The elevator dinged and Aastha looked up from her desk to see a fuming Varadh step out. He glanced at Aastha, whose eyes were red and swollen and lashes were still wet. He had heard from one of the office staff about the incident that took place between Aastha and Shlok, earlier this morning. According to the rumors, Aastha and Shlok were making out in the elevator, and the door accidentally opened at the wrong floor.
Now, Varadh knew his little brother a little too well. He knew that his brother was capable of doing such acts, anywhere. But he also knew Aastha and had judged her by her approach towards people. He knew that Aastha was not the kind of a girl to just give herself to anyone; at least not to someone like Shlok Agnihotri. Agreed that he too was a womanizer, but Varadh knew to keep his personal life apart from his professional ones. Moreover, he never even dated any female from his office, forget about sleeping with her. But now Shlok had crossed his entire limit. Not only did he try to malign her character in front of the entire staff, but also tried to misbehave with their biggest client's daughter. Varadh was not going to let Shlok ruin this for him. It had always been Varadh's dream to lead the company, as his father would have wanted him to do. He respected his father's principles a lot, and hoped that someday Shlok would realize the same.
Right now, Varadh barged into Shlok's cabin, where the latter was seated at his executive chair, cross-verifying some papers. As soon as Shlok saw his brother's expression, he knew he was in for some trouble. "What the hell, Shlok?" he yelled at his little brother. "I thought you were matured enough and would give up such childish acts. What do you think you're doing with Aastha Kirloskar?" Shlok opened his mouth to protest, but decided not to do so, when he received a deadly glare from Varadh, whose face had turned red in anger. Varadh sat on the chair opposite to Shlok, and banged his fist on the glass of the table. "How could you, Shlok? Do you even realize how important this deal is? Why do you think I involved Aastha with the work related to the auction? Do you think that I did it because I did not have able people on my team? No. I did it only for the reason that she does not feel she is doing some meager job by being your P.A. I wanted her to feel that we are doing our level best to add weight to her C.V. And that is the only way we can be in good books with Mr. Kirloskar. His daughter means everything to him, and being good to her means being good to him. But you are on a spree to make her life miserable here." Varadh stood up and walked to the huge one-way mirrored frame, through which he saw Aastha sitting at her desk and writing something. "I want this girl here Shlok, and I want her to feel like she's a part of the Agnihotri company. And it's your responsibility to make her feel welcome here. For the time-being, I'm putting her on the HR team as a trainee, where she will report only to you, not the HR Manager. Once I seal the deal with Mr. Kirloskar, I do not care about what you do. I will not let your immature acts tarnish the reputation of Dad's company." He turned to face Shlok, who looked like a student in detention. No matter how arrogant Shlok was, Varadh knew he looked up to him. Varadh had always been more of a guide and a friend, than a brother.
"Sorry Varadh. I did not realize the consequences" Shlok spoke in a soft tone. But he continued dryly saying, "But I'm not sorry for what I did to her. She deserved it. No one slaps Shlok Agnihotri and gets away. I'm sorry that I disappointed you. I'll be careful, I promise. I will try to be nice to her, only because you want me to." Shlok got up from his seat and joined Varadh, facing Aastha. "I never wanted to pick her up for office. But since you insisted, I did that too. When her friend starting pushing herself on me, I lost control and my mind was side-tracked. It was worse when Aastha saw us in that compromising situation" Varadh took a deep breath. "Shlok, forget what has happened. Henceforth, I need you to be careful. And please, I request you to apologize to Aastha." Shlok looked at Varadh with a blank expression written on his face. "There's no way I'm going to apologize to her Varadh. Forget it. That's not happening" Shlok turned to go and sit at his seat, but Varadh placed his hand on Shlok's shoulder and turned him around so that they were face to face. "Shlok, I gave you no option. You are apologizing to her, whether you like it or not" Shlok knew that Varadh never gave up easily, especially when the company's profit was at stake. "Alright" Shlok agreed in defeat.
A knock on the door interrupted the conversation. They saw that it was Aastha waiting outside the door. "Come in Aastha" Varadh said. She meekly opened the door and walked slowly to where they stood. Her eyes were still teary. She handed over an envelope to Varadh. "My resignation letter" she said softly without looking up at either of them. Shlok's temper reached its limit, but when he saw Varadh glaring at him, he calmed down. Shlok could see the anger in Varadh's eyes, wherein he was trying to tell Shlok that the consequences would be bad if Aastha wasn't convinced that she had to stay back. Shlok went to his seat and waited for Varadh to talk to her. After all, Varadh could convince a dead person to come back to life. His smooth talk had favored him in many situations right from childhood. Shlok was confident that Varadh would make her stay, since the deal meant almost everything to him.
"Aastha, sit here" Varadh drew a chair and Aastha took a seat. He handed the letter back in her hands. "I heard what happened this morning, and I know it is not your fault. Shlok was barbaric in his behavior and he apologizes for it. Right Shlok?" Shlok and Varadh exchanged mute glances, after which Shlok looked at Aastha. It was then that a slight pang of guilt struck him. He did harass her, mentally, physically and emotionally. He knew what he did was wrong. But his ego did not permit him to accept it. Varadh cleared his throat, indicating Shlok to say Sorry to her. "I'm sorry Aastha. I misbehaved. It will not happen again" He resumed his work. It was then Aastha's turn to talk. "Mr. Varadh Agnihotri, I'm sorry, but I cannot work here. People are talking about me behind my back, and it is all because of your brother. For me, my reputation and character means everything. I cannot continue to work under him..." Aastha continued while Shlok could only fist his hand in anger. He would have bombed Aastha for speaking the way she did, but dared not to say a word due to Varadh's presence.
