Choices

CHAPTER | 22

Sharath noticed Vijay immersed in his PC as he busied himself over work. It wasn't the first time he had caught his colleague work in utter focus and charm that Sharath had lost in his ability to stay motivated.

There were so many rumors running in the office about the guy, yet he had never once shown a bit of bitterness towards any of his workers. Hell, he hadn't even spoken a word against Ambika who was the first one to make Vijay fall for the doom. Even with his mother gone and him being all alone, he had never once faltered in his work life. In fact, he seemed to have gotten more engaged towards work after that one week of absence.

How was he able to do that? Didn't he have a heart at all? A heart that bet hard enough to let his emotions spring out once a while? Sharath wondered out loud.

A tiny part of him was jealous of him. The zeal to stay above the water even when he was falling apart. Sharath turned away in his rotating chair, looking towards the display of traffic from his office window.

Sharath's life was full of life unlike Vijay's. He had a beautiful wife who loved him more than anything. A big apartment in a posh area and an income that kept him more than happy with the way he led his life. Yet, he couldn't see himself in peace as Vijay was with his life.

Sharath spared another glance at Vijay. The guy sat in front of his computer, his fingers typing away furiously while his eyes were glued to the screen.

This could only mean one thing. A raise was in tow. And if Vijay was working this hard, there was a slight chance that the appraisal was going to slip right through his fingers while Sharath watched his subordinate work.

No, that was not going to happen. He wouldn't let it.

Besides, he had given Vijay many chances even when he was on the wrong path. He had always been late and Sharath had been good enough to not let it sit as a red dot on his resume. He had let it slip when Vijay had forgotten to submit the major work few months ago.

No, he had done a lot of favors to him.

A mail popped up on his computer, taking his mind off of the subject for a second. Clicking away, he saw that it was a report that Vijay had covered yesterday on the brutal killings of street dogs. The same jig that Sharath was supposed to do, but was not given a chance.

A small fire that had started turned into a burning flame when Sharath read over the report. All Sharath could see after that was red, for the report was very well written.

Standing up, he decided that it was time he did something to make sure that his subordinate knew who he was dealing with. Sharath shut his computer off before he walked towards Pranay's office.

It was time to change a few things from now on.

---

It was a cloudy evening when Vijay packed his bag for the day. He had stayed for an awful hour extra doing overtime because Pranay wanted a few things to be done. Not that he minded, but these days he wanted to go a little earlier than usual. In fact, he had even started coming early to the office so as to leave early.

It was eight already and he fussed over the zip of his bag that was too stubborn to close. It had gotten stuck twice until Vijay decided that he would be travelling without zipping the bag.

"Where are you heading off in a hurry?" Bhargav asked with a sly smile.

Vijay's face turned red at that question. Even though Vijay knew that Bhargav was just taunting him, he couldn't help but smile.

"Just wanted to go home soon and Pranay had to dump Sharath's work on me." Vijay grumbled hoping that he would leave it at that.

"And why did you want to go home soon?" Bhargav asked as he plopped his bag on his shoulder. "Who's waiting for you?"