what are you doing? How can you speak without concentrating on the words coming out of your mouth? I know Abhi he got suspicious of me. Now, he will hound me until he gets the answers.
I spent all the morning and half of the lunch break thinking of all the possible answers I can give him, but I came empty-handed. I sighed; my stomach started rumbling demanding attention. I collected all my things and went to his office.
I am a good employee, so I need to inform my boss before I go out. So, I did the same, he was busy working on his laptop when I went to his office.
"I am going out for lunch," I informed him and got a nod in return.
"Return before the lunch break is over, others you will be working overtime." I snorted inwardly but nodded my head and left him in his heaven. I thanked the gods for having him distracted that he did not question me again.
I went to the elevator and got into the employee elevator because my husband took my card for the private one and stated that I was his employee.
Many others got into the elevator on different floors, some greeted me and some kept staring at me trying to be discreet. Some started whispering loud about me, I tried to ignore them but it still hurt me.
"She is now an employee."
"She is being treated in a wrong way, how can our boss do this to her!"
"She got it right. How did she boss us around after coming to this office after only for a month?"
"You know, the other lady is prettier than her. And she even gave him a baby, what can this girl do other than ordering us around."
The last one hurt me more. But I kept numb listening to them speak about me. When the elevator stopped on the ground floor, I hurried out of it and went outside. I took a lung full of fresh air, calming my erratic heartbeats
I observed my surroundings and found some people walking past me busy with their own lives not even sparing a glance at the lonely girl leaning down.
It was a bit calming to know that now no one care what I will do and I felt relief escaping from the company. I don't understand how people can judge others by their or a single action, as far as I remember when I first entered this office building everyone was welcoming and they took care of me but know after a single incident they started treating me like trash as if I was not one of their bosses. My focus was on Abhi so I let them slide in the background of my brain.
I slowly started walking searching for a restaurant to have my lunch. Even though I started working in this office past some days, I never observed the surroundings. I always used to have lunch with Abhi. He used to order us some food and we used to have it in his office speaking or he used to treat me in a restaurant.
Thinking of those things made me smile sadly. I am missing those moments and I hope that I can make up for him. Just then, I got an idea, I searched my surroundings for a specific place.
When I found it, I immediately rushed into it. I went to the counter and ordered two chicken biryanis for us. Abhi loves chicken and biryani is his favorite dish, even though it's not my favorite I don't hate it either.
After placing the order, I was told to wait for some time. I sat near a table, waiting for the order when my phone buzzed.
I took my mobile out and checked that Anu was calling me. I didn't want to spoil her mood as she was enjoying doing many things with her friend. I didn't want to ignore her either, so I picked the call.
"Hello, Avni!" Hearing her voice comforted me in many ways and my eyes started watering because of the love shown in her voice.
"You there, Avni?" I tried to open my mouth and answer her but no sound left my lips. Yesterday has been a tough day for me and hearing my grandma made me realize that she will move heaven and hell together for my happiness I started sobbing hard forgetting about my surroundings.
"Hey, I know my baby. And she is not a weak one, stop crying over the things that are done." I hummed in response trying hard to stop the years from slipping from my eyes.
"Avni, I know about you. You are a strong woman who can win against the world. Can't you win against a single woman?" I know that Anu was trying to make me forget about yesterday and focus on tomorrow.
I took a deep breath before answering her. "Don't worry, Anu. They have their hell on their way."
"That's my baby. I will be back in two months and I want to find the culprit suffering from the things they did. Got it?" I nodded my head agreeing with her and replied with a yes after realizing that I was speaking to her on mobile and she can't see my face.
"All the best, honey. You will get all the success." And she cut the call increasing my determination. I missed her a lot and hoped that I will set everything till she arrive.
"Mmm interesting." I heard someone speak from behind me. I slowly turned around and found a young man with a blue polo t-shirt along with black jeans.
"Excuse me," I questioned him with furrowed eyebrows.
He took something from his jeans pocket and offered it to me. I leaned forward and looked at the white handkerchief hanging in between his fingers. Then did I observe the tattoos on his hands. I followed them and found his hands all filled with different tattoos. He shook the cloth in his hand drawing my attention back to the subject. I opened my mouth to reject him, but he beat me to it.
"You definitely need it." He pointed at my face making me understand that my face was all wet from the sobbing I did in the past time.
"Thank you." I took the cloth he offered me and wiped my eyes with it. I observed him from the corner of my eyes as he sat in front of me while I was blowing my nose.
"I will buy you a new one." I smiled at him. I observed him as he kept his dark black eyes on me. He was quite a handsome man.
I waited for him to tell me about anything but he leaned back on his chair and started assessing me with his long fingers taping on his chin which started to irritate me.
"Are you going to sit there or are you having anything to tell me?" I questioned after waiting for five minutes.
He sighed and leaned forward making me jerk back into my seat a little bit. With a smirk on his face, he spoke to me for the second time.
"You and I are going to get along fine." With that words, a new person entered into my life to make my life hell or heaven I don't know.
Hello guys,
How are you all? I am good and sorry for the delay in updating. I had many things in my plate. I will update regularly update it from now on.
Who is the stanger?
Any thoughts about this?
Vote. Share. Comment.