Akshara looked at her screen unable to focus on work. She kept looking at the time to see when it would be ten, so she could meet with Abhimanyu.
She justified her impatience as a result of her excitement to work on the project and not about seeing or spending time with him.
“Why do you look so lost?” Nia asked from the door of Akshara’s office.
Akshara rolled her eyes. “Is it that obvious?”
Nia stepped into Akshara’s office, closing the door behind her. “You called me for something yesterday and decided not to tell me. What’s going on?”
Akshara let out a sigh. “Nia, I’m going nuts.” “About?”
“God, this is so embarrassing.” She pressed her fingers to her temple.
Nia was taken aback. “Really. I thought I am your best friend.”
“Nia, it’s not that. It’s so weird that I find this hard to discuss with you because it is work-related.”
“Am I getting fired?” Nia laughed.
Akshara let out a sigh before ushering her friend to come into the office and close the door. “It’s about Abhimanyu.”
“You have the hots for him?” Nia winked and added, “You and every other single woman on the corporate campus.”
“What?”
Nia laughed. “You don’t spend enough time in the cafeteria to find out how many hearts he has broken. The number of women who had asked him out, tried to ask him out, and the rest of us who just look and enjoy. What category are you?”
Akshara was somewhat relieved and surprised at the same time. “Seriously?”
Nia shrugged. “If you are in the category where you find him hot, but you know you can’t really do anything about it, you are fine. You’ll get over him. He is the kind of guy who gets everyone crushing over him, and I’m impressed that he managed to get you all hot.”
Akshara hushed. “Nia, we are in the office, and we are the HR Department. Let’s not discuss this anymore.”
“Dude, we are only talking about a hot guy. He is gorgeous, and there is no denying it. Plus, there is no rule that we shouldn’t date our co-workers. By the way, he is not really our co-worker.”
Akshara shook her head. “This is exactly what he said to me in my dreams.”
“Oh, so you are in the dream phase. Next, you will get into the I-need-to-talk-to-him-all-the- time phase, and poof… you will be fine. It’s a crush, enjoy it.”
Akshara knew what her friend was talking about was the sweet and platonic crush that women feel toward an attractive man.
What she had dreamed about was too raunchy to discuss even with her best friend, so she kept it to herself. “I have to work with him, and it’s so unprofessional of me to think of him like that.”
“So, you were probably the only one who has spent so much time with him to the point where some of the girls even thought you were just making excuses to meet with him.” Nia laughed.
“What the heck, that’s just ridiculous. I was making sure he was the right fit for the team, and the weeks after weeks I met with him, I felt nothing. I just… I need to stop thinking about it and go back to the mode I was in when I first met him.”
Nia looked at her for a long moment. “So, you didn’t drool over him the moment you saw him?”
“Seriously? No, I did not. I’m not blind to his model- like looks, but that was it. What I feel now, it’s weird. I know it is this intense attraction, and it’s somewhat scary, too.”
