Story of Our Life

Chapter 12

It had been almost a month since Prerna had started working. On the eve of her first salary, she had taken her family out for some shopping and a fancy dinner in one of Kolkata's popular restaurants. Her parents looked proud as she paid the bill and her siblings were more than happy to order extra dessert to take home with them. Prerna herself had not felt this happy in a long time and she felt she had to thank her Boss for this great opportunity.

The next day, she went to her office with a fresh batch of cupcakes from her favorite bakery, and her colleagues congratulated her on completing one month with them.

"It's impressive, honestly! Very few people are able to complete a month here." Aditi said as she munched on a red velvet cupcake.

"Yeah, the Boss is pretty strict with his policies, I mean, you remember how he fired that Mathur." Rohit recalled and everyone nodded.

Prerna agreed with her colleagues. In this last month, she herself had seen 3 employees get fired within a week or ten days, because of Mr. Bajaj's strict professionalism. One was found smoking under the prohibited stair area, one was heard bitching about her senior and one was seen bullying a peon for not getting a glass of ice-cold water. Prerna wondered, why was it so hard for people to be professional, or just, a kind person? 

Silently, she agreed with Mr. Bajaj's policies.

"What's the celebration for?" The man in question appeared in front of them and Prerna's face lit up automatically. As her colleagues stood around her, she took the cupcake box, which still had 3 cupcakes left, and walked towards her Boss.

"I know it sounds silly but I am celebrating finishing a month here. Finishing a month of my first job." She rambled and opened the dessert box. "Cupcake?"

Everyone stood silent with their bated breaths as Prerna looked at Rishabh's piercing grey eyes, which were staring at the cupcakes. 

"What are the flavors?" He asked the most unexpected question twelve seconds later and Prerna blinked thrice.

"Uhh." She looked down at the three sweets and gulped. 

Why was this so hard to answer?

"Hazelnut chocolate. Strawberry coconut. Mint chocolate chip." She said and he nodded, before proceeding to take the hazelnut chocolate cupcake.

"I am allergic to strawberries and mint chocolate chip tastes like toothpaste." He explained (as if he needed to explain why he didn't choose the other cupcakes!) and took a small bite of the cupcake. Prerna's mouth went dry as his (beautifully pink) tongue licked a little bit of chocolate from his (beautifully pink) lower lip. "Congratulations Ms. Sharma. And  no, it's not silly. We should always celebrate victories. No victory is small." 

Prerna could swear later that if she was not a human, she could have turned into a puddle at that exact moment, as he nodded and gave her the most beautiful of smiles. Given, it was just a tiny upward turn of his lips, but she would count it as a smile. And she could also swear that it was meant just for her, because it vanished as quickly as it had appeared, and he walked away leaving her wanting more.

Damn, she wanted him so much.

~~

Rishabh finished the cupcake Ms. Sharma had offered to him in the privacy of his cabin, with the blinds closed. No one knew this, but he was not a fan of sweets, or sugar in general. He was a gym freak and only had sugar very, very rarely. But how could he have refused Ms. Sharma's victory dessert, when she was herself offering it, with her sweet, innocent smile that seemed to bring the devil inside him alive. He had taken his sweet time to choose one of the three, and had almost chuckled when he saw her brown eyes widen in confusion as she mumbled away the cupcake flavors to him.