The Unnecessary Alliance

THE BOARD

AADISH's POV

I walk straight towards my office, totally ignoring my phone that continues to blow up with calls from people who want answers. Because they are not the ones I want to talk to.

She hasn't called me till now. It makes me mad, frustrated and sad at the same time. I am like a teenager waiting for a girl to call, while she continues to ignore him.

The voices of people around me are just a dull blur in the background. My sole focus is on the screen in front of me, hoping for it to light up with a very familiar nickname.

And when it does, my body goes cold and my heart pounds in my chest.

Motioning with my fingers, I ask my secretary, Shefali and her assistant Riddhima to leave.

I answer the call and put it on my right ear.

"Hey!" I say, trying my best to mask my nervousness.

When she greets I can hear the slight tremble in her voice and the sniffling of her nose. Panic rises in my chest making my blood flow faster in my veins.

"Vanie, are you crying?"

"I'm not Vanie," she says.

My forehead creases with confusion. Even though I know exactly what she means, how can I call her Roses.

"I am you Roses, Aadi. You can't take that away from me."

The helplessness in her voice renders me speechless for a second. My throat tightens and my heart flutters in my chest.

"I know. It's just that last time I called you that, you didn't react well." I tell her.

The line is silent for a few seconds, but not completely silent. I can hear her snivels through the speaker. And then she breaks the silence to apologise.

The hurt, the pain, the regret and the guilt reflects clearly in her voice. The thing about people who wear their heart on their sleeves is that you can always know what their intentions are.

We continue to talk, she tells me why the video made her upset and I listen patiently even though I know exactly why it hurt her the way it did.

This is something I have learnt from my own insecurities. We all have triggers, triggers that push us to do terrible things. For me it was accepting that love is true and that I could actually love someone. And for her it was thinking that no one will love her for just being her, for just existing. For her it was having to buy someone's love.

If I hadn't witnessed how her parents treated her all these years, as she had to prove her worth or bring something to the table to be loved, I wouldn't have understood her reaction at all. But I was there all along, a silent spectator. I needed her to know what she meant to me, even if that meant losing my clients, company's stocks or money.

She is more important. She always has been.

But I just can't get myself to call her Roses again. It's like the name sits on the tip of my tongue but I can't get it out, so I swallow it back.

And when she tells me that she misses me, a plethora of emotions fill my chest. This statement doesn't even begin to describe the feelings I have. I have craved her, her soothing voice and the warmth of her body.

That video was carefully extracted to portray me in a bad light. And I will never forget Sidya, the fucking wild cat, for it.

When she asks to meet me, every cell in my body screams at me and asks me to say yes. But I can't. There are certain obligations I have to my company and my people. They deserve answers.