Not You

Chapter 7

Tap tap tap

She scratched her nose, adjusted her headphones and presented the next slide in an earnest voice. After hearing the other party's query and solving it, she took a sip of coffee, made a silent face of disgust and swallowed the cold, too sweet concoction.

"Adi!"

She looked up and made a gesture to get the person to lower his voice and pointed at her headset. Anand lowered his voice and whispered as he neared her desk, "This came for you."

She nodded and smiled with a quirk in her brow. Anand smiled and shrugged. He held up a notepad that already read, "Nope no note."

She frowned. Without thinking, he flipped the page. It read, "I know!"

She laughed silently and went back to her call. Anand tapped her desk and held up the notepad again. It read, "We clearly need to talk..."

She smiled and shrugged this time. He shook his head disbelievingly and walked away.

After another half an hour, she got off the call and exhaled. Her eyes then fell on the bouquet that Anand had brought. She pulled it towards it and frowned uncertainly at the strange flowers. And then she realized they weren't flowers.

"So who's sending you cookies?"

She looked up and saw Anand sitting on her desk and plucking a gold foil wrapped cookie from the bouquet and unwrapping it swiftly.

"Wait so this is a cookie bouquet?"

He laughed and nodded. He then munched on one and said, "This is really good. Try one."

She shot up an eyebrow and pulled it from his hand. He persisted, "Who sent it?"

She pulled another cookie and said, "You know you'd be the last person I'd tell if I knew."

He rolled his eyes. She giggled and handed him another cookie.

The matter ended there for now. So did the cookies.

A few hours later...

"Okay honestly, what did you do?"

Aditi didn't look up from her report. She kept scanning it with keen eyes and was on her fourth cup of coffee for the day. She mumbled absently, "What?"

Anand kept a big paper bag on her desk and kept tapping on the wooden surface of her desk until she looked up. She peered into the open top of the bag and saw several cans of Sour Cream and Onion Pringles cans staring back at her. She let out a small squeal and pulled out a can in child-like delight. Anand looked bemusedly at her and asked, "Have you managed to charm some foreign returned gentleman?"

She shook her head as she ate a chip and savoured the flavour with great relish. And then with a sudden jolt, she remembered a black sweatshirt with the foreigny scent. She heard the words masked behind a teasing grin.

"I'll pay you back, don't you worry."

Author's Note: Happy Valentine's Day, people! I knew I had to write no matter what! The day of romance and no chapter? Uh uh! Not happening! Also, if I delayed another day, I think my friend F would be at my doorstep breaking my door down. This one is for you, F! <3 I hope you all had a great day!Hopefully, I'll be putting another chapter up soon. Until then, happy Monday!:) - S