One fine day...
She is an anomaly, he decides. That exactly had to be the reason why he felt like observing her every move and keep an eye on her and her antics. At work, amidst the sea of well groomed ladies who wore business formals and cute western wear, she wore the more common traditional wear without a second thought. At first it unnerved him to see her dressed drastically different from rest of the crowd and after handful of months, it became a pleasant change.
She along with his chief architect and company secretary are the first ones he meets every morning. The way she manages to carry all the files he has asked for, her notepad, pen stuck between her fingers makes him stare at her a second longer. It is impossible to miss her idiosyncrasies, he notices. She writes down everything he mutters. Even she writes in wrong hand, he scoffs. Yes, she was the biggest anomaly, his mind agrees.
He barks in a tempered email to finance department for missing out on an invoice deadline, which she writes down without as much a spare glance. His voice falters when she looks up from her notepad and gives him a sharp look. He knows he has crossed a line while dictating. She doesn't speak a word. Her eyes are sharp as ever. He changes few words. Her fingers cross those words feverishly and rewrite new ones. When she looks up as he pauses in his speech, her eyes have become soft. He feels he has done something good. And that thought both scares and elates him.
He gets irritated when he sees a toned down version of the anger filled email he had initially dictated. He sees her through the glass which separates them to see that she is stretching her back. The anger filled words which he wants to tell her over the phone dies on his tongue. She suddenly turns around and catches his eye. She smiles sheepishly for being caught by boss and he grins at her flabbergasted expression. The thought of her being tired with only couple of hours into work creases his forehead. He slaps himself before he delves too much into worrying about his secretary. She is only doing her job, his mind mocks. A little too much, a tiny second voice opines. He ignores them both and turns away from the glass.
He smells freshly brewed coffee and looks up from the file he is immersed in. A steaming mug sits in front of him and his secretary is dropping off few files which need his signature. He glances at clock and sees that he has not taken a break in a while. She hands him a bottle of water which he takes without a word. The thirst he didn't know of about comes to him tenfold which makes him empty the entire bottle. He closes his eyes in appreciation after taking first sip of hot coffee and sighs involuntarily. He feels horrified for being this relaxed in someone else's presence. He searches her eyes for mockery after catching him in this state with an off guard expression. He only finds warmth and understanding. It only relaxes him further more. His voice for next twenty minutes of their meeting is soft. His architect barges in his office breaking the surreal ambience they are in. The architect is puzzled by the quietness of his voice and softness in his expression. She gets up, gathers the files and leaves. He thinks her parting glance had traces of disappointment; disappointment for abruptly breaking the ethereal feeling which had settled in that office around them. As he listens to his architect jabbering about some design, he steals a glance at her through the glass. He feels a tingle of satisfaction to see her staring off the space with a faraway look on her face. You have a partner in this lunacy, his mind mocks. It's not lunacy but something else, the second tiny voice responds. Again, he ignores them both.
He tells her that he is going out for lunch meeting. She tells him that she will call him in case of emergency and grins. He merely rolls his eyes and walks out of her office. During lunch he is distracted by the white linen which reminds him of the color of veil his secretary had donned that day. His eyes widen at the implication of his act. He barely listens to the conversations as his mind recalls the time he explained to his secretary what constituted as emergency calls.
She has a streak of boldness, his mind probed. And he agreed. No one in their right mind asked fundamental questions to their boss. But she did. Always. She never hid the fact that she didn't know something. He secretly liked that trait in her but relentlessly mocked her in open. She always asked the first person she saw and unfortunately it was always him. Calls from frantic grandmother, drastic dropping of Sensex points and documents which needed his signature immediately had been categorized as reasons for emergency. His jaw had dropped when she actually noted them down hurriedly in her notepad. As he walked away from her desk, he added one more item as an afterthought '"You getting into useless situations which cause more headaches to me rather than any catastrophic financial or personnel trouble". He had turned away from her with a grin and caught her reflection which was sticking her tongue out at his back, in the glass panel in front of him. Stupid girl, he had thought still grinning.
A feminine voice calling his name brings him out of his reverie and wonders if it's the voice of his secretary. He shakes his head to clear the thoughts and answers the owner of the voice who happens to be the chair of the lunch meeting. His fingers are playing with linen and there is a passion in his voice when he speaks about the work he does. He suddenly remembers a small detail which he had forgotten to pass to his secretary in morning. As he excuses himself from the table, he practically lets out a whoosh of breath and waits till she picks her phone. Their conversation is short. She listens when he speaks. There is a moment of silence before he hangs up the phone. It enthralls him to know that it was for this moment of shared silence he had made that call in first place. He hums an old tune under his breath as he walks back to the dining room.
