Once Upon A Mr. Goody Two Shoes

Chapter 7.

Hey lovely reader! Happy early update. This one is really precious for us as we dedicate it to one of our most supportive readers siddhissawant on her birthday. Sit back, enjoy, and do comment.

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We had finally completed all our pending work and back up research for our joint project. Mr. Chaudhary had been pleased, but nonetheless, there was no escaping work. Abeer and I were having another late night at office, determined to get over with a fourth of the work before hitting the weekend, because we both had agreed on having a work-free weekend dedicated to us and our family and friends.

"Here Aashi," Abeer handed over my piping hot tea cup as I went through a previous project's file. I smiled up at him in thanks and sipped the amber liquid. Just what I needed. Abeer took a seat next to me and took a sip of his own coffee.

"So...shall we start?" He asked, gesturing to the new file that had arrived a few hours ago. I nodded, closing my file to focus on the work at hand.

He opened our file labeled 'Tirany' in black ink and a hundred pages fell out of it. The falling papers weren't as much of a shock as what was written on them. Or marked over them.

Each one had a red stain. Okay, not a stain, more like a lipstick mark. I picked up one to view it closer. 'Mine', it read. I looked up at Abeer to find him frozen in his chair, a dark expression looming on his face. I could feel his grip on the file harden.

A simple little word, 'mine' - but how it sent shudders down my spine.

And I wasn't even the receiver of it!

Abeer refused to meet my eye, his gaze zeroed on the paper in my hand and the four letter word inked in blue below the lipstick mark. My chair scrapped against the floor as I got up to fetch a glass of water. I returned back from the cafeteria to find Abeer cradling his head in between his palms, a horror-filled look on his face. My heart clenched as he downed the glass of water in a blink. I knew this was the moment to break the ice.

"Abeer, I don't mean to pry but I think its high time you tell me what's going on between you and Maya," I said uncharacteristically slowly and calmly. Maybe Abeer was rubbing off on me. He looked up at me, startled at my inference to Maya. He didn't know that I knew, but the look in his eyes told me he had pieced the puzzle of my fake call from previous morning.

He cleared his throat. "We had dated in college for a year or two. She was my first girlfriend, and also one of the prettiest girls in college. I was on cloud nine - she was the most desired in every male circle. But then gradually things started to get sexual and overbearing from her side. She wanted to control every moment and movement of my life. I couldn't handle the stress and decided to break things up before they escalated beyond repair," he explained.

"How did all this emerge again?" I asked, confused.

"It started from the day I came here. At first it was just meeting your ex scenario, but then...things just went out of hand. She doesn't really like me, it's more like an obsession. I will not get back with her and hence she will go to any measures to harass me."

I was shocked.

"Wha...what do you mean harass? That's a big thing, Abeer," I cautioned him. He simply nodded. When he didn't care to explain, I chose to be nosy about it.

"How is she harassing you? In what ways?"

"Umm...cornering me sometimes, blackmailing me..."

"Blackmailing? How?" I asked, alarmed.