Opposites attract

Chapter 5(Ashika)

Do I like bike rides? Yes.

Do I like bike rides with Neil? Not anymore.

Did I have any option? Not in hell.

My allergy was getting worse by every second. my tongue started swelling, cutting my oxygen supply and my skin started burning with heat even when the restaurant was fully air conditioned.

 I wasn't in a condition drive my car to home so when Neil offered to drop me, I didn't have the energy to refuse let alone argue.My assistant said she would take my car and park it in the office. This was the best possible plan at the moment.

I have severe allergy of eggplant since I was a kid and it's okay, I don't even like the vegetable. But today I was late for lunch and decided to eat whatever my staff had already ordered because I wanted to get out of the celebration a quickly as possible so I could resume with my work.

Sara our new associate had locked her first deal with some games/streamer for the campaign of Zebronics' new headphone range. I was really happy with her progress, considering she just joined the team a year ago. I had also given her a timeline for her project because Zebronics is a really important client for FLUTE and they give us business every few months with their new launches or updated products. 

But she really surprised me earlier today when she said she had locked in the contract with someone appropriate and popular. I didn't ask much questions since my assistant had already given Sara a green chit and I trusted both of them. Plus I have got limited knowledge in the gaming field.

All my happiness and pride on sara was gone the moment she asked to join her for lunch to celebrate the big success. I was caught off guard to be honest so I agreed to lunch because I didn't want to discourage her. Little did I know that it was not lunch but a lunch party as the greater half of my staff was present there. 

And what happened next was even more surprising as I saw Neil there when I was coughing like hell. He consoled me and patted my back but before that he blamed me for eating eggplant as I would have done that intentionally. There are times I want to forgive Neil but then he does stupid things like blaming me for having eggplant and I start hating him even more.

 Neil didn't just drop me home. He took me up to my floor, helped me with my keys and even gave me water to gulp down medicine. He also stayed to make sure I was better and ordered food online for both of us.

 By that moment I had established the fact that we were having lunch together. When the delivery person he arrived he paid for both us, now that was really unlike of him. But today everything about him has been different (apart from the eggplant comment of course).

I brought the plates from the kitchen and lay them on my dining table before taking the seat opposite from him. He had ordered Kathi Roll for me. He still remembers how much I love them.

"Did u poison these while I went to grab the plate?", I asked him.

"I wouldn't have brought you home if I wanted to kill you.", he answered with that stupid smirk of his.

"I am not too sure about that, maybe you thought my home was a safer place since I live alone and nobody will ever suspect it's you."

"You know what I think I should have poisoned your roll if this is how I get treated for being nice."

"I didn't mean—"

"Eat the damn roll Ashu"

I took a bite frustrated and hungry enough to argue anymore. We ate in silence but when our food was nearly over, he spoke again. "Sorry I called you Ashu again, I had promised you I wouldn't." ,his apology took me by surprise.