Leap of Faith

Red in the face

"Trisha, whatever we have to do, we have to do it fast," Shweta spoke after a long silence.

"Yeah. But frankly, I am out of sorts, I don't know where to start," I began. "And when I have to keep it secret from Aayan."

"Well there might be a start in my mind," she mumbled slowly taking a small sip of water.

I looked at her questioningly.

"My wedding," she smiled winking.

"Oh shit! Shweta, I am sorry. I have been a real ass for not asking you about your wedding, your trip to London," I groaned. "You must hate me." I covered my face with both hands.

"Don't worry silly. I know what you are going through," Shweta soothed me by putting her hands on shoulders. "And that's not what I meant."

She cleared the plates off the table, picked her mobile from the kitchen counter. She sat on her chair pulling it closer to mine.

"My dear friend, my wedding is going to be in London, in some palace. And that palace is very near Vikram's house." She scrolled through the pictures in her phone gallery. Then she showed the beautiful white palace on her phone.

"How do you know where Vikram lives in the UK?" I asked suddenly excited.

"Nikhil told me. He had invested a lot amount in Nikhil's company too. So he is a board member," she mentioned grimly. She kept the mobile on the tabletop, leaned back against the chair thinking deeply.

"Anyway, he was going to be the invitee at the wedding. So you could come a week before the wedding with me, and as you said, befriend him," she said crossing her arms over her chest.

"When are you getting married, Mrs Singh?" I asked her raising my eyebrows.

"Two weeks from now," she smiled broadly at me, knowing that now we could get to work. "But before that, we have to shop a lot! We only have two days for that as I am going to my parents' house for the rest of the week."

***

Being back to the office was not the same anymore. Now all the things were clear to the rest of the world. Everybody knew now that a commoner named Trisha Ray was a girlfriend of famous Aayan Kar. I was the centre of the gossip. Now everybody flocked around me for any damn thing. Especially girls. They treated me like I was their boss. I had to face some jealous ones in the washroom too, dramatising his old womanising ways. I only laughed it out. By then I got the hang of how to handle everybody.

The media, the tabloids were full of articles about us. Mostly all the media had projected positive about me. Some named me the modern-day Cinderella, Some a wannabe. I could not care less. I was all in work mode. I had to prove my worth to SpeedEx.

"Ms Ray, can you come in my office a bit?" My boss called out from the door of his office in the early hours of the day.

I was up in a flash followed him to his office.

"Ms Ray, are you ready for actual assignment?" he asked when I settled into a chair opposite to him.

"Yes, sir." I nodded confidently. I was the woman of action. I was all for it.

"Well, after consulting the top management, I have recommended your name to the team designing our future hatchback model," he said.

I contented my emotion as much I could. Inside, I was jumping up and down with pure joy! That was my dream come true.

"Thank you so much," I replied with a face-splitting grin.

"Alright," he sighed. "It's a shame to lose you, though."