MINE ~ An AbhiRa FF

Chapter 8 : Let's Begin

Monday morning arrived bright and sunny after a week's cloudy skies. Mumbai City was jammed with traffic as usual and people were in a hustle and bustle to reach their offices, schools and work places on time. All in all, it was a usual day at Mumbai but for Akshara, it was the best day of her life as she stepped into Birla Empires.

Her 1st day at work.

Sighing contentedly, she was heading towards the elevator hallway when she was called from behind.

“Miss Goenka!” - said a man whom Akshara recognized as the same assistant who was guiding the candidates for interviews on Friday.

“This way please. There are some formalities and after that you can collect your Employee Card and head towards your cabin.” - He informed Akshara politely.

‘HER CABIN ?’ she thought excitedly.

After going through formalities, she got her card and looked at it :

Akshara Goenka
Chief & Personal Advisor To CEO
Floor 40th, Cabin 2

along with her phone number and email were written on the card.

Smiling to herself, she went towards the elevator and this time, proudly standing in ‘For Employees’ she pressed for 40th floor.

Finding cabin 2 was a no-brainer as she realized that the counting of the cabins started from the CEO's. His cabin was No. 1 and cabin 2 looked like it's twin. ‘Obviously Akshu. He'd want his advisor close by for any urgent queries.’ she mentally lectured herself.

Settling in her cabin, the first thing she did was asking for her boss's schedule and got to know two things. First, she was early as it was 8:40 AM so her boss hadn't come yet and second, there was a meeting sharp at 9 involving all the advisors. She was told that Mr. Birla wishes to discuss about something but WHAT, they didn't know. She had a feeling it was about the recent dealing with Star-catchers. She looked at the time again.

8:43.

“Let's see what 17 minutes can do.” - saying this she opened her laptop and set to work.

Keeping time in check, she stood at 8:58 and headed towards the board room. Entering, she saw a long rectangle table to which advisors were seated on both sides with a spot vacant, which she was sure, hers. She took her seat and saw the time again.

9:00 AM

She felt him entering even before the ‘Good Morning Sir’ greetings, even without looking. The thing that alerted Akshara about his presence was that deep, woody and smoky fragrance that was dominating her senses since Friday. She could now recognize that fragrance anywhere. It was intoxicating.

“Good Morning Everyone.” - Abhimanyu replied to all the greetings at once and everyone took their seat.

“As y'all are aware about our deal with the Star-catchers, I want to know about your thoughts on this particular clause of the contract.” - He said mentioning the said clause on the projector.

It took an hour. Everybody gave their thoughts and views while Akshara sat silently.

“So we're all agreed on this. We should continue.” - He said when everyone nodded affirmatively.

“We shouldn't!”

Every head in the room turned towards her as she uttered those words, including HIS.

Akshara looked up and their eyes met.

“I believe that we shouldn't continue this contract with Star-catchers.” - she explained further.