An Imperial Affliction

Chapter 10 - Indifferent is not a reaction

Indifferent is not a reaction, it's another type of expression. If it was not, it would be normal and not Indifference.

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"Aha!" cried Sameer mockingly as the ETF team burst through the door, "who knew we would find the CEO of a multi-million dollar Enterprise in a wife-beater, with his secretary on desk?"

"Well," Rawte mused, casually looking over everywhere and to the CEO himself, as the secretary busied herself to get her clothes off floor and leave the cabin, "when I didn't see the secretary in question outside, I had a tiny amount of suspicion . . . "

The CEO looked out of his game at the circumstances, horrified and ashamed, while the rest of team having laughs at his expense. Everyone was silent for a while, chuckling under breath, until ACP Mukherjee spoke, "What the hell is wife beater?"

"The piece of garment on his upper body." Shree spoke beside her quietly, to which Chotu and Sakshi scoffed. the former's eyes widen at the garment, making the CEO wanting to bury himself six feet under earth, and then she started to laugh hysterically, the kind of laugh that fill your eyes with tears and shake your whole body. the CEO looked more scandalous, and the team looked at one of their own part amused and part surprised, never hearing more than chuckle from her. she continued to laugh for a full minute, still could not stop laughing as she asked, "What is this name?"

"The things society force us males to wear . . . " Sameer replied good humouredly, and Rawte decided the joke has gone too far. he cleared his throat, effectively killing all fun, but she was still red with all the laugh and questions that how on Earth one piece of garment can earn such a name! she sobered up as they confronted the CEO and arrested him, and after descending 24 floors and handing him over to the local Police, when the team was near the SUVs to head back to ETF, Chotu's low well timed comment set her off once again.

It seemed like she was over her anger, Rawte thought in mind as he along with the rest of team came out of elevator. the flashes of that evening clouded his mind, her carefully controlled anger and the way she threatened him, skipping his heart a beat for all wrong reasons. It's been 3 days since then, she took off that night and only came through today in that CEO's office to join the team. she looked same, eyes going everywhere, the same McDonald mug in hand, intimidating yet in total confidence, with sarcasm and snarky comments thrown here and there. she so much as didn't even give a glance to Sakshi, which was understandable, and till now though she and him didn't have any one to one convo or no lonely moment, it looked it was going good.

They barely came out from the elevator when the receptionist ran toward them, telling her to visit the Director ASAP. everyone eyed the ACP, to which she rolled eyes, walking toward the Shree's desk and taking out a file from one of its drawer, to which the IT head frowned, mumbling, "I didn't keep that there."

apparently, she did stop by the office, and the second-in-command's suspicion was only confirmed by the receptionist who sighed and said it's the second time the Director is asking for her.

that night after she left, he spent a good amount of time lecturing the crime journo to stop poking her nose in others matter. while initially she accepted her mistake about background search, she didn't accept it was something intruding as the info was already there, she just did a research. he didn't even want to know what the hell was that damned paper cutting that sent everything out of control, he shouted more and she went red eyed and sniffed a little bit, still adamant about her view but informing she will explain and apologize to the lady officer.

though he was not sure how anyone, let alone her, can explain such a thing. he didnt want to think about the apology part either.

as he headed for his cabin and settled down on his seat, spinning it sideways, he thought once again the literal kill looks on her face that night and sighed once again. can one really get over that much anger?