An Illusion That's Love

Chapter 1

Vandana was sitting patiently in the reception area of her new company. She was in COMM Tech. It was a small company, but it was in Technopark, one of the most prominent Software Parks in the country, which is in Trivandrum, Kerala – her hometown.

She was joining the company that day. She looked at her blurry reflection on the steel surface of the reception desk. She was wearing a brown jute silk salwar that had a blue border. Her hair was loosely tied with a clutch clip behind her. She looked okay, she thought.

The CEO came out from inside, and Vandana got up. She was surprised that the CEO himself came to receive her. But then, it was a small company.

"You can come in now...." Girish, the CEO said. She had met him at the interview. Vandana walked in with Girish.

"I did not expect you to come yourself." She said.

"The HR is on leave today," he said. "And as you know we here are a small company... We have six teams here." He was explaining. "I mean there are six teams in the development section. All six are working on four different projects." She had had a brief about this at the interview as well. But she listened anyway. She had not listened with attention to detail during the interview as she was a bit nervous. As she walked in, she could see that it was a cosy little office with only a few employees. Girish led her to a section.

"Here are our teams." He told her. "And Team," he addressed them. "This is Vandana Alex. Our new UI/UX designer. Our only UI/UX designer. So utilize her well."

"Oh," A shocked voice came, and Vandana turned her head to the guy sitting nearest to where she was standing, and their eyes met. And she kind of froze. She blinked to make sure it is him for sure.

Though Ananth was younger and smaller before, and his face did not have a stubble before, nor did he have specks before, she could clearly identify him. "Ananth..." She mumbled, clearly shocked.

Nandu. What was he doing there???

But then again, if he was sitting there, and as she looked, he clearly had an ID card hanging around his neck. So obviously he was working there. Her first instinct was to turn around and sprint. But she cannot do that, obviously. "Hey..." Vandana said, as slowly and awkwardly as she could, and even for her, her voice sounded so unfamiliar. Hey?? That was all she could come up with. She kicked herself in her mind.

Ananth was still just staring at her speechless.

"Oh. Do you guys know each other?" Girish asked looking between them.

"Same school."

"Same class."

The above two sentences were said simultaneously, first by Vandana and second by Ananth.

"Same school, same class," Vandana added, explaining. "For a few years."

"Oh, that is wonderful," Girish said with a smile. "You will be more comfortable that a friend is here."

Vandana doubted. Actually, she wanted to give her resignation then and there and leave. If she knew Ananth worked here, she would never have applied. Why would she?

"Also, you may need to work with him the most as Ananth is the team lead for the Mobile app we are now developing," Girish said with a smile. "That is why I assigned you a seat near him as well. This is your seat... right next to him." He said. "Hope you have a wonderful time here. For the rest of the procedure, HR will contact you."

And like that Girish left. And Ananth was still just staring at her. Almost angrily like it was her fault that she ended up there.

Vandana took a long breath and pulled her chair to her seat and sat down.