Torn Between

Dumbfounded

The alarm clock placed on Zoya's bedside table betrayed Zoya like no one ever had before. The battery had died a day back and Zo being the busy woman she was, did not notice it. However, Simmi Aunty, her house-help was assigned this job and she failed to do so.
Zoya Chatterjee was late. For the first time in her 28 years of existence, Zoya Chatterjee was late. On normal days maybe it would not have bothered Zoya this much to have been running behind by almost fifteen minutes but today was anything but normal. Zoya was late for the prep of a meeting that would be the key to her dreams. Zoya was always early. She was a perfectionist and being punctual came with the tag. But there was an unsettling feeling in the pit of Zo's stomach ever since she woke up.
"Ugghhh, I hate stress drinking", she murmured to herself.
The crossing was jammed with traffic and the signals seemed to be malfunctioning.
"Just what I needed right now!", Zoya thought in annoyance.
The phone ringed from her compartment box and she connected the car's bluetooth. The caller was Shivanya.

"Ma'am exactly how far along are you?", Shivanya spoke in a hurried tone.
"Just 7 minutes, tops. This signal seems to have stopped working or whatever the fuck that is."
"Ma'am, please just be here"
"Shivanya, what is wrong?"
"Ma'am, I am having three panic attacks, two mini heart attacks and one anxiety attack all at the same time"
"Woahh! Really Shivanya? What did you do?"
"I think I deleted your powerpoint presentation in an attempt to save it?"

Zoya hanged the call up. All she wanted to do was get out and scream at the top of her voice but her conscience thought better. She increased her car's speed and reached Spectrum's 10-storey building and handed over her car to the security and asked him to get it parked.
Zoya wore a long sleeved, grey coloured, deep V-cut blouse with a blackish-grey tussar silk. She paired her ethnic look with Dior sunglasses, kajal rimmed eyes, a black bindi and heavy antique oxidised jhunkas. Her high heels added a good three inch to her 5'9" god gifted perfectly moulder stature and nothing but confidence oozed out from her. Zoya felt more comfortable in a saree than any other outift and loved embracing her culture. She stepped inside the elevator which was fortunately empty as she hated small talk.
She opened her texts and found a text from Shrikant. She opened the text which was a picture of drunk Zoya with a drunker Shrikant smiling which was captioned "All the best Zo! You'll ace it".
Zoya smiled at the text. Zoya loved Shrikant, not the romantic kind but she loved him more than she could ever love anyone else. Zoya was a broken mess when she met Shri and they had been through so much together. She felt safe with Shrikant, a level of comfort that no one else provided her. Shrikant and Zoya were bestfriends and precisely that was the reason a woman like Zoya agreed to their marriage contract, because she knew Shrikant would never do anything without Zo's consent.
She quickly dialed his number and waited for the call to connect.
"Wish me luck!", Zo spoke.
"Aag laga dena, mere rockstar", Shrikant's voice sounded cheerful as always!
(Have a blast, my rockstar)
"Pakka. Chal bye", with that Zoya ended her call. She felt a surge of confidence and passion in her heart.

The elevator door opened and she stepped out. Pleased with the decorations and arrangements, Zoya smiled at the receptionist and made her way to Shivanya's small space outside her cabin. She tossed a black small coin-purse looking box and Shivanya grabbed it.
"Nice one", Zoya praised her.
"Zo, just don't fire me yet. I will have a notice period right? Please, I need this job, please???????", Shivanya was almost on the verge of crying and Zoya melted at the sight.
"The PPT was loaded onto a pendrive which is inside the box I just threw at you. You're not fired but you will be issued a memo if you spoil your makeup. Don't cry babe, today is a big day. The only person who is allowed to cry is me and if Zoya Chatterjee cries, it is only out of happiness", Zoya spoke calmly.
"Thank you Ma'am. You're the best. Better than the best!", Shivanya shrieked.
"Is the prep ready? Assemble everyone in the conference room in 5 minutes. I'll just be there"
"On it"