We went to the hotel in the evening. I had to wear black one-piece and black sandals. I know black looks good on me as it goes in contrast to my skin tone. Vivan was in his checks shirt and slim jeans. A perfect hunk! We set on the table in the corner.
"Tell me what's that matter which is going on between you and the boss?" I asked curiously as soon as we set on the dining table.
"Are wait yaar! Let me order something first. I am so hungry." He said to me.
"One cheese burst Mexican wave pizza, one pesto pasta with some extra flavour of basil and one blue lagoon"
"Will you be able to finish all this food? I can't finish them." I asked.
"This all is for me only; tell me what you want to order?" He replied with a smile.
"I will have a piece of pizza from you and make it two blue lagoons please" I looked the waiter and ordered my food as well.
"That's it, I am not feeling hungry," I replied to Vivan.
"Are you sure?" He reconfirmed.
"Ya, I am sure. I don't want to eat much."
"Ok, so now tell me what's the matter?" I started the conversation.
"I will tell you but first you have to give me promise that you will not tell it to anybody, not even a Payal." He wants my assurance before he began.
"Done, pinky promise. I will not tell it to anybody." I assured him.
"Ok, so here we go. One fine day in the afternoon I was in the boss's cabin discussing the marketing strategy and his mobile rang. The ring tone of his mobile was different for this caller as I know his routine mobile ringtone.
He grabs his mobile in no time and pushes himself back on the chair. He wanted me not to see the caller's name on the mobile screen. So he brought the mobile phone close to his eyes and cut the phone.
He then texts something on his phone, probably the caller that he is busy and not able to talk right now. We then again started our conversation on marketing. In a few minutes, his phone rang again. He got annoyed this time and cut the phone immediately. I got curious and happy as who the person that can make my boss annoyed.
I want that guy to call him again and again until he smashed his phone on the floor and break it in the pieces. So fun that it, but I was not that lucky to witness that reality what I thought in my mind.
He put his mobile into the drawer and shut it with anger. I wanted to escape from his cabin as soon as possible as I don't want to be a victim of his anger.
Our discussion went for another half an hour and after that, I came out of his cabin, felt like it's my rebirth. I put the laptop on my desk and went to the pantry and ordered a coffee for myself. I had to go and meet the client whom I already have given time. So I went out of the office and called up the client.
The client told me that he had some other priorities and so he had to go somewhere out. He told me that we could meet some other day. I requested him that if he could spend about ten minutes only as I just have to show him one agreement and get his signature.
He said that he is at the infinity mall at present so if I want to meet him for ten minutes, I can come down to the infinity mall and we can meet for few minutes in the mall itself. I agreed and told him that I will reach the mall in another fifteen minutes. He agreed and I draw my car right to the mall at the full-throttle speed.
I called him again as soon as I entered the mall searching for the parking. He told me that he was on the second floor near the McDonald's restaurant. I parked my car in the basement and rushed to the second floor through the stairs. I was holding the agreement copy rolled in my hand. I felt like an athlete running a relay race and my destination is the second floor where my client is waiting for me.
As soon as I reached the second floor, I saw a couple coming out of life and walking towards the movie theatre. The man's face looks familiar to me. It looked like the boss's face. Na, he cannot be here at this time. I just had a meeting with him before half an hour. I must be overthinking about him so I felt that the guy was him.
I ignored the couple for a moment and walked toward the McDonald's restaurant where my client was waiting for me. I crossed that couple from an around four-meter distance and went towards the opposite direction. The guy turned his face over his shoulder and looked at me with his curious eyes. Something was running in my mind at that time so I also looked back at the guy.
Before our eyes met, he turned around and walked inside the theatre. This time I was sure that the guy was none other than my boss.
How come He was here? He was in the office before some time. Who that lady was with him? She didn't seem to be his wife. My curiosity was at the peak at that time and I wanted to confirm his identity.
"Hi Vivan, this side" my client called me from the distance. I wanted to go behind them to the movie theatre but on the other side, my client wanted me in front of him. I had to choose in a very few seconds between my client and that mystery couple.
In such situations, the human mind tends to incline towards the obvious one.
So as mine and I decided to walk towards my client.
"Hello Mr. Malhotra, how are you? Sorry to bother you at this time and place but it was a bit urgent so." I said to him while handing over the paper role.
"Never mind Vivan, I can understand." He unfolds the paper role and replied to me.
He was reading the agreement carefully and I was like waiting for him to sign it fast so that I could identify that couple who just went inside the movie theatre.
"Everything was written as per our discussion only" I assured him that the agreement was drafted as per our discussion only.
Thus wanted him to sign the same without wasting time on checking it again. So that the saved minutes can be invested in finding that couple before it's too late.
"Ya, I trust you but still wanted to reconfirm." He replied as he signed the agreement and handed over it to me.
I snatched the agreement from his hands and rush towards the theatre. I took the ticket and enter the theatre. I was late as the movie had already started and so the theatre was completely dark. How can I find them in this dark room? They might have settled down, I am late. Shit, I missed them. I talked to myself.
