Falling In Love With You

Chapter - 24

The morning rolled on quickly , everyone carried on with their work with as much concentration as they could manage , however during their coffee and tea breaks people did talk about the new interesting and juicy happenings in their office and the hot topic of a certain team leader hugging his co - worker and that too someone from his own team engaged their interests very much. It might seem silly to know people were getting excited over a mere hug between co-workers but the incident gets interesting because of the story that comes along with it. Since Syntana was in its early period of growth , it maintained its employees very closely by taking them out on regular corporate retreats and throwing lavish parties to boost the energies of the workers and because of that  most of the employees had a very good relationship with the people from other teams too but the downside of such a close knit relationship was that it  gave way for too much of rumours to float around , mostly it was based on something they heard from someone , or something they would have seen or something they thought would make a juicy topic to gossip over tea time. The fact that Thara had a thing for her team leader had been a topic of conversation among the friends' circles for quite sometime , now this incident spread like wildfire among the employees and it became the topic-of-interest that needed to be addressed.
                                    Pallavan knew that the rumours about him and Thara  would have started to float around among his peers in the office , he knew people will even  add some more things to the rumour to make it more interesting but he was not in the mindset to correct the people nor did he think of giving any clarification to the rumours but instead he waited for a certain person to fall in to his  invisible trap that he laid out smoothly in the morning , he thought of waiting for sometime for that person to set their plan in motion, until then he decided not to react to whatever people talked about him.  As always the time elapsed quickly in his cabin , because of the very light breakfast he had in the morning his stomach started making sounds. After sometime , the hunger became unbearable for him so he looked at his watch and saw that it was half past one in the afternoon and it was the peak hour during the lunch service , so Pallavan thought of having his lunch after sometime but realised he wouldn't be able hold his hunger anymore. After finishing the work he was currently working on , Pallavan rose from his chair to have his lunch. He thought of calling Saravanan to accompany him for lunch but decided against that and went outside his cabin , but the moment he stepped out of his room all his eyes searched were for his wife , he remembered  that Vasudha too had the same breakfast as him , he wanted to tell her have his lunch but that was impossible. So Pallavan crossed his teammates' cubicles and he noticed that Saravanan , Thara and Rithika were not in their station. While his mind thought over the reason for their absence , on his way to the elevator his eyes seeked Vasudha and somehow she too looked up from her computer , their eyes locked for a moment and Pallavan rolled his eyeballs up indicating that he was going up to have his lunch to which Vasudha smiled at him and nodded in acknowledgement  . Giving her a small smile , Pallavan went towards the elevator when inside the lift Pallavan thought of calling his cousin but then again decided against it and waited for the lift to reach the cafeteria .
                 As usual , the moment he stepped into their office cafeteria , freshly brewed coffee hit his nostrils strongly and the sizzling food that was being prepared by the head chef increased his hunger even more. It was the peak time in the afternoon and most of the employees occupied every table that was available in the cafeteria , Pallavan wandered  through the tables and realised most of employees started to talk among themselves in hushed tones the moment they saw him , but that didn't surprise Pallavan because he knew this is how everything will turn out. After some time of searching for a table to eat , finally he found a small table with three chairs arranged around it , so  after giving his order at the counter Pallavan went to the table he saw and sat down . It always takes some time for the order to arrive so Pallavan thought of checking his mails  while waiting for his lunch. A few minutes passed by  and Pallavan became completely immersed in his phone , he heard footsteps of two people coming towards him but since it was the canteen and so many people would be coming and going  he didn't pay much attention to that but as they came closer and closer to him he heard the voice of two women and they sounded familiar. All this while Pallavan was looking at his phone , when he thought of looking up to see who it was , the women were almost close to his table and he heard Thara's voice say ".....it was only an accident Rithika....!" and along with it he also heard someone pulling the chair against the tiled floor from his table and finally when Pallavan looked up he saw the shocked faces of Thara and Rithika but their shock didn't remain for much longer as they immediately composed themselves and with a polite smile on their faces  greeted him. "Good afternoon Pallavan ...!" " Good afternoon Sir...!" Thara and Rithika said to him. With a huge smile on his  face Pallavan too greeted them in return, " Good afternoon ladies !" Pallavan said looking at the both of them . Thara was the one who spoke first , " You're having your lunch here Pallavan ?" " Yes of course , Thara ! Wherelse would I be having my lunch , no other table is free as you can see so I sat here ." Pallavan replied to Thara but the smile on his face did not go away because he knew every other person close to their table were watching the scene in front of them discreetly and him being stoic and serious wouldn't help his plan. Thara smiled at him again , but one could sense that  something was bothering her , both Thara and Rithika stood awkwardly holding on to the two chairs that was placed in front of Pallavan , seeing their  hesitancy Pallavan realised something and he stood up suddenly from his chair , " Oh ! I'm really sorry guys , I didn't realise you guys were sitting here , when I came here this was the only table that was empty so I sat down without thinking . It would be best if I leave ..." saying this Pallavan took a step away from his chair , but Thara stopped him " NO... No need for that Pallavan! You can share the table with us . I'm not that cruel a person to send someone away before they can have their food. Please sit down Pallavan ! Have lunch with us ." Thara said to him politely. " Ladies first ..!" Pallavan gestured Thara  and Rithika to sit before he sat down on the chair. After getting seated Pallavan asked , " Should I order something for you guys ? " " Uhmm.... No thanks Pallavan ! It was me who was hungry , Rithika just accompanied here and yeah ! I've  ordered my food . I am just waiting for my bell." Thara told Pallavan , however Pallavan realised Rithika didn't say  anything from the moment she met him so when Pallavan thought of opening his mouth to ask her something the phone in Rithika's hand started ring . Rithika looked at the caller ID on her phone  and said " I'm sorry guys! I've to take this call . Don't wait up for me guys ! Carry on with your lunch." Saying this Rithika walked away from their table at the same time  the call for their order came , hearing that Thara started to rise up from her chair , but Pallavan being a gentleman, " Please be seated Thara! I'll get your lunch , probably mine will also be ready ...!" saying this Pallavan walked towards the counter to get their lunches leaving a confused Thara behind.