Love at First Swipe ✓

Journalism? My ass.

(this story is undergoing editing. Inline comments may be affected).

I run towards the lift in a rush, intending to save myself from my boss's taunting, only to run into Karan - the biggest douchebag at work. He's a bully for no reason and we haven't been able to come to good terms since the past six months.

Right when I'm super close to get in, the lift shuts close leaving me with a glance of his mischievous smirk. I furiously tap the lift button, only in vain as the lift has already made headway to the 25th floor and I've to wait until it makes a trip back.

I sigh in disappointment and wait there for the next ten minutes before the lift finally reaches the ground floor. I hop in, all set to begin another day at work at India Speaks, which includes drinking a lot of chai, editing articles that have no useful news whatsoever and my boss calling me a disappointment.

I step into the office as clumsy as ever, by pulling a door that says 'PUSH'. To add to the usual embarrassment, my boss and Karan are standing at the front desk and discussing something and they quickly exchange exasperated glances looking at my pathetic entry.

I enter inside, almost dropping the file in my hand and my boss sighs, saying, "Ms. Mehra, go put all your stuff at your desk and report to me in my cabin. I need to discuss something with you", and walks away.

"Trisha, you're in so much trouble. Didn't I always tell you that you're not fit for this job? Six months since you joined and you're the only intern who hasn't received a full-time job offer yet. And, I think you're about to get fired today. You never fail to surprise me", Karan says with a huge smile plastered on his face.

"I heard your college girlfriend dumped you. If I were you, I'd be acting out like this, too. I feel so sorry for you, Karan", I say and let out a 'tch' just to piss him off ever more. He rolls his eyes at me, holding back all his anger and treads back to his desk.

I use all this instantly-gained confidence after snapping at Karan, to reflect on my style and walk gracefully towards my desk, only to kick my foot into a desk on the way. A strong sense of pain rushes along my toe, as I groan in pain.

"Ow!" I exclaim and Ayesha laughs loudly.

"You should be glad that I'm the only one who saw this happen", she says still laughing and I roll my eyes at her.

I move a little ahead, place all my stuff on my desk and walk back to Ayesha's desk, "Is The Boss going to fire me?" I ask her in a serious tone.

I really want to be prepared, if that's the case.

"Ah, I don't think he will. He's planning on assigning you and I to a new team which works on Celebrity gossip because he thinks that women, 'for obvious reasons' can do better at gossip", she dramatically adds air quotes.

"Mhm.. I saw that coming. As long as I get to keep this job, I don't mind writing articles on Celebrity gossip."

"Trish, are you serious? Celebrity gossip isn't even legit news! You have a B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication. This isn't what we were taught to do."

"Ayesha, I know. But we don't have an option. I need experience, recognition and most importantly, money to pay off bills. I'm literally ready to write articles on Indian TV soaps."

"You mean, an article talking about the normalized abuse and lack of logic in Indian TV soaps, right?" she sounds deeply concerned.

"No, more like.. The cast of an XYZ TV soap celebrates their 3000th episode."

"Agh Trisha, you're a disgrace to be called my friend!" she gives herself a face-palm and I laugh, shrugging.

I go to my boss's cabin and he assigns me the exact role that Ayesha said he would- a team member of 'Celebrity Gossip', confirming my promotion from an intern to a full-time employee.

If I were to fit into three words what his cabin looks like, I'd say a 'big white box'. That's it. There's a table and chair and files and him. No wall hangings, no colour, no pictures, nothing. In Ayesha's words, "coated in white layers of sexism and mansplaining, that's it. Nothing more, nothing less". She was the one who named him 'The Boss'. We weren't very creative back then.

He then calls Ayesha and informs her that she would be leading the team and she politely nods. We both step out of the cabin and burst into laughter.

"I can't believe this, I'm the Team lead of writing absolute trash- Celebrity gossip!" she says in a rather light tone.

"Journalism, my ass", I point out and she nods, laughing again.

"Got fired already?" Karan says appearing in front of us and dramatically crossing his hands.

"Hey Karan, how's that college girlfriend of yours? Riya, right?" Ayesha asks him in a sarcastic tone.

"Don't you all have a better comeback?"

"What's your problem, Karan? Why are you so interested in our lives? Just go mind your business", I snap at him.

"Whatever, firecracker", he says and walks away.

"Why do you give him attention? Just ignore him. He literally comes to piss you off on purpose and you just let him", Ayesha remarks.

"He just adds extra stress to my already pathetic life."

"Look Trish, take my advice. I've been telling you this for the past month. Just go find someone and have sex. It helps you get rid of all that frustration".

"And why would I do that?"

"The only way to dismiss negative male energy is to counter it with positive male energy. Just go get on a dating app or something."

"Dating apps are full of creeps", I point out.

"It goes both ways. You just have to swipe very selectively", she pulls out her phone, "look at all these people", she scrolls through her list of matches and boy, are they sexy, "I'm not asking you to go sleep around with a bunch of people. I'm only telling you to explore your options. If not a sex life, at least have a dating life or something."

"Fine, okay. I'll see if I'm interested", I only say that to dismiss her.

"You up for some chai?" she asks me and I nod. I grab my wallet and we quickly leave for a chai break.

____________________________________

(A/N: please do vote if you like this chapter)