Samy's POV
The same exact moment I looked up and saw Sid's eyes flash at me, as his motorbike passed us. Since he was wearing a helmet, Michael didn't recognize him, but I saw his eyes, through the 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.
I wasn't prepared for it, it happened so fast that my brain blanked out.
Michael's hand was on my waist for less than thirty seconds but the potential for damage to my life felt permanent.
It was bad karma. Why should Sid show up at the exact same moment? He was already hurting because of my upcoming trip to Singapore with Michael and now this incident was like adding fuel to fire.
"I guess the Gods have written off our relationship forever. Now only a miracle could get us back together."
As I thought about Sid, a shiver ran through my body, hoping he had proper anger management skills and wouldn't do anything drastic.
I was so much looking forward to my vacation and Sasi's wedding, for having a good time, but this incident punched a hole into my enthusiasm and pushed me into depression.
I didn't feel like going to the wedding, but Sas would kill me, so that weekend, along with my family, I travelled to Bangalore for the wedding.
I promised my cousin Sasi to be there with her the entire week for her wedding and as promised I slowly started getting busy with the wedding preparations.
It became hard to sleep at night. Whenever I closed my eyes, the image of Sid's angry eyes hovered in front of me. My mind kept on replaying the incident again and again until my body and brain were tired from the ordeal.
The lack of sleep made me cranky during the day and my cousins started treating me like I had arrived from an alien planet.
My cousin Sasi introduced me to her best friend Samira .. also called as Sami by her close friends.
Me and Samira started working together on the wedding preparations. We came up with the list of songs for the Sangeet ceremony. I gathered all my cousins and along with Samira designed a dance routine.
It was Monday afternoon and I entered Sasi's room without knocking to discuss about flower arrangements for the wedding stage. As I entered in, I noticed Sasi and Samira were arguing about some topic, but they stopped talking as soon as they saw me.
Samira tried to start the discussion again, but Sasi stopped her and changed the topic. I caught her signalling Sasi with her eyes not to talk about it.
I felt bad about it as I got the feeling that they both were hiding something from me. Sasi changed the topic to the hot doctor guest, a friend of my cousin, whom everyone was talking about. His name was Kashyap.
"Sami .. everyone is saying that Kash has been asking about you. He is trying to gather personal details about you. Beware .. soon he is going to chase you." Sasi moved her eyes seductively describing about Kashyap.
"Must be the wrong Sami .. he is after Samira probably." I tapped Samira's cheeks playfully.
"Oh hai! Why is he shooting arrows at you, if he is interested in me?" Samira threw daggers at me playfully.
"Samantha .. you should consider him. He is a good catch - Smart, handsone and rich. Don't forget he is a doctor." Sasi encuraged me.
"Thanks guys, but I am not looking for any trouble right now, so let him chill." I replied as the image of Sid's angry eyes hovered in my brain.
"Ok, lets go for dance practice." Samira pulled me out of the room, holding my hand.
As we moved upstairs to join the others for dance practice, I saw Kashyap watching me intently from downstairs living room.
"See I told ya!" Samira pinched me. I could feel his eyes following me giving me a weird feeling.
After rehearsing for twenty five minutes we took a break. I was talking to Samira about the dance move changes we should make, with my back facing the door, when her eyebrows went all the way up, unsuccessfully trying to warn me about the oncoming assault.
"Hey ladies, I am Kash, friend of your cousin Dilip." Kashyap sprung from behind me, finally making his move.
"Hello .. ah .. you mean cash .. like money?" I turned towards him and asked innocently, as Samira tried to suppress her laughter.
"Ha .. well .. its Kashyap .. Kash with a 'K', however I don't mind being treated like cash, if you like it that way." He replied confidantly, bending down to whisper the last part in my ear.
"Well Kash, how are enjoying your stay .. what can we do for you?" I asked casually, trying to dial down the temperature. He made his intentions clear and from the attitude he showed, he wasn't the shy type.
"I would like to participate in your dance program. Can I be your partner?" He asked smiling warmly and looking straight into my eyes.
"Oh God! He is handsome!" I thought inside, lost for a moment in those handsome eyes.
"Hmm .. sorry Kash, there are no partners, its a group effort." Samira replied trying to make herself visible and saving me from a long pause.
"Oh! .. no problem. I still want to participate." Kashyap replied showing his disappointment and turned towards Samira acknowledging her presence.
At the same time, I could see the victory smile in his eyes, happy that he hit the mark with me. Yes, he did. There is nothing wrong with appreciating a handsome guy in my book.
After that we got busy with our dance practice again, this time with Kash. Every chance he got, he tried to get close to me. Me and Samira managed to keep him at bay by making minor routine changes to the dance moves.
