ᴇx-ʙᴏʏʀꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅ, ɴᴇxᴛ ʜᴜꜱʙᴀɴᴅ

Chapter 12

Yuvaan

She deserves it. That's all I've been telling myself for the last 24 hours. Ever since I found out she has been hospitalized, my mind was shaken.
That girl used to be my heartbeat.
She isn't anymore.

Should I go see her? Should I message her?
No. Why?

I stormed in my office and went back to work, but there was no focus. After 3 meetings, 2 deals and 5 work updates, I finally took a break to myself after 4 hours. I walked around the office, even walked into the IBM building nearby to see if she arrived - she didn't. 
She's hospitalized bro, how will she come?

I was about to turn until I saw Neel walking into the building. What's he doing here?
I followed him inside and saw him talk to the guard, "Hi. My sister left her laptop here, where can I find her cabin. Nishtha Yadav."
Her laptop. She left it with me.
I quickly went to my car and got it back and placed it in a random table in IBM. I then saw Neel walk towards my direction, and I acted unaware of him being there.
"Oh. Neel? Hi?" I said.
"Hi." He replied.
"Is everything okay?"
"Di forget her laptop here. I can't find it."
"There was one in this room where you sat, you want to check that out?"
"Sure." He walked into the room and aspected the laptop, "Yep it's this one."
"Where is your sister? Her laptop is here but she isn't?"
"She... she's hospitalized."
"Oh... I see. Why? What happened?"
"I don't know, she was found unconscious in the temple yesterday, the same temple you two used to...." He looked down.
After 20 sec of silence, I said, "is she fine now?"
"No, she's still there. She got a fever up to 105 yesterday, and she's still recovering. She's been put in the observation." He said.
This is all because of me.
No, she... deserves...
It's because of me.
"Ah, well, take care, you and her." I said and he left.

I need to see her. Which hospital is she in?!
I found the closet hospital to the temple and drove there fast. Upon reaching I looked to see her and finally found her.
She looked pale.
She was asleep, with aunty uncle next to her.
I haven't seen them in years. 
I felt my mind fog through memories of aunty feeding me my favourite Marathi food, uncle sharing his franchise plans with me. 

I felt weird seeing her with those tubes through her hand. I looked around, then walked away.

Next Day.

"The launch is in 2 days. Everyone has RSVPed. We are good to go." I declared and an applause erupted through the room.
"Now, I'll take lead with Rupert, but I still want everyone in the team to be present. This is as much your success as it is mine, so be there and you will find your seat on the stage. Dismissed."
When I was alone with Rupert, he spoke, "Hi."
"What's up?"
"Yuvaan, Nishtha has said no to coming."
"What?"
"As you may be aware, she is hospitalized."
"Still?"
"We haven't heard back yet, if she has been let go but she has been told to practice complete bed rest for the next week."
"What about her work? Did you let her off?"
"We tried but she managed to complete everything, infact even the presentation and numbers today were done by her."
She is great at her job.
"Okay, just send her an email requesting for her to be there. She'll listen."
"Maybe, I can do it now, here she is."
My eyes darted towards the entrance where I saw Nishtha standing, looking at us.
What's she doing here?
She looked very weak.

She walked in and greeted Rupert and sat on the chair, "Sorry, I can't stand for too long."
"How are you now?" Rupert asked.
"I'm good, thank you for asking."
I walked over to her, "I hope you're okay now."
She didn't look at me, "Fine Sir." She said and got up and walked to the other end of the room.
Why did that hurt me?
"Umm, Nishtha, I know it's too soon, but is there any chance that you can come to the launch party this weekend?" Rupert asked.
"I wanted to talk to you about that Sir." She said.
"Go ahead."
"In private, if that's okay?"
"Unfortunately it concerns both members, if it's about the launch party so no it's not okay." I said, looking at her.
Her eyes didn't meet mine.
"That's fair." She turned to Rupert, "Sir, I was hoping you'd accept my request. I'd like to resign."
"What?!" Rupert said in shock.
I was in shock as well.
"Why this sudden decision?" Rupert asked.
"Let me explain Sir. I would like to be associated ONLY with IBM. So I'd like to resign from the venture and work only as a Data Engineer at IBM. I hope that's okay."
"But what about the launch event?"
"By all means, I'll be there, but after that, I'd like to come back and work only at IBM."
"That's fine but you should know, you'd get a lot of exposure and learning at the venture."
"Don't worry Sir. I got my learning already. I'd like to stay in IBM before I get any remarks as being called a mistake in their company."

She said and left.
Leaving me in a mess.

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