That Desi Romance

10. WORK WIFE

Avantika's POV

"I don't care if you have to work 50 hours a week! If I'm giving this my all, I expect you guys to reciprocate. You're not doing anybody any favours, you're just doing what you're paid for. And very generously might I add."

God, he's at it again.

It's been 2 weeks since I've started working on my project for S&S. And it's been...fun, to say the least.

I've kept my conversation with Aksh on rakhi aside and refrained myself from inquiring Lakshya about it. Partly because it's supposed to be a strictly professional environment; and partly because I don't know what to say or what to expect him to say. But I still can't help constantly thinking about it though.

"Ab kya kiya in logo ne?" Rudra came up beside me, putting his ear near the office door, much alike my position.

I shrugged, genuinely unaware of what those poor people did to dig their graves this time.

I was originally in front of Lakshya's office to discuss the final design of the office walls and give his sleep deprived employees some much needed coffee.

But that soon became an eavesdropping session with Rudra as my partner in crime. And since I'm just standing here, outside his office for a few minutes now holding a dozen coffee cups in both my hands and waiting for Lakshya's all consuming rage on his poor employees to burn the whole building down.

And what else could I do? I've seen Lakshya angry, when Rudra, being Rudra, pissed him off or when my brother came up with the quirkiest nicknames for him, but never in this way; never in a way where others needed to be scared of him. And I've especially never seen his anger directed at me or because of me, and I didn't have much of a desire to change that now.

"Oyy. Jaa na andar." Rudra wisper-yelled at me beside him, giving him a little nudge towards the door.

"Haa haa bhej de tu mujhe hi bhukhe sher ke muh mein." I resisted his push and squinted my eyes at him.

"Bhai ek tu hi hai puri duniya mein jo uske gusse se sabko bacha sakti hai. Jaa abhi."

Before I could process his words, the door to hell opened and I was pushed in, almost tripping over  on my way.

And with that, the entire room went silent, and everyone's eyes were on me. And I hadn't even recovered from Rudra's treachery yet, to push your own comerade in the enemy territory like this? You will pay, Shekhawat Jr.

Taking all the time in the world, I looked up at the eyes of the man across the room.

Not gonna lie, I half expected lasers to come out of his eyes, turning me into nothing but ashes; Superman style, bitches.

Instead, I found the untameable ocean....calm? Or at least, beginning to calm down. Shoulders dropping, pupils dilating, all the traites gone that there was ever a man there who was capable of being angry.

Soon enough, my chain of thoughts was broken when he raised his brow in question and I looked around finding everyone staring at me, some literally on a verge of crying.

Okay, time to bring out the big guns.

"Uhh....peace offering?" I lifted the coffee container in one of my hands, putting on my best puppy face.

Now, everyone's attention was on him -each with their own version of what I thought was a puppy face- and his, on me.

For a freakishly long moment, he just looked at me, eyes narrowed to slits. Not blinking, not moving, just staring at me.