"Di .. Samy Di .. your phone. It has been vibrating for quite a while." My little cousin shouted.
I forgot to check my phone with all the drama and flirting going on with the dance routine. I rushed towards my phone and saw a ton of missed calls on my screen. Uma, my deputy and backup from office had been trying to reach me for more than an hour.
I called her immediately wondering what kind of emergency could it be. I took care of every detail before leaving for vacation and it was still Monday, the first working day after my vacation started.
"Samy .. thanks for calling me back. I was wondering what happened .. you always pick up your phone." Uma started blabbering without talking about the issue she was trying to reach me for.
"Uma .. chill .. I am busy here with the wedding preparations and family. What happened?"
"Shit .. I almost forgot. Sid resigned today morning. A lot is going on here. I didn't know what to do. Our CTO and CEO have been talking to convince him, but I am not sure about the current status as I am not in the loop. I was told to contact you and inform about this."
"Not good .. not good .. not good" I kept on muttering to myself as Uma explained the drama going on in the office. I knew Sid was angry with me, but I never imagined he would resign. A kind of emptiness started spreading through my heart.
I knew what I had to do, so gathering every bit of strength, I called our CTO ( Chief Technology Officer) and discussed the situation with him.
"Samy .. I and the CEO, both talked to Sid and tried to convince him to stay, but he declined. I am not sure what happened last week, but it seems, something is bothering him and he has declined to discuss any issues and has decided to quit."
"Why do think something happened?" I asked him, though I knew what happened. I couldn't beleive he took it that bad.
"Well we offered him everything we could .. money .. position .. other projects, but he declined all and told us there was nothing we could do to convince him to stay. I think you should talk to him and find out what is bothering him and fix it. Sid is an important technical resource and we cannot afford to lose him to the competition."
I told him I will try my best.
"I didn't know how could I convince Sid? Moreover these were personal issues. Issues between me and Sid. He is acting like a kindergartener. I can't keep on convincing Sid everytime someone touches me, that it was an accident. He is blackmailing me."
"Hey are you ok? You don't look good." Kash asked me as I put the phone down.
I just nodded my head and blinked my eyes to indicate I was good. I knew my voice would give away the turmoil and storm raging inside me at that moment.
"Are you sure? Let me know if you need any help. Doctor is in the house." He smiled pointing his thumbs to himself.
I gave a weak smile and quickly moved towards my room. It was time to hide and lick my wounds and then strategize my next steps.
Once safe inside my room, I rehearsed in my mind about the conversation with Sid and after convincing myself that it was the right approach, I called Sid's phone.
I could hear the phone ringing on the other side and with every ring, my confidence kept slipping down.
He didn't pick up the phone. After that I tried many times, but it went to his voice mail every time.
I was pissed. I called Uma.
"He is in his cube and no, he is not on phone or talking to anyone." She answered after checking on him.
Ok, it was crystal clear, he was ignoring me. I called Uma again and asked her to walk to his office cube, to give the phone to him personally. This way he can't ignore me.
I could hear her walking towards Sid's cube.
"Excuse me Sid, Samy wants to talk to you."
"Sorry Uma, I have an urgent appointment, I will talk to her later." I heard his voice and the sound of chair being pushed.
"Sorry Samy, he walked away." Uma spoke after he left, disappointed and confused with the ongoing drama.
"Its okay Uma. Thanks for trying. I will try another approach. I will talk to you later." I thanked her and disconnected the call.
At that moment, I was not only pissed, but boiling with anger.
Sid was behaving like a child .. wait a kindergartener .. no like a baby.
He was wrong about me and Michael and now he is taking revenge for a silly accident.
"Why should I bother? Let him quit. Good riddance. At least I will get my life back. Yes, I will cry for few days and then get over it. There are many fish in the pond. If he doing this now what will he do after I return from Singapore with Michael? It's madness. Let him quit."
After that, I cried myself to sleep thinking about the empty chair in front of my office. I couldn't bear the thought of looking at that empty chair, with no hope of seeing Sid.
The thought really hurt .. deep inside me. Though apart physically, I always felt like he was part of me. I knew life would never be the same again.
I decided it was time for me to pursue new opportunities. I had to get away from that office and the empty cube in front of it.
Time and a new opportunity with challenges should definitely help me to heal the wound.
I decided to call Mark, the executive recruiter who reached out to me and give him the green signal for the new opportunity with IQTech after returning back from Singapore. I need to forget Sid and it is time to move on.
A/N: Hello all. I want to thank you for your patience with slow updates on this story. I am planning to work harder and increase the frequency of updates and if necessary put out short chapters to increase the pace of the story.
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Cheers!