Journey Of Strokes

CHAPTER 10

Aarohi's POV

I do my usual morning routine and reach the office by 9:00 a.m. I place my bag on the table, take out my laptop, and get to work. As today is the final presentation submission, I make final changes, send the final presentation to the HR team, and also back up the file.

At 10:00 am, Avika, as always, comes to let me know about today's schedule. Today is the final meeting for the book. I take all the materials and go outside toward the meeting room. I smile once I see Karan also coming towards the meeting room. He opens the door and lets me walk in first. As soon as I walk in, I come face-to-face with the Director of the illustration company, the Senior designer, and all the artists. I try to maintain my composure and try not to lose my temper in the presence of the director.

The meeting concludes smoothly without much disturbance from the director. All the changes and minor detailing were completed, and it is ready to go for printing. Before everyone prepares to leave, I quickly save the edited file on the laptop, and I stand in front of the table and say, "Thank you for your cooperation, everyone. Wishing the book its best and hopeful cooperation in the future with the artist ." I conclude. Seeing all the artists having satisfactory and happy looks on their faces as they have worked their butt off day and night for this book, makes me happy. I smile "As today we have finished the final draft, it would be nice if we could all have lunch together." I say and wait for their reply. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Karan walking towards me and standing beside me. As we make eye contact, I smile at him.

Everyone agreed to join, so we decided to go to the nearest restaurant. As we all gather near the restaurant, we are led into a private room, which Karan had booked. I was about to pull out the chair when I felt a hand on top of mine. I quickly take out my hand while looking at the other hand. I see the director giving me a sly smile. I roll my eyes and go and sit beside Avika. Karan takes a seat beside me. Soon, in the room, everyone is interacting with each other, and subconsciously, a smile plasters on my face. I interact with all the artists and wish them the best in their careers.

The lunch goes pretty well, and we all part ways. Me and Karan come back together and immediately enter one of the smaller meeting rooms and get to work on finalizing the book cover. We attend the meeting with the printing company and finalize and mail the book cover to them.

It is almost evening by the time all the meetings finish, but me and Karan are still in the meeting room to finalize the final draft. I was so immersed in editing that I didn't notice that Karan had left the room just to come back with an iced tea and coffee in his hand. The feeling of a cold cup against my hand brings me back to reality. I look up at Karan, to see him smiling, and place the cup near my hand. I thank him, and we get back to work.

I save the file and sigh, closing the laptop. Finally, the final draft of the book is done. I look at the time on the phone, which shows 8:00 p.m. I pack all my stuff and meet Karan near the elevator, and we go down together. "Did you send in your presentation to HR?" He nods his head. "Ms. Roy, this time I'm not holding back! I plan on bringing my A-game and giving you some serious competition." He says it with a smirk on his face. I smile "Well, I love a good challenge. Just be prepared to be dazzled by my skills."

I reach home, change into some comfortable clothes, and cook myself a light dinner. I bring my laptop, set it on the table, and simultaneously scroll through the edited version while eating dinner. Finally, at 11:00 pm, I completed looking through the whole file and sent a copy of the edited file to Karan and also my email just in case, and I go to sleep.

PING! PING! PING! 

I'm woken up in the middle of the night by my phone buzzing with notifications. I reach out for the phone on the bedside table. When the time flashes at 3:00 am, I blink my eyes a few times to clear my vision. The screen is buzzing again, showing a notification from G-mail. I look through the notifications, which says that someone was trying to log in to my Gmail account. I quickly get up from the bed, switch on the laptop, and try to open Gmail from my laptop.