He can see that she is bored out of her mind. The session from human resource department about work ethics and all that jazz held no interest in his mind. But being the head of the organization, he was a participant whether he liked it or not. Her puppy dog expression did not falter his unwavering gaze as she requested him to sit this one out. It tickles him to see her distracted during meeting since most of the time she is the most attentive one. The dimmed light heightens his senses and masks the expressions of people around him. He sees her doodling on her notepad constantly ' some reflect the life she has left behind and some are abstract. He watches her and ignores the speaker of the session. Without giving much thought he drags her notepad, draws two horizontal lines intersecting with two vertical lines and puts in a circle in the middle box. She looks at him in surprise and he does not miss the mirth in her eyes. He is sure the same is reflecting in his eyes too. He plays tic-tac-toe with her for rest of the session and he keeps the score. He knows that she is not very good in this game as she falls for his trap each time. He likes it when she learns his tricks as they progress into second hour of playing. She writes in "I-Owe-You" after he tallies their games and winning by a large margin. When the lights are on his face become stoic and hers expressionless; they become people they are expected to be. He wonders when the last time he played hooky in a meeting was. His mind says never. The second tiny voice says that he is distracted quite often of late; especially after the neighboring office space got occupied. As always he ignores them both.
He dislikes driving to a site in late afternoons. He thinks end of day work gets delayed due to his absence at office. His eyes glance across glass pane only to find the neighboring office empty. His eyebrows knot and wonders if the image of her he saw only a moment ago was an apparition. He walks out of office to see her running towards closing elevator doors, her white veil following her like an errant lover. He stops mid-step to see if she actually makes it to the elevator. He smiles when she manages to squeeze in at last minute. There is a residual smile on her face which marks the victory of making it to the elevator. He shakes his head at her antics and walks away in opposite direction.
He checks his watch for hundredth time. It was eight in evening and he was still stuck in meeting at offsite. As the last rays of sun disappeared his thoughts flew to the secretary of his who would be waiting for him to come back; simply because he didn't tell her that he won't be back. He sighs in exasperation. She once told him very clearly that she worked for him and not the company. Her words had rendered him speechless for few minutes and he had lashed back at her once he had regained his perspective. Not that she had listened to his reasoning. He never admits to liking those words from her which were full of her fiery passion. They never talk about that incident and he prefers it that way. He thinks about the secretaries he had in the past. A few were good and a couple of them were simply amazing. But his current one took the cake. She was ordinary yet she was different. There was a level of detachment and affection for him. She is a bloody anomaly, his mind resignedly says. He stands up abruptly when clock strikes eight thirty. Men around him look at him and the speaker finishes the meeting abruptly.
He is not very surprised to see a bottle of water and an apple sitting innocently on his desk. He chugs down entire bottle and takes a bite of apple with contentment. He does not look through the glass pane. Because he already knows what he is going to find there. And that prospect of seeing what he wishes to see wraps him in a thin membrane of bliss. He finishes remainder of work and packs up his bag for the day. He knocks on her door and enters without much ado. He finds her reading through a report which not due for another three days. He involuntarily smiles. She looks up after a moment and gives him a tiny smile. He watches her as she shuts down her computer, packs her bag and arranges files on her table. She takes one look at her office and joins him by the door.
He stops her when she starts going towards bus-stop. A bad incident in past has him scared about her safety but he never tells her the real reason. He tells her that he doesn't want complications with authority because of his employee. His eyes betray his real reason and her eyes catch them and protect his secret. However she declines his help and lectures him about independence and individuality. He loses patience and drags her by hand and shoves her into the back seat of his car. She loudly complains when he sits next to her and ignores him.
He loosens his tie and slowly relaxes during the ride. He inhales the lingering perfume still stuck on her clothes and he lets out a contended sigh. The silence encapsulates them and memory of the afternoon hits them both. He catches her hand when car breaks suddenly. He yells at the driver and looks at her in concern at the same time. She recovers quickly and offers him a shaky smile. He leans back on seat and closes eyes to relieve stress of the day. Only after handful of moments he realizes that he still hadn't let go of her hand. Without opening his eyes he threads his fingers through hers. In less than a moment, she tightens the grip. He opens his eyes to see that she is looking out of the window with a serene expression. He smiles to himself and leans back on seat. It wasn't the moment for discussion. It was the moment to experience.
She tugs her hand which makes him wake up from the short nap. He looks around to see that they had arrived. She gently unclasps her hand from his, gives him a smile and walks out of car. He waits till she reaches inside and shares one last smile for the day as she closes the house's main door. He smiles in return and asks his driver to go. Its night finally, his mind says tiredly.
Tomorrow is only a few hours away, the tiny voice, his heart, rejoices.
Sookie
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