Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Sasha watched Maan as he entered. He smiled and shook hands with colleagues and clients as he passed them. He strode to where his family were stood together chatting and laughing. Geet was still there and Viren had joined them as well.

“Smile, Sasha. You’ll get frown wrinkles in your old age or else” Adi remarked as he stood besides her looking in the same direction.

“She’s got this job because of MK. She’s much too close to be just Naintara’s friend” she stated.

“She might have been Naintara’s friend, but she did not know Maan. I introduced them” he answered. “You’re frowning so much in what is supposed to be a party”.

Sasha scowled at him and turned striding away angrily.

Geet had introduced Viren as her colleague and Naintara as her friend. Viren fit in and was soon joking and chatting with them. Dev had even joined at this point.

Her attention drew to her handsome as he entered, eyes pivoted to watch the enigma as he strode towards them. She trailed her eyes along his tall frame as he approached them, his eyes locked to hers for a brief second before he looked at dadima smiling and embraced appreciative that she had come as always.

“Do you think I will ever miss this?” Dadima patted his cheek. “You’re looking very handsome, bete” she grinned. “Haina?” she looked at Geet.

Viren squinted and Geet’s eyes widened in alarm.

“Uh… excuse me” Geet excused herself grabbing Viren’s wrist and tugged him away.

“Oh k… you need to spill” he laughed. “Is MK’s dadima trying to set you up with him?”

Geet was about to say but thought this was a better excuse than anything else she could drum up, so she nodded and attempted to look innocently confused.

“How well do you know the Khuranas?”

“Not very well, I know Naintara as I’m her friend and just learned recently she’s Maan sir’s sister-in-law” she mumbled out her lie.

Naintara reminded dadima that Geet is only a trainee here.

“I know, Naintara but that doesn’t mean I can’t play matchmaker” she answered. “I don’t want Geet to just be known as a colleague of Maan’s. At least if I spark some rumours then it would not be weird a couple of months down the line when Maan decides to propose to Geet and marry her”.

“If you’ve forgotten, dadima…” Maan smiled nodding at a client who’d raised his glass to him. “You’ve already tricked me into marrying her” he remarked in amusement.

“Bete, nobody in this world other than us know you’re married. Your first anniversary is in just 4 months, you should consider marrying Geet properly” she suggested.

“We married properly in Hoshiapur remember, we had the whole pandit, registry and everything” he countered.

“That was just us though” she said sadly.

“And that is more than enough for me” Maan responded shaking his head in exasperation. Its been 8 months of our marriage and I’m still trying to work on making it easy for us both to get along and dadima wants another wedding to make it awkward he thought inwardly. He glanced across the ballroom searching for Geet and noticed her with Viren and some of her other colleagues chatting and laughing. He drunk in the beautiful sight that was his wife and recollected the gentle kiss they’d shared upstairs. He wanted to whisk her away, pull away those pins from her hair letting the brown wavy curls untangle and tumble down before weaving his fingers through her thick mane and kissing her. Harder. With passion. With raw desire.

Viren opened his big mouth and told the story of Savitri Devi trying to matchmake Geet with their boss to their friends, Piyush, Neha, Pinky and Adi.

Geet closed her eyes and smacked his arm. He’d laughed and continued teasing her.

“Think of how jealous Sasha would be. You should totally consider it” Piyush added.

“She’s already making your life hell for no reason, might as well give her a reason” Adi agreed.

“No thank you” Geet shook her head rolling her eyes. “Yaar, dadima is only kidding”.

“You call her dadima?” Neha raised her brows.

“Well… uh Naintara calls her dadima and I can’t go around calling dadima by her name now, could I? My parents taught me better than that” she responded.

“Seriously, consider it” Piyush told her wrapping his arm around her shoulder. “Imagine her burning with jealousy and anger” he laughed.

“No, thank you very much” Geet chuckled shaking her head. “I don’t want to shake any feathers or tickle someone’s insecurity”.

“You’re too nice for your own good” Neha told her.

“I know” she nodded with a wide grin.

“C’mon, let’s dance” Piyush gestured.

“Oh, no I don’t dance… I don’t even know how to…” she shook her head but he would hear nothing. He coaxed her along and clasped her hand. Another rested her waist, she placed a hand on his shoulder and looked at him for instruction.

“You’ve never really danced?” he asked as he swayed and led her.

“Not really, I know bhangra only because my cousins and I used to get together and do it on weddings but slow dance or… ballroom dancing… not me” she chuckled.

“Well, you’re a natural” he winked swaying and dipping her making her giggle.

“Piyush” she laughed when he dipped her a second time and held her mid-air. “I’m going to fall” she gasped with a chuckle.

“And I’m holding you, promise I won’t drop you” he winked.

Geet laughed and sighed when he straightened up. She shook her head continuing to follow his lead and smiled when she noticed Dev and Naintara on the dance floor. She looked surprised when Maan joined with dadima in his arms. Their eyes locked over Piyush’s shoulder, and they shared a small discreet smile.

