Samy's POV
In a short time Payal became my best friend. After spending time with her fighting the bad guys and putting them behind bars, my respect for her grew and I felt like sharing my story with her.
Of course she pestered me to death to tell her about Sid, after our encounter with him and the way he ran towards us to catch me.
I also told her about the incident that happened the previous week, even though Sid warned me not to talk about it to anyone, especially cops. After hearing about the incident, Payal's expression and demeanor changed rapidly.
"You got to be kidding me .. Did you tell your uncle about it?" She almost screamed.
"No .. Sid warned me to not talk about it." I replied guiltily, avoiding her eyes.
"I heard about the incident .. do you even know who those guys are?"
"No .. some local thugs."
"What? No .. no .. the guy Sid slashed, is the son of a noted mafia king. Oh God .. they must be searching all over the town for you and your boyfriend, for revenge. If they find him or you, they will kill you both. You need to be very careful. Watch your back all the time and don't repeat the story to anyone else."
"I will, but please don't tell my uncle." I requested her.
If my uncle knows, then my parents will know and then the whole world will come to know and I won't be allowed to do anything by myself. My independence is more important to me than my life.
"Ok, but stay safe. I am going to investigate further about the incident and give you an update. Meanwhile keep a low profile and call me immediately if you find anything or anyone suspicious around you." She handed me her emergency phone number.
Next day I went to office and I could feel Sid's eyes scanning me from top to bottom, trying to picture me again in the sexy outfit he saw me in the previous night.
I looked into his eyes challenging his thoughts. He tried to say something, but after looking into my confident eyes, he decided against it.
I knew he expected to see some guilt in my eyes, but seeing my confidence, he wasn't sure anymore that the girl he saw was me and he backed out.
I breathed a sigh of relief and stepped into my office, closing the door behind me. It took me a moment to get my heart beat rate to normal. I don't know what happens to me when he looks at me like that. It is as if he charges the air around me and i can feel the tiny electrical charges on my skin. Its like caffeine for my soul.
I got busy with my work and didn't notice the hours flying till my phone started buzzing. It was an unknown number.
"Hello Samantha here." I picked up the phone hesistantly.
"Hi Samantha, my name is Mark. I am an executive headhunter and want to have few minutes of your time. Is this a good time or you want me to call you later?" The person on the other side spoke.
"Excuse me! I am not sure what is this about? You should call our HR team if you are looking for a list of openings in our firm. Thank you." I was about to disconnect the call.
"Please don't hangup. Give me two minutes to explain. I am calling to discuss a position for you."
"Oh! Sorry, but I am not currently looking for a change."
"Yes I know, but I want you to hear my proposal and then decide. I recruit senior executives for the top ten Information Technology firms. For Senior positions, we don't recruit through open process, but study the market and approach very few selected candidates only based upon their market performance and peer review. I am talking about Managing Director level positions with excellent benefits and salary package. Your name has been recommended by certain important people, hence the call."
"I still am not sure about it ..." I couldn't beleive if it was real or not. My dream company was IQ Tech, young company with explosive market growth. In the last five years, the company became one of the top ten and had the best projects in the industry. The only problem was IQ Tech was a major shareholder of my current company, so there was no way I could ditch my current company and apply at the parent firm.
"Well if its worth anything, the position is for IQ Tech and you will be leading their global development portfolio if selected ..." I couldn't believe my ears. It would put me in big league, a huge jump for my career.
"Ok, lets meet and discuss in more detail." I couldn't let it go. If they were approaching me, they already knew where i was working and could easily settle things with my current company.
I realized how pumped up I was after the call as I fisted my hands and pumped the air. It was a big deal, being approached for an MD position in my dream company.
I quickly left my office and went out for a quick walk to clear and cool my head. It was not as if I was being offered the job, I was told that I was being considered and the offer would come only after a rigorous selection process.
There was no doubt that I was thrilled about the new job prospect, but there was that nagging feeling at the back of my mind. Till then my career had been the biggest motivation of my life, but at that moment, I realized, the biggest motivation for me to stay in my current job was sitting right across my office.
Suddenly I wasn't sure that there was anything that could lure me away from my current position. I decided not to think about it too much and let things fall in place. The least I could do was talk to the guy and see what was being offered.
I got back to office as it was time for the team meeting I was dreading about the whole week.
Everyone gathered in the big meeting room. As usual Sid was on the far end close to the exit. He looked so bored. He hated management meetings and considres them big waste of time. His concentration was on the pencil he kept on spinning between his thumb and index finger.
