New FF-2nd chance at Love-Completed-PG 81-08/08/2014 - Page 2

Vihaan called for her files from the HR department. He opened the file and suddenly a smiling photograph of her was in front of her. Unknowingly he was mesmerized by her face. He had seen many beautiful women in his life and dated a lot of them too. She might not be the most beautiful of them, but there was something really intriguing about the intelligence in her eyes. Suddenly he shook heis head. He was not here to get attracted to her. He wanted to destroy her.

He called Mr.Nair the head of the marketing department and Kalpana's boss. He enquired about Kalpana and Mr.Nair could not stop gushing about her work. He told him how his dad had been so impressed by her that he had personally started mentoring her. He thought what is it about this girl that seemed to drive intelligent guys to stupidity. He asked Mr.Nair to leave and then went through the file again. She had topped the university in her MBA exams, but her only other work-experience was in Singhania industries for only a few months. Vihaan knew Raghav slightly through mutual friends and wanted to ask Raghav about her, but stopped. He would not ask anyone he would plan her downfall himself.

He took a final look at her photograph. She had a really lovely smile which reached her mesmerizing eyes, he noticed. He would destroy that smile completely. Little did he know that the smiling Kalpana in the photograph was already dead and buried and there was nothing left to destroy. He did not want to question his motives closely because he himself did not know when he felt so insulted or angry at her.

He was sitting on his laptop and suddenly a message from Mr.Nair popped up in his Inbox and he opened it to see it was a file with all the project reports done by Kalpana. He opened one and started reading, not expecting much. But suddenly he was engrossed, her understanding of the intricacies of the project were much beyond her years. Her reports were so organized and detailed and her presentation skills were impeccable. He could not but be impressed and suddenly his gaze fell on her photograph and he could not believe this young girl was capable to so much intelligence.

He could see the pride she took in her work in all her reports and he understood that the only way to make her fail was to make her fail at her work. He would give her a project to do which would test the abilities of people with years of experience. He would then mock her and make her feel inferior. He would destroy her confidence and he would feel vindicated.

Suddenly, Vihaan received a call and he picked it up and on the other end was the girl who was with him in his office yesterday. He felt irritated and he was abrupt with her. But she could not take a hint and continued with her silly banter. She was gorgeous to look at but, God had become miserly while doling out brains. While she kept chattering on the phone, he was suddenly having visions of the lovely, intelligent eyes of Kalpana. The girl wanted to meet him, but he was no mood for her inane talk today, even though her lovely body did tempt him.

He had asked his secretary to print out the project reports done by Kalpana took them home with him. This was the first night he had spent home after coming from the USA. He had spent most nights getting updated about the India operations or with catching up with his old friends or making new ones. He had dinner with his parents and they were happily surprised. His dad asked "How come you are having dinner at home today, did all your friends get tired of you already?" "Had some work, so thought would do it from home today", he answered. He enjoyed spending time with his parents and suddenly realized how lucky he was to have such understanding parents who loved him unconditionally and without expectations. He hugged his parents and went to his room.

In his room, he started perusing the project files completed by Kalpana and he was absolutely flabbergasted about the amount of work she had completed in a short time." Did she have any life, apart from work because there was no way a person could complete such much work in 8 hours or even 12 hours?", he thought. He started to feel less confident about this plan to cause her downfall. A girl, who could come up with such high quality of work, was not ordinary. While grabbing the project reports he had accidently grabbed her HR file also, which he suddenly noticed. He opened the file and looked at her photograph. He did not understand why she affected him so much. She was a pretty girl, but nothing extraordinary. He had dated some of the most beautiful girls in the world and she did not rank anywhere near them. She was petite and he had dated voluptuous girls always. Why the hell was he thinking about dating in her context? She was just not his type and he was not looking to date her, he just wanted to bring her down.

Vihaan started visiting the office of Malhotra Construction quite often. He did not know why but, he wanted to get a glimpse of Kalpana. He visited the Marketing department, twice but did not see her there. He did not want to seem too interested; he did not ask where she was.

In the meanwhile, Kalpana had totally forgotten about Vihaan. Her work was her only solace. She had been visiting advertising agencies, clients etc and had been spending lot of time outside office. Mr.Malhotra had ensured that one of the office cars was always at her disposal when she went out. He also wanted to provide her a car to bring her to and from office, but she had firmly refused. She had said that she did not want any favours. He had accepted it, but promised her that she would use an office car if she was leaving after 9.00 p.m from office. He said that he insisted this for all his women employees as it was his duty to protect them. These small gestures were what made her appreciate her employer even more.