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"What are you doing here?" he asks me, his eyes raking over my drenched body and widening. Instantly, he opens the door further, allowing me to slip inside and grab a towel from somewhere, handing it to me.
My sobs may have taken a backseat f...
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I’ve always thought myself to be a very calm, gentle man, especially when it comes to dealing with my family and business. They’re the two most important things in my life and also the ones that matter the most. For as long as I can remember, I’ve taken my wins humbly and my losses even more so but it’s the sight of this one girl — my girl — crying in my arms after a call with her father that has me unfocused, raged and livid.
It’s been four days since that evening and I’ve spent every hour of these days trying to pin down her father so I can knock some sense into him and warn him away from her. And I do believe this visit has been a long time coming.
As I step out of my office, my Papa finds me. “Where are you going?” he asks me casually, his tablet in his hand, his suit perfectly crisp and hair neatly styled, not looking a day above forty even though he’s well into his late fifties.
I button my own suit as we walk down the corridor together. “I’ve got something to deal with,” I say vaguely, not wanting him involved. I’m so much like my Papa, it’s insane but even then, our methods with dealing with problems is a tad bit different. He is more of an operations guy, he likes to work behind the scenes and let others handle confrontations from him while I love to walk into the scene and take matters into my own hands. It’s more related to this urge to control, to know, to understand everything about him.
Anaya talked me through it a few days ago when I threw a childish fit over Ma’s relentless need to hide her love story from us and while I do understand her, I need time to change. It’s not going to happen overnight and this urge is not going away completely. Especially when it concerns handling assholes like my father-in-law.
“Something I need to know?” he asks me, knowing not to question me but more because he trusts me to not do anything rash.
“Nah,” I say confidently and wave him off as the elevator leads us down. “I’ve got it handled.”
“Okay. Be careful. If you happen to talk to Anaya, tell her we miss her and would love to have her over during the weekend. Your Ma is really, really excited for the wedding and I would love to have some company,” he mutters as he sighs. I know Ma’s wearing him down after I totally backed off from engaging in marriage preparations so soon and I get where he’s coming from but my priority right now is Anaya. Papa can handle Ma.
“I’ll let you know after I ask her. She’s a little busy with her cafe renovations and interviewing staff. You know how it is in the beginning,” I say.
Papa nods as he exits the elevator on the second floor, probably meeting some of his HR friends and I let the elevator ride down to the basement where I get into my KIA Carens EV and turn it on as I speed out of our parking. Now don’t get me wrong, I am a guy and I do own some really expensive cars but I’d rather not run my babies down the unkept, filthy streets of Mumbai. My sweet Kia and Creta work just fine.
