Melting Hearts

Part 22 - Handshake

***Sahana's P. O. V***

Pressing the right arrow of the keyboard, I ran through the presentation I'd prepared, again. The meeting was due in 20 minutes and Arush sir had already pinged me twice to come to the meeting room.

Taking one last deep calming breath, I sent a mental prayer to Lord Krishna and taking my phone, laptop and my laptop charger, rushed into meeting room 3.

I peeped into the room to find Raj, Arush sir and a stranger, all sitting around the conference table.

Arush sir whipped his head around, and his slightly apprehensive and angry face split into a warm smile as he nodded at me to enter.

Smiling back at him, I entered the room and sat at the chair next to him, the one that he'd indicated for me to sit.

Placing my things on the table, and taking calming breaths, I looked around - there were two other empty chairs next to the stranger.... possibly they were yet to come.

I took a few timid glances at the stranger - more deviation to calm my mind and not think about the meeting. This dude was possibly in his late 20s or early 30s, wearing rimless glasses and had a kind face. His hair was set in a near crop using copious amount of hair gel. He was smartly dressed in a royal blue suit and light blue shirt and royal blue tie. He smiled at me which I returned rather nervously.

I heard a clearing of throat and looked around at Raj who was smiling to himself and taking out his phone, and then there was Arush sir who looked angrier than I've ever seen him! His jaw was set and it looked like he was grinding his teeth, though his eyes were stuck on his laptop screen which was only displaying his home screen.

As soon as Arush sir's angry gaze clashed with mine, I thought some unknown emotion passed through his eyes before he let out a deep breath and ever so slightly shook his head. I even thought that he looked little less angry, and his jaw wasn't as tightly clenched as before.

Nevertheless, I felt a different sort of shiver pass through me and I rather thought that I'd best not shift my gaze at anyone else now.

Keeping my gaze fixed on my laptop screen, I continued going through the presentation I'd prepared. Just then, a message popped on the messenger of my laptop screen, and I couldn't help smile reading the message. It was from Arush sir -

'the presentation looks good. Don't worry you've put excellent effort. The meeting will go fine. Don't worry because you'll be brilliant'

Unable to stop smiling or even stop blushing slightly, I typed a reply to him  and sent -

'thank you sir :) '

I stopped smiling the moment I heard the door open and looked around to find two strangers entering the room. Biting my lower lip nervously, looked at my watch - 2pm....time for the meeting.

The two strangers sat down at the table, on the remaining empty chairs, and smiled at us. I smiled back a little nervously. The two strangers were both middle aged and again, had a kind face. One of them was dressed in a grey suit paired up with a beige shirt and dark blue tie, whilst the other one was dressed in a black colored suit and light blue shirt, with light blue tie.

"Mr. Sharma... Is she the one you were talking about?" asked the guy in grey suit, nodding his head towards me.

"Ah yes... This is Sahana Agarwal... She's the major contributor to this project, hence I thought that it'd be better if she presented.... I hope you don't mind?" Arush sir asked, a little nervous himself.

"Oh not at all... That's what I always say Mr. Sharma.... the one who pitches the idea can only convincing talk about it. Nobody else can have that passion right?" said the dude in black suit.