“You should now go and ask her to dance” Dadima suggested briefly looking over her shoulder then smiled up at him.

“Dadima, Geet doesn’t want anyone to know that she and I are married. Please respect that” he explained. “And I agree with her decision. She is going to be known as my wife and people are going to assume that she had gotten the job due to me despite the fact that I did not interview her or make the decision to hire her. I want her to be independent and confident enough in her role before we let anyone know we’re married”.

Dadima beamed at him proudly. She would not have thought Maan would say such things especially in favour of Geet given the first couple of months of their marriage. She clasped his cheek in her palm. “I am so very proud of you right now”.

“Thanks, dadima” he smiled and embraced her in his arms warmly.

“I believe it’s my turn” Dev piped in breaking the duo up.

Maan chuckled nodding in agreement and smiled when Naintara held out her hand for him. He smiled clasping her hand and danced with her next.

“Geet looks really beautiful, right Veerji?” she asked innocently.

“Naintara, she knows she’s beautiful and if she wanted my compliments – she would fish them from me. You don’t have to fish them for her”.

“True, but it would be good to hear from you. I don’t know what you’ve said to her so I can’t say for sure that you complimented her”.

“Okay, fine. Yes, she looks beautiful” he relented and rolled his eyes when she laughed cheerfully. “You can let dadima know so that should be sufficient for you”.

“For now,” she agreed nodding her head.

Viren shortly took over for Piyush and shared giggles and jokes with Geet as they waltzed around the dance floor. Geet was surprised when Dev approached asking for a dance and she smiled politely nodding her head and blushed when Viren wiggled his brows and gestured to Maan. She shot him a scowl and politely followed Dev’s lead.

They’d made polite conversation and he’d asked how she was enjoying her first party and Geet had expressed her enjoyment and was surprised with the turn out of so many clients and so many of the employers who were here.

After Maan danced with Naintara, he released her and went to approach his clients and colleagues. He exchanged pleasantries with his clients and gave a brief appreciative thanks to his colleagues whom he worked with on the multiple projects. The employees were proud and were filled with happiness that their work was acknowledged by their Managing Director and that he was personally thanking them.

That boosted their confidence and happiness which in turn motivated them to work even harder when it comes to the coming Monday.

Geet politely declined the next dance from another colleague and excused herself. She found herself grabbing a chair and sitting down sighing in relief. The new heels that she’d broken into tonight were not comfortable at all, she’d wished she’d just worn the heels she’d worn to work. She toed off her heels underneath the table and was thankful for the large tablecloth which hid her feet from everyone and was relieved as her feet was flatly against the cold laminated flooring.

Adi, Pinky, Neha and Piyush joined and asked why she was sitting alone. Geet brushed it off saying she needed a break from dancing.

“Oh, this is a reserved table” Pinky pointed to the card in the middle.

“Who’s it reserved for?”

“I’m assuming either Maan sir or one of the other managers” Piyush answered.

“Well, they’re not doing any announcement of the appreciations yet” Adi pointed out. “We’ll need to move to another table when dinner is announced though”.

“Hmm, ok” Geet said. “We’ll move in a bit. My feet are hurting right now” she ducked her head lifting the tablecloth and noticed her toes red and looked like a blister was forming.

“That is going to be stinging like a bitch” Neha commented with a wince.

“Thanks. I’m experiencing it right now” she muttered.

“What are you doing on this table?” Sasha hissed glaring at them. “This is for MK and his family!”

“We’re just sitting here for now. We’ll move when dinner is announced” Adi responded.

“No, move now. Dinner is going to be starting soon and everyone is going to be taking their seats. Move now” she said pointedly.

Others started getting up swiftly and moving to another table, Geet looked down at her poor toes and heels then looked at Sasha who stood there with crossed arms and looking at her impatiently.

“Are you waiting for an invitation?” Sasha snapped.

Adi inspected Geet’s toes and winced. “It does look bad”.

“My feet are hurting” Geet told Sasha.

“Too bad and that isn't my problem”.

“Fine. Nor is me moving your problem” Geet countered leaning back comfortably in the chair and crossed her arms stubbornly.

“Do you realise what you are saying?” Sasha hissed angrily clutching the back of a chair. “Get up now”.

“I’m not putting my feet into those deadly heels and causing my feet more damage”.

“I don’t care”.

“Seems like I don’t either then” Geet shrugged her shoulders.

“Geet…” Sasha seethed and leaned forward.

“Sasha, she’s Naintara’s friend. I don’t think MK and his family are going to mind if Geet sat with them for dinner” Adi explained.

“She’s a trainee and employee of Khurana constructions here. She is not a friend or anything right now” Sasha answered and challenged Geet to counteract.

Geet sighed heavily and glanced around searchingly. She sighed in relief seeing Maan stood with a few colleagues and waited for his attention.

Please please look this way she pleaded silently. Sasha was pulling the manager role right now and if she countered, Sasha would get some excuse to make a spectacle of her here and publicly humiliate her.

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