Chapter 18

Chapter 18

"Nakul, where is Geet?" Maan called out when he noted she wasn't around the breakfast table eating.

"Geet madam has already left in a hurry" he answered.

Maan shook his head inwardly and nodded at Nakul, he then sat down eating a quick breakfast then got ready for work.

Geet had hailed an auto and directed the driver to drive her to the office. She had agreed to give Maan a chance, but she still had to wrap her mind around it.

The heartache they'd faced the first time around still lingered, she wasn’t expecting miracles or expecting much of a change, but he had promised.

Geet entered the building flashing her ID at the security then headed to the floor she was working at.

"Good morning, Geet" Viren greeted her cheerfully as she entered the office, she shared with him. She responded the same and moved to her desk.

After she'd settled, Viren rolled his chair to his desk then went through the next stages of showing things to her and training her.

Adi entered the office soon after and placed a stack of files asking them to go through the requests of the materials needed for the new building, as the trio discussed about work, Sasha swung open the door causing them to jerk in surprise.

"Adi" Sasha ignored the other two and asked, "Why is MK late today?"

"Sasha, how many times do I have to tell you?" he rolled his eyes picking up one of the files and flicked through the pages. "MK can come and go whenever he wants. He doesn’t need to give a reasoning".

"MK is never late" she snapped. "Find out".

"And why would I do that?" he questioned looking at her as if she were mad.

"Adi, I'm your senior. Designer trumps financial manager" she stated.

"You're just impossible" he shook his head. "And, I'm not finding anything for you. Its none of your business" he turned away from her.

Geet had watched the interaction between Sasha and Adi and pondered as to why Sasha seemed desperate to know why Maan was late today.

Sasha stropped out the door cursing.

"What was that?" Geet looked between Adi and Viren for an explanation.

"Geet, have you met Sasha? Not the design department manager, but MK's fanatic" Adi sang out laughing.

Oh, work wife really wants to become Mrs Saru Geet thought. Why didn’t they get married? Mr and Mrs Saru seems perfect for them she looked upwards. Could you not have had him have an office affair and bond them together? At least I could have found someone else.

Adi then left them to go through the files and go through the file of requests made.

Maan found himself occupied with a series of meeting as he entered, also managers of different departments knocked on his door to discuss a project which had him tied up in conversations.

He glanced at the clock as he finished up the call with his client, it was almost 1pm and wondered if Geet had had her lunch. Maan grabbed the phone to call her office but decided to go to her office and ask her face to face.

Sasha squinted when she noticed Maan walking across and entering the office Viren and the new girl were sharing. But why would he be going to the office personally? Usually he makes a call to Viren or Adi to come into his office.

Geet looked away from her laptop screen as Maan entered.

"Oh, Viren's not here. He's gone for lunch" she informed.

"Did I ask for Viren?" Maan smirked.

"Maan, I'm still new so if you need me to do anything you'll have to wait until Viren returns so he can show me" she replied.

"Geet, I didn’t come here to talk about work" Maan stepped closer to the desk, he planted his hands on her desk and leaned forward. "Let's go to lunch".

"What will your staff think seeing us both leaving together?" she quirked her brows.

"I don’t care what others think or say, I only care about what you say or think" he replied. "I'm not answerable to anyone here" he stated.

Geet smiled, "Fine, I'll come to lunch, but I'll meet you round the corner in 10 minutes. I've just started, Maan. I certainly do not want rumours about us going around that I'm putting the moves on the boss" she explained.

"Alright, fine. Shall we drive somewhere for lunch then?" he asked straightening up.

"That would be best" she agreed nodding her head.

"Alright, I'll call Sandeep" Maan informed pulling his phone out, he glanced over his shoulder when the door opened, and Sasha stepped inside.

"Oh, MK I didn’t know you were here" she smiled looking around and frowned at Geet. "Uh… I came for Viren" she muttered.

"He's gone for lunch" Geet informed.

"Oh, that's okay. I'll just speak to you" Sasha offered a smile.

"I'll catch up with you soon" Maan told Geet and left the office unaware of his words causing a mini seizure in Sasha.

