Anahita finished typing the report and quickly went through it. It was perfect. She stepped out of her room and went to the one in front of her. She knocked but there wasn't any response. She knocked again.
"Mr. Gupta?" Still no response. She checked her watch. 3 p.m. There won't be any woman in sir's office right now. None of his ex girlfriends were entertained before 5 p.m. Then why wasn't he responding? After a brief hesitation slowly she opened the door and looked inside. The room was empty.
"Sir?" she called. Then she heard the sound of the tap being turned off from the bathroom and sighed. Okay. It was nature's call.
She looked around. She absolutely loved her boss's office. It was so stylish and yet so comforting. The walls were light cream in color and the sharp dark brown furniture completely matched with them. The lush red carpet was a treat to eyes and the huge French windows provided a beautiful view of the sea side of Mumbai. The balcony was full of flowery plants and the money plant right in its centre looked just perfect. The huge office table had a I-want-to-do-lots-and-lots-of-work like feel to it and the bookshelf in the corner was highly impressive. In short, the office was a perfect mixture of personal and professional attributes. When she had come here for the first time, she had badly wished to work in this room. Her cabin was nice too but it didn't stand in front of this one.
She was so lost in admiring the plants of red roses that she didn't hear the door being opened and shut.
"Yes Anahita?"
She turned. "Sir I..." and dropped the file. Ashutosh was shirtless and was lightly drying his hair with a towel. There were several droplets of water on his shoulders that were ready to roll all the way down to his perfect bare torso and his wet hair were on his forehead.
With a scream she turned and shut her eyes tightly. But apparently that wasn't enough to make her forget the drool worthy view of his perfect abs so she placed her hands on her eyes.
"Hey relax" Ashutosh said lazily in an amused voice.
"Couldn't you warn me?" Anahita muttered angrily.
"I wasn't sleeping you know. Maybe then I would've had a dream that you're going to come in my office at" Ashutosh looked at his watch "3:05. I would've taken the shower later."
"But you always take a shower at 4. Why did you take it before today?" Anahita still had her hands on her eyes.
"You can't always expect me to follow the time table. I have my moods." Ashutosh twitched and put on his shirt.
"Of course" Anahita muttered to herself. "The last thing I can expect from you is to be organized."
"I heard that"
"As if that would make any difference"
"I heard that too" Anahita groaned. "Alright, turn around. I'm decent"
Anahita opened her eyes and turned but didn't look at him. She bent and picked up the file and still without looking at him kept it on his table.
"This is the report of all the complaints made by the general manager of Hotel Marina. I've fixed a meeting of you both on Saturday after lunch."
"Saturday as in this Saturday?" Ashutosh asked as he picked the file. Good that Anahita wasn't looking at him. At least they wouldn't fight upon why he was smiling.
"Yes"
"Postpone it to Monday. I'm busy this weekend."
"Yes sir" She began to leave.
"What? No twenty questions about what work and all?" Ashutosh asked with raised eyebrows.
"I'm sure if it would be related to work, you'll tell me yourself" Anahita replied without turning.
"Come on. Are you still mad about that argument? Anahita that was two days back"
"It's 3:10 sir. If you would let me leave I'll arrange for your coffee"
"Alright" Ashutosh sat on his chair. "What is it going to take to sort it out? I can't stand a beautiful girl angry with me, you know that right?"
At this, Anahita turned and gave him her best professional smile that spelled trouble with a capital T. "Please don't bother yourself with unnecessary matters sir" she said in an icily polite tone. "Your secretary is not leaving you."
"Anahita?" Ashutosh called her seriously when she turned to leave. He could see her reluctance as she turned. "I have a strong reason for not going to the orphanage" he said quietly. "I hope you leave it at that and forget about that argument."
Anahita looked at him for a moment then said "I'm not continuing any argument sir. We have a...healthy working relationship. I would prefer to maintain it. In fact, I think I should apologize."
"Apologize? You?" Ashutosh couldn't hide his shock that almost made her smile but she didn't. She wasn't going to try to understand his problem. She wasn't even going to pretend.
"Yes sir. I apologize for behaving unprofessionally that evening. That was uncalled for. You're my boss and so it's my duty to do as you say. I should've done your work without expecting anything in return. It was unprofessional of me to force you to attend any place. For that, I'm sorry and I assure you, it won't happen again."
Ashutosh sighed inwardly. Really. The girl was as stubborn as a mule.
"Now, I would like to take your leave." With that she turned and quickly left the room as if she couldn't wait to get out of it. After some time, Ashutosh opened his drawer and took out that envelope of Love Your Dreams foundation but then kept it inside again. No, he couldn't do it. He just couldn't.
"Strong reason for not going to the orphanage? Huh" Anahita muttered to herself after ordering for Ashutosh's coffee. "Excuses, excuses. He can spend hours in buying lingerie for his girlfriends as well as ex girlfriends but when it comes to doing some real good deed, then Ashutosh Gupta would be the last in line. Rascal."
