Poles Apart

Chapter Thirty-Four

Surprise, surprise! No, not the update; the POV. 

Arjun

On Saturday, I rush home at 5:00, hoping to catch a glimpse of my future wife. My assistant, Sai receives his much-awaited and apparently well-deserved time off. He's not a lousy assistant, but he's definitely not working his ass off as he claims.

"Sir, it's not even seven, yet," Sai reminds me, walking after me as I walk to the elevator.

I raise a single brow at him. "I thought you wanted an off today?"

"That was last week, actually," he says, pressing the button for the elevator. "And you told me to suck it up and get the quote for the Bangalore mall ready."

"No, I asked for the quote on Friday, and you said you'd have it on my table by Saturday but you also wanted a leave on Saturday and I told you to have the quote ready and take Saturday off." I'm not a tyrant. I have deadlines that must be met.

"What is the meaning of that?"

I eye him, daring him to point out that I was in the wrong. "Go home, Sai," I tell him, stepping into the lift.

"Thank you, Boss!" he says as the doors close.

How does one run a business empire with employees like these, and little support from the family? Certainly, I can't do all of this by myself. Keerthi is busy with Vihaan and Pranathi certainly does her part, but just the both of us can't run an entire real-estate empire. To add to that, she's newly married and very much devoted to her husband.

And Advik. Can anyone do anything of that kid?

I feel a headache brewing at the thoughts. The Dubai project wasn't going anywhere either. Fuck my life.

The more I thought about things, the more inefficient I felt. Peddanana, Keerthi and Pranathi's father had retired, and my father was trying to push more things onto my plate.

On top of that, the fact that I haven't been able to spend any time with Arvi. Isn't it natural that I would want to? That she would want to? Who'd want to marry a guy just like that?

And Kalyan! I had warned him to stay away from Arvi. It was abundantly clear that he had a romantic inclination towards Arvi. He had said it himself back in Udaipur, but I had also made it understandable that he must stay away from her.

Yet he went to Karthik with a proposal for my girl. It took all I had in me not to strangle the son of a bitch. I suppose the knowledge that he wasn't even in town was the only thing keeping me from wrangling his bones. Bastard!

Karthik told me that Kalyan had indirectly hinted at a possible alliance between Arvi and himself. The nerve of him to even try such a thing!

~.~.~.~.~

"Arjun kanna, home so early today?" My mother teases when she sees me.

My eyes flit over to a flushed Arvi before I look back at my mother with a glare. Her teasing grin widens. "It's a Saturday, Amma," I remind her.

"I know," she says, pushing me into a corner.

"I was tired," I try.

"You know what it is to be tired, then?" she asks, acting astonished. In Telugu, there's a saying, 'Sethruvulu ekkado kaadhu, mana intlone, manathone untaru'. Meaning you needn't find your enemies elsewhere they live and co-exist with you.

"I'm human," I tell her. Before she can say anything else, I excuse myself, "I'm going to get changed."

She shakes her head, tauntingly.