Soothe My Heart

2. The Vulnerable Duo

*The presentation finishes*

Everyone from the clients team post and get their questions on it resolved. From the looks of it, the proposal feels like a big success. Bela starts to feel at ease, just then Rivaan stands-up and says, "Its indeed a pretty proposal. I'd love to get started on it ASAP. Send me the time-lines, I'd love to start working on it. Great work Miss. Bela and team."

With utmost surprise and a lot of relief, Bela replies "Sure sir, We are glad you liked it. Looking forward for the future collaboration..." just then Rivaan inturrpts her and says "Please don't call me sir, its corporate and we are colleagues now, I'd prefer Rivaan, you can also call me Ri" to which Bela says, "sure, Rivaan."and then they both exchange smiles.

After a little detail discussion, director takes the team for a lunch. Post lunch, Bela rushes back to Akiran's work station. "GUESS WHATTT!!I DID IT!WE'RE WORKING ON IT, ITS ALL DECIDED." she shouts to Akiran. Akiran stands-up and they both start jumping and lowly screaming. 

"That calls for a celebration Miss. Bela, lets leave early and have a little party" says Akiran. 

"Oh! for sure, but now I kinda hate Miss. Bela, the flirty director just over-used it in the meet. He's kinda annoying." replies Bela. 

"Director? you mean from XXXX?" asks Akiran. 

"Yeah, I bumped into him at the coffee shop today, my coffee was all over him. He tried to use the situation to flirt, but I put him at his place. Even during the presentation he was creepy, but I over-looked his actions. Creepos are all-over these days." explains Bela.

"Girl, do you even know who he is" interrupts Akiran. 

** Rivaan's intro and his aesthetics**

Rivaan, true to his name, is a very ambitious guy. He is hard-working and self-sufficient, with a kind and supportive nature. Rivaan believes in staying grounded in all aspects of life. Usually very calm, he won't hesitate to show his cool boxing kicks if you really piss him off. He enjoys cooking, swimming, and reading, considering them essential for every human. Being his friend could be a fortune because he is very generous and always offers help whenever required.

***

"I know he is the director of XXXX and he is now also the product manager for this project" replies Bela. 

"NO, remember that one company both of us tried but got rejected multiple times, later we found that it was in depths and thanked god we didn't got into it" adds Akiran.

"yeah, yeah the BLABLA company, what about it?" asks Bela. 

"He just bought that company recently, and made amends to it. His practices were soo good that it went from $300 billion depth to $500 profits in just a year. Talks are that he is the smartest lad in the whole company, plus his father owns ABC. He refused to be a part of his dads company, he hates the nepotism talks so much that just to prove his skill he acquired BLABLA and started this XXXX from scratch" explains Akiran. 

"Oh, just like the movies and dramas i guess. Good for him. I guess that attitude of his, comes from this history." says Bela. 

"But, what if he becomes your next boyfriend. Not bad at all, you know he's good at swimming, once.." teases Akiran. 

"Aki! stop. He can't. I feel like he's the type who just replaces girlfriends every week. Plus I don't like his creepy talks. Lets just don't talk about him anymore. Where shall we go for our little party" replies Bela. 

"Okay, okay. Lets do BBQ today! There's a new restaurant at the edge of this lane, lets go there" suggests Akiran. 

**At the BBQ**

Bela and Akiran start their celebration with a good amount of smoky meat. Some plates down both decide to take something to drink, to make enhance the whole BBQ experience. After a lot of mutual discussion, they decided to order alcohol but they promised to each other they'd not drink more than two glasses. They took the expensive one from the list of flavors and started helping each other. 

**two bottles of alcohol and 5 plates each of smoky meat later**

Bela started bawling again, she starts remincising how she misses her ex and how she longed to share this proposal acceptance with him. Akiran on the other side is half-conscious, not even in a state to conceal Bela. The staff manages to wake them up after 30 minutes, almost at the closing time of store. Bela and Akiran try to walk on the pathway, they are both tripping, Akiran is hardly awake. Bela is shouting, singing and crying. The almost get hit by a car but then someone from the behind holds Bela. 

Its Rivaan. Bela starts to rest her head on his shoulder. Rivaan calls a taxi, asks her where she lives, she somehow recites her address and Rivaan asks the driver to safely drop them there. Two minutes later, he decides to safely drop them at home and then return, so he joins them in the cab. He sits beside Bela towards the window. Akiran almost asleep. 

Bela suddenly starts to cry, bitterly, she starts hitting Rivaan while saying, "Why are you soo late? What took you soo long to come? I was very alone without you. I could hardly eat, sleep or do anything I used to do happily earlier. What did I do to deserve the silence, I hate it. I hate it soo much..." **weeps** "look thats the coffee shop, we used to meet there, do you know how many coffees, how many days, how many months I spend there waiting that someday you'll return?"

"Bela, wake-up. Come to your senses" interrupts Rivaan. "Ssshh! I AM. I am in my senses. Yoouu ar-re Siddarth. Sheee is Aaakiran and I-I am Bela. Thanks for coming Siddarth, I missed you.. soo much! pleasee dd-on't leave m-me now!" Bela dozes off on Rivaans shoulder.

Rivaan takes Akiran and Bela inside Bela's house. While he starts to leave, Bela catches his hands and says in a low voice, "Dear Stranger, thank you! I know you're not Siddarth, he would never..... anyways thank you for letting me vent. I needed it. You're the kindest man ever. Here, please take my card, give me a call I'd compensate for cab tomorrow when I am better."

This time, Rivaan just accepts the card and leaves Bela's house.