I decided to wait outside the theatre hall and catch them as soon as they come out of the movie show. I was waiting there for about two hours until the show finished. People have started coming out of the theatre. I was standing in front of the door scanning every guy coming out of the hall.
Gradually the flow of the people coming out had started decreasing but still, I couldn't find the one I was looking for. It was him only. I am sure. I was consoling myself as I had wasted more than two hours. I lost the hope of catching him red-handed and decided to come back to the office.
Isha: "it might be your misunderstanding; you had seen someone else. The boss was on your mind so you thought that the person you see was the boss with some lady."
Vivan: "No yaar, I am damn sure that it was a boss only. It isn't completed, listen further."
"Till now I had no clue where the boss is going or what he was doing in the office for the full day. But since I had a doubt I started tracking his activities. And you won't believe me, I was right. One day I was passing through his cabin while I heard his conversation on the phone.
"Two-thirty, I will be there you also reach on time. I don't have much of a time." It was like he is fixing an appointment with someone but this time a personal one. At two-thirty in the afternoon personal appointment with whom? Who the person could be? Where is he going?"
"My curiosity had forced me to become a detective that day and follow him. Around two o'clock he left the office that day. I also went behind him keeping a gap of not more than five minutes as I had to follow him.
I drew my car exactly behind him keeping a safe distance that he couldn't catch me. He parked his car near the complex at the Churchgate. There were no clients in the complex; I was talking to myself as I knew because it was my territory."
"He went inside the cafe and now not in the range of my eyes. I also wanted to go inside to check why he was there, but if I had gone inside I would have been caught following him. So I stayed outside the cafe. In a few minutes, one lady can from the other side of the road.
She is the one who was there at the mall. I talked to myself. I turned to my right side and pretended that I am doing something on my mobile. I kept my head down so that she could not see my face completely.
As expected, she sat beside the boss. Now my doubt had converted into the confirmation. I was watching them from the side window. Bingo! I caught him this time. I opened my mobile and took three-four photos of them as proof. I don't know why I did that but I dared to take the photos of them.
Suddenly the boss stood up and started moving towards me, I thought he recognized me so I quickly ran out of there. I left my car there only and took the taxi and came back to the office. I had decided to pick my car in the evening when I will go back to home.
He came back after about an hour went into his cabin and smacked the door. He did not seem to be in a good mood and I might be the reason for that. It was about six-thirty and everyone had retired for the night, leaving to go home.
The light at my desk was the only one on, besides the one in the boss's cabin. I was sitting there doing my pending work on my laptop and suddenly my desk phone rang.
"Vivan, come inside to my cabin" without any guess it was him. He called me to talk to me.
"Come in, he said from the other side, allowing me to push the door open and peek my head through.
I went into his cabin and stood in front of him. It reminds me of how the pupils are standing in front of the principal in the school.
He looked up at me from the papers in his hands, setting the papers down and then clasping his hands together.
"Where you were in the afternoon?" He directly threw a bomb on me.
"I was in the field and meeting clients" I replied.
"Where exactly on the field?" He blinked a few times, glanced down at his watch, and looked back up at me. Another rocket came on me.
"I was at Borivali." I lied to him.
He asked with anger "Borivali? Huh! Which cafe in Borivali? Don't be over smart Vivan. I know you were there at the cafe in the afternoon. Why you were following me? What do you want from me? Listen carefully, erase the memory that you had seen me at the cafe, don't tell it anybody or else I will kill you."
"Yes sir, as you said I never went to the cafe and will not tell it to anybody. It was my mistake. Please forgive me."
"Give me your phone." I gave him my phone and he deleted the photos I took at the cafe.
"Are you trying to blackmail me with these photos?" No sir, I replied.
He sighed deeply and nodded. "Get lost" he ordered me to go out of his cabin. I gave a quick nod and without saying a word I rushed out of his cabin quietly shutting the door behind me.
I went back to the task at hand. My hands shook with the fear of being fired. There was no way I would be able to live without the job.
I took a deep breath and focus on finishing my task. I flipped through countless documents, my hands clammy and wet with the stress of my future.
"I will be fired; I will have to find a new job, moved out of my home. I just screwed myself, for life. Good going Mr. Vivan" I talked to myself.
"Why would he still afraid of you? He had deleted the photos you had taken. So now there is no proof about his affair". I asked him.
"No it's not like that; I still have those photos with me. Photos on my phone got auto-synced to the Google drive. So I have a copy of that stored on the cloud. But he doesn't know about it." I replied to Isha.
"He still doubted that I might tell his affair to someone in the office or probably to his wife. This is the secret I know about his affair. He thinks that I am still keeping an eye on him. So he had changed my territory as well.
Since then he is trying to find a fault in my work and indirectly pressuring me to leave the job."
"What an adventure this will be. Some excitement with my job now. Just what I needed" I said to Isha as I sighed deeply.
Vivan's phone rang. "Stay away from your boss; he will do anything to you." The person spoke from the other side of the phone.
"Who are you? Hello, hello? The phone cuts off.
"Who was that?" I asked Vivan.
"Don't know, someone asked me to stay away from the boss." He replied.
The phone was from the landline number. Vivan tried calling back but there was no response. He tried multiple times but no luck.