I explained to everyone the progress we were making on various projects and about the upcoming performance evaluations. Finally I reached the dreadful part.
"I want to inform you guys that we are competing for a very huge project being offered by the Singapore Port Authority. The scope of the project is very big and involves lot of new technologies. If we get it, it will keep us busy for the next five years and will be good opportunity for you guys to learn new stuff. At this point we don't have very good chances because of very stiff competition, but me and Michael have been working very hard the last few days on the project presentation."
For the first time Sid stopped twirling the pencil and turned towards me, hearing Michael's name.
"Michael and I will be going to Singapore for three days to present our project plan ..."
"Tkkkk" I didn't even finish the sentence and I could hear the sound of pencil breaking into two. I could feel the sound resonating in my heart.
He got up and left the room.
"I am out next week on vacation for my cousins marriage and will be leaving for Singapore after I return from vacation. You will be seeing me after I return from Singapore, so till then Uma will be in charge of this ship. Please reach out to her for any management issues. Thank You." I managed to finish my speech, trying not to look at the empty seat.
For someone wbo couldn't bear me talking to Michael for few minutes, now has to deal with the idea of me spending three days alone in a foreign country with Michael.
I knew he would react badly and was trying to prepare him for this news. He needs to understand I am capable of taking care of myself and deal professionally in such situations.
If he wants to act with jealousy and possesiveness, then it is his problem, not mine. I am doing a job and will do whatever is required of me to do the job professionally.
I decided to avoid him for rest of the day and let him cool his heels. When Michael called me to discuss some pending issues about the presentation, I suggested meeting at Starbucks instead of my office, to avoid pouring gas on fire.
I closed my computer and picked my bag to go for the meeting with Michael.
As I turned the door knob of my office door to step out, Sid jumped in and put his hand across, stopping me from proceeding further.
"Samy we need to talk." I could hear his jaw muscles tightening.
"Not now Sid, I am busy." I replied feeling the heat of his anger, his angry face inches away from me.
"This is important Samy. Try to understand. " he reiterated.
"Sid, I told you I am busy. I don't have time to deal with your issues. Later!" I replied, trying to keep a poker face to mask my feelings.
I could see he was hurting.
It was one more nail in the coffin of our relationship.
I put my hand on his arm and pushed it away and hurried towards Michael, who coming in our direction, putting as much distance as possible between them.
I felt my palm burning from the touch, not sure if it was because of my feelings towards him or his anger.
As I walked away with Michael towards the exit, I could feel the heat on my back from Sid's glare. That was better than Sid countering Michael in the office in front of the entire staff.
Me and Michael ordered our coffee and started discussing the presentation details. It was mostly my presentation, his area was small. Michael was explaining some changes to his powerpoint slides.
"Why is Sid so adamant about keeping me away from Michael. Is it jealousy or something else? Does he know something about Michael which is dangerous and harmful to me? Even then I can handle him. It is not as if I am sharing a room with him. I have my own room and most of the time will be gone with presentations and meetings, so what is Sid afraid off?" I got lost in thought.
"Samy .. Samantha ...what do you say?" Michael repeated shifting closer.
"Sorry Mike ... what was it?"
"I was asking about our tourism plans .. did you decide on the locations you want to visit?"
"Locations! .. @#$ .. Sorry Mike .. forget about tourism and think about the kind of questions the vendor is going to ask us. We won't have time for recreation. Let's go." I got up picking my coffee.
"Common Samy .. we should have some fun also. All work and no play?" He asked catching up with me.
We were close to the street crossing point. The walk sign was blinking as I hurried towards the zebra path, with Michael following closely behind me.
I was almost stepping on the street when walking sign stopped blinking, turning red and signal turned green for the traffic.
I was holding coffee with one hand and trying to stop my momentum, I almost tripped onto the street as motorcycles and cars roared by.
Michael who was behind me caught me by my waist and steadied me. As I steadied myself, I put my hand on his wrist to remove his hand.
The same exact moment I looked up and saw Sid's eyes flash at me as his motorcycle passed us. Since he was wearing a helmet Michael didn't recognize him, but I saw his eyes, through partially open visor, catching me with Michael's hand on my waist and my hand covering his hand.
The image of those two eyes, burning with hate, anger, jealousy and disgust, etched into my brain.
A/N: Please pardon any spelling mistakes as I am typing on my new phone and still not used to ghe keyboard.
If you were in place of Sid, how would you feel now?
As always please vote and comment. I live for them.