After he had left, Sasha turned to Geet. "What did MK want?"

"Nothing, he was just asking me how my first day went" Geet answered innocently.

"MK asked you that?" her eyes widened. "He never checks in on a new employee. That's our duty as managers" she murmured more to herself.

"Oh, well…" Geet grabbed her bag. "What is it that you wanted to speak about? Viren will be back soon and I want to go for my lunch".

Sasha's eyes widened in alert, she had made an excuse at the time to question Geet about MK coming here, but she didn’t have anything to say to Geet about work. "It's okay, you go to lunch. I'll speak to Viren when he returns" she waved off nonchalantly.

Geet nodded standing up and walked out almost feeling sorry for Sasha. If only you knew your MK is taken… she snickered quietly to herself.

Geet joined Maan, Sandeep waited in the corner as instructed then drove off once they were both inside.

"What's got you smiling so much?" Maan asked her.

"Have you ever indulged in an office affair?" she answered with a question of her own.

"No, I have always kept my business away from my personal life" Maan replied. "Why such a heavy question?"

"Nothing" Geet shook her head and smiled.

Sandeep parked outside one of Maan's favourite restaurants, Maan stepped out and held out his hand for Geet who'd clasped his hand and was led inside.

After they settled down, Geet nibbled on the bread they'd brought over whilst surveying the menu then settled for grilled chicken salad with croutons, Maan settled for a grilled salmon with rocket salad.

"Why did you run off this morning?" Maan recalled her leaving without even eating.

"I was going to be late; no one knows who I am, and nor have I worked there to allow being late a few minutes" she answered. "We never really discussed our relationship in work" she chewed on a piece of bread pondering silently.

Maan nodded in agreement.

"We're going to remain professional inside work?" she bit down on her lower lip.

"Is that what you want?" he asked.

"Yes, for now" she nodded. "I've just started this week, I want to find my place and footing in the office. We're still trying to find our own footing in each other's lives".

"Alright" he reached over taking her hand into his and squeezed. "When you're ready, we can discuss it further on how you wish to proceed".

Geet nodded with a smile, they withdrew their hands away as the waiter brought over their food. They made small talk whilst they ate, no heavy questions but one did linger on Geet's mind. She wanted to ask as to why he had pulled away from her. What was his reason? However, as they were on lunch and wouldn’t have time to discuss properly, she didn’t ask. Yet.

After they finished, they both climbed into the car and Sandeep drove them back. He stopped at the corner, Geet turned her head to Maan.

"Thanks for lunch" she told him squeezing his hand in gratitude.

"You're welcome" he smiled. "I'm going directly to a site, so I won't be back until late. You head on home; I'll send Sandeep to pick you up"

"No, its fine. I'll make my own way back, its still daylight at 5" she replied. "See you tonight" Maan squeezed her hand back nodding and watched as she stepped out of the car and walked down the street turning the corner and disappeared out of his site.

Maan then instructed Sandeep to drive him to the site of one of his projects.

"Is MK back?" Sasha entered the office of Viren and Geet's again and looked at Adi. "We were supposed to go check out a site together" she informed. "I've been waiting".

"Oh, MK text to say he'd gone there straight from lunch" Adi answered.

"What?" she frowned disappointed that he had gone without her.

"That's a good thing, though. At least you'll have plenty of time to work on the Malhotra project" Adi informed cheerfully, she slowly nodded and walked out.

"I've never seen anyone so despo" Viren cackled.

"How long has she worked here?" Geet posed the question innocently.

"I think 5 years now" Adi answered. "Everyone knew she had a crush on him, but it turns out it developed somehow" he shook his head. "Despite the fact that MK will not ever see her like that".

"Why wouldn’t he?" she questioned, Sasha might be slightly desperate but she was beautiful, intelligent enough to be the head of the designing department and seemed to be more relatable to Maan than herself.

"MK doesn’t mix business with his personal life. Sasha seems to think he'd break that rule of his for her" he smiled.

Geet nodded slowly and the trio returned their focus on their work.

[NOCOPY]