I wish I could

Chapter 7

“For how long you two have been together? You and Steve.” Ella asked and I was taken completely aback by her question.

Why would she ask that? What did she want to know exactly?

 I wanted to answer that we’ve been together since years but I am a terrible liar. Anyone can catch my lies easily and she would have probably found the truth from anyone in our friend circle. And maybe, she already knew and she was just testing me. So I decided to go with the truth.

“Five months.” I answered.

“Just five months?” I can bet even now that she was trying hard to fight her expressions and emotions of sheer astonishment plus relaxation and I couldn’t understand any of those expressions of her.

“Yeah, why are you so surprised?” I asked.

But before she could answer, my phone started ringing. Damn these cell phones! Why do they always ring at the wrong time?

I picked it up and found that it was Alan.

“Hey Zara! I wanted to know if you have any classes today. Or are you done with them already?” He asked.

“Its weekend Alan, why would I be attending classes? But what is the matter? Why are you asking this?”

“That’s because our not-so-cruel-yet-pathetic boss just called up to say that she wants both of us to finish the States Project in 6 days and submit the reports next Saturday morning.” He said sarcastically.”And when I argued that it is impossible to get it done within 6 days, she simply said, in that case, we might consider ourselves to be fired already.” He added.

“WHAT?”I jumped to my feet forgetting everything else except for the fact that I was just about to get fired from my dream job.

“How could she do this? A month’s work to be done in just 6 days? Has she completely lost it? I mean what’s wrong with her?” Panic had already struck my mind by then.

When I was offered the States Project, I was really excited because people don’t offer such huge projects to new interns who have just started their training. And I had decided that I’ll be giving my best in this project although we both knew that the 30-day time which we were given was very less time to complete it. But we could have managed it. Alan was more experienced than me. And I had a feeling that everything will go well. But now, everything was ruined.

“I don’t know. She isn’t listening also. So the only option we are left with is to complete the project in 6 days. Because getting fired is out of question for both of us. So, can you please come over to my place as soon as possible because we have a very little time and a gigantic amount of work to be done? Okay?” He said trying to sound as calm as he could. Coz he knew it very well that if he was also going to panic, then we’ll be under a great pressure and no work will be done at all.

“Yeah, I’ll come right away. But tell me first which reading lists and reports you want me to bring. I’ll bring all the required stuff with me.”

“I have almost everything and I’m still collecting more stuff. You just have to bring the previous years’ reports on which you were working. I’ll handle the rest. Okay?”

“Yeah alright, I’ll bring them all along. Anything else?”

“And yes, since we’ll be working non-stop for the next 6 days, so I would suggest that you come over here with some clothes and stuff so that you can stay over here at night when we work till late. This is my suggestion so as to avoid wastage of time, rest as you may wish to do.” He said.

“Umm…Alright. I’ll bring my stuff along, coz 6 days is already very less time and I can’t even think of wasting more time by moving here and there.”