Tangled || ArShi FF

Chapter 1 (Part 1) - Something is brewing

(May 1)

***{Magnolia Head Office, New Delhi}***

Khushi's heels clacked on the cool marble floor as she walked to her corner office from the elevator. A trail of greetings erupted- "Good morning." "Good morning Ma'am." She gave a slight nod of her head in response, not looking at the horde of employees as she treaded ahead.

"Good morning Ma'am," she heard her personal secretary's voice.

"'Morning, Lavanya," she greeted in return.

Lavanya followed Khushi and entered her office. Khushi sat at her chair and Lavanya stood alert across the table.

Knowing her boss's temperament, Lavanya opened with the good news, "I got a reservation at LaAmbroisie for you and your cousin, at 2pm today."

LaAmbroisie was a chain of Michellin star fine-dining French restaurant recently opened in Delhi. The reservation for it was to be done weeks in advance since it was the current hottest spot in town.

This earned Lavanya a quick glance from Khushi. "LaAmbroisie? I asked you to book a table anywhere. Why the fancy one?" Clearly Lavanya was trying to soften out a blow.

Lavanya had been her longest secretary yet and a friend. Out of the 3 years that she was CEO, Lavyanva had been with her for all of them.

"Well..." Lavanya trailed, "Your 9am meeting with the PR from Channel 18 has been cancelled."

"Cancelled?" she asked, well aware of who had cancelled it.

"Umm... Sheetal Ma'am personally cancelled the meeting." Lavanya informed her.

Khushi stopped reading the briefs that Lavanya had meticulously arranged on her table last night. She pressed her back on the leather chair and sighed, "What is Sheetal up to now?"

Khushi's rivalry with Sheetal went back a long way- 12 years to be precise. Sheetal Kapoor was the MD of the Kapoor group of companies, which dealt in all sorts of businesses. Magnolia, a children's toy manufacturer was a small part of the massive Kapoor group. And Khushi was its CEO.

"She is cooking something," Lavanya told her, "I overheard her PA setting up a meeting with the company lawyers and then with her accountants too."

Lavanya's information gathering skill impressed Khushi. She thanked her and set her off. Walking over to the huge glass windows, Khushi took in the view ahead- the city skyline and the morning sun shining brightly, and reflected.

Khushi's first job out of college was in Magnolia. She had interned here, every summer for 3 years of her undergrad and 2 years during her MBA- A total of being associated with the firm for 12 long years.

Sheetal's late father, Sunil was Khushi's mentor and father figure. The man had vision; he knew how to convert those visions into tangible assets yet he had a heart of gold. He was a businessman and a philanthropist.

Khushi first met him when he came to her college for a function as a chief guest. His speech, his determination, the way he talked about his companies- moved her. She applied for her first internship to Kapoor Industries and was offered one in the then upcoming and small toy company- Magnolia (one of the many Sunil Kapoor owned).

Slowly by the dint of her hard work and acumen, she made herself visible to Sunil. As she graduated from MBA school, 5 years later, he straightaway offered her a job- that of a manager in Magnolia. From manager, she made her way up, taking the firm along on the ascend. That was 7 years back. She and the company had never looked back.

When she began at Magnolia, they were hardly a dozen people. Now they had close to 100. It was still less in size as compared to the other companies in Kapoor Group but it was her baby. She had toiled hard to make it grow. And Sunil had seen this. He admired her dedication to a firm, which had been on the backburner ever since it's conception. He knew how hard she worked to take an underdog, an underperformer and carve a name for it among the competitors.