Part 2
A fog of silence had engulfed the cabin. Both parties engaged in an intense stare down, neither willing to surrender. Weighing the opponent and strategizing their next move. Farjaad was fidgeting with a pen, pretty out of character for him Umeed thought. He mostly maintained a stoic posture around company.
Umeed was mentally kicking herself for agreeing to the 'one on one' conversation. They never conversed like normal people. It was a matter of time before the said conversation would escalate into a full-fledged bullfight. A war of words, where both of them had enough arsenal to knock down the other party.
Umeed usually came out unscathed from such situations for, reasons, unbeknownst to her. Today, she had premonition of impending disaster. Like something was about to happen. His eyes contained a different kind of fury, something that she had never witnessed before. Previously, it was annoyance, irritation or at the most anger- caused by her. Now, there was a raging storm in his eyes. He stared back at her with equal intensity, eyes buring holes into her head. Why was he angry, when she should have been the one to throw a temper tantrum.
This was a bad idea. He shouldn't have proposed this. Umeed was shooting daggers at him, probably thinking of ways to transport him to Alaska. He had never seen her so angry before. Her eyebrows lowered and pulled together. Jaw tense, jutting forward slightly and flared nostrils. She looked cute. Scary, but cute.
"Miss Umeed, this is my office. Aap yaha munh utha ke baar baar nahi aa sakti hai." Farjaad spoke, finally breaking the silence. But then he should have kept quiet.
Umeed was appalled. The audacity of this man.
"Excuse me! Mujhe koi interest nahi hai aapki saadi hui shakal dekhne main jo main yaha baar baar aaungi. Ye Ghalib ne majboor kiya tha mujhe yaha aane par. Varna main toh mar ke bhi yaha kadam na rakhu." Umeed fired back.
Ouch! That hurt.
"Ye Asad ki office toh nahi hai, agar aapko ko unse mulaqaat ka shoukh pura karna hai toh mere office ke vicinity se bahir kare." He replied, Asad's name making red with rage.
On the contrary she was very welcome to his office anyday. To meet him only.
" Par Asadullah toh aapka hi cousin hai, aur ye harkate zaroor aapke hi kehne par kar raha hai. Toh ye bharam baazi kisi aur ko dikhayega." She replied confidently, again assuming the worst of him.
Farjaad was now at his wits end. Why wouldn't this women believe that he had nothing to do with Asad's madness, rather he wanted to cast a spell on him so that he vanishes from the face of the earth.
He sighed deeply. His stupid heart was to be blamed. The women in front of him had the extra ordinary ability to make him do things he would never do otherwise, and the sad part was that she didn't even know that yet.
"Dekhiye Umeed." Farjaad bagan, his voice calm "maine aapko pehle bhi kaha hai ek dafa phir kehta hoon. Meri in sab main koi involvement nahi hai. Asad ko kai dafa maine samjhaya bhi hai...par I think ye nayi problem aapki khud ki create ki hui hai."
" Hain? Maine kya kiya? Board le ke kar aapke office ke bahair khadi thi kya 'ki aye Asadullah main aapkey hi intezaar main nazare jhukaye baithi hoon'. Was her sarcastic reply.
"Naahi, par business partner toh apne hi banaya tha." Also, the reason why he was so miffed. The idea of his cousin being her business partner wasn't boding well with him.
He was right. She did agree to the partnership, but only when AK had promised that their equation would remain strictly professional.
"Toh-toh kya karti? Ek uss Ghalib ne hi mere ideas main interest dikhaya tha. Baakiyon ko toh lagta hai ki main bewakoof hoon." She spoke, defending her decision.