Varadh nodded his head and listened to her patiently. He knew by now, that women felt better when they spoke about their problems. His experience with numerous women had taught him that women do not seek for a solution to their problem, but just need someone to talk about their problem. Aastha was no different from any other woman. She was speaking her heart out. Varadh knew it was best to simply listen. When she was done talking, Varadh patted her shoulder and comforted her. All this was disturbingly amusing to Shlok, since he never believed in talking out problems. And he never paid attention to any other detail of a woman, except the way she kept moaning his name in bed. Varadh's voice broke his train of thoughts. "I know Aastha, I understand. And that is exactly why I have requested the HR Department to take you as a trainee. You would only report to Shlok once in two days. Further details would be told to you by the department. I want you to stay at the Agnihotri's, Aastha. You are one of the finest employees we have, and I wouldn't want to lose one. So please, forget about the resignation. Alright?"
After giving it some deep thought, much to Varadh's delight, Aastha agreed to stay and work under the HR Department. Shlok smiled inwardly, for he knew that there was not a single person on earth whom Varadh couldn't manipulate, except for that one girl who broke his heart into a million pieces. Brushing the thought aside, he rose to shake hands with Aastha, who refused to reciprocate the gesture. She nodded her head at him in greeting and then left to pack her things and shift to the lower floor to the IT Department. Varadh reminded Shlok not to involve with Aastha, on any grounds beside professional one. And Shlok agreed to what his brother said.
Soon, Aastha was guided to the new department, and the Manager made her feel warm, almost instantly. She was one of the trainees along with three others- two girls and one guy. She was shown her desk and was handed a few records of the previous years and was asked to make a quick study on it, where she had to prepare a report on the same in two days. Aastha quickly began her task. Of course, there were a few people who still spoke in whispers about the elevator issue. She knew that it would take some time for the issue to calm down. She turned a deaf ear to all talks, and focused on studying the records and completing her report. The day passed in a rush, and before she knew it, it was time for her to go home. She stepped out of the elevator and exited the building, only to see Abhay waiting for her. As soon as she saw him, she ran to him and gave him a big hug. "So Tweety, how was your day?" He asked and her face fell. "Long story Abhay. Can we get something to eat first?" He smiled and nodded his head, and they left the premises to proceed to a restaurant to have coffee and snacks.
They sat by the glass window, where they could see the road. After their order was served, Abhay asked her why she was tensed. And Aastha began to tell him the entire incident, right from the start - Shlok, Ananya, the slap, the elevator and much more. An hour passed and Aastha was still talking. "He was so ruthless, Abhay. How could he just spoil my name?" Abhay could only look at her. When she asked him why he was staring at her, he said, "All of this has happened because you have some soft corner for Shlok Agnihotri and you let him take advantage of you" Aastha wanted to protest, but Abhay wanted her to hear him out. "Aastha, I know he shouldn't have spoken ill about us without any knowledge. And slapping him wasn't wrong on your part. But don't you see it? He said that because he was jealous!" She looked at him as though he spoke in Latin. "Aastha, a guy would only say such things when he feels affection about a girl. Now, Shlok Agnihotri is not the guy who would feel affectionate. But he does feel possessive about you." Aastha interrupted him, saying "Why would he feel that? He has pretty women, drooling all over him. Why would he feel jealous?" "Aastha, because you are the only one who doesn't drool over him; who shows no sign of interest in him. He is annoyed with such behavior because, maybe, he is used to getting what he wants. Hence, the irritation and the jealousy when you mentioned my name."
It took a while for Aastha to digest this new discovery. Shlok was possessive about her. Sure, there was no love or affection, but there was some possessiveness. "'Abhay, you do not know how light hearted I felt speaking to you. As of Shlok, let him go to hell. He may be possessive or whatever, but I do not care about him." She held his hand and he patted her hand in response. Suddenly, Abhay's expression turned serious and nervous, which did not go unnoticed by Aastha. "What happened Abhay? Everything is fine?" He nodded his head and forced a smile. "Actually Aastha, I had to tell you something very important. And I just want to say it before it becomes too late" And Aastha's grip on his hand loosened.
Shlok's car came to an abrupt halt when he saw the car in which Aastha had come to office this morning. The car was parked outside an expensive caf, and he immediately spotted Aastha sitting next to the guy. So that is definitely Abhay. What irked Shlok was that both were holding hands. He did not realize why he was irritated though. And slowly, Aastha left his hand. He felt relieved, for unknown reasons, when he left her hand. Abhay nervously took out a tiny box from his pocket and showed it to Aastha, who was initially shocked. He then opened the box to reveal a shiny object- a ring. What the! He is proposing to her. Shlok's temper rose beyond limit. Aastha who was initially shocked, cupped her mouth and then grabbed the velvet box. She looked like her happiness knew no bounds, and looking at her smile, Abhay too smiled. She rose from her seat and hugged Abhay, with the box tightly held in her hand. So it's official now. They are dating and are getting engaged! Something had irritated him from within, and he felt restless. He shrugged his shoulders and tried to wipe off Aastha from his memory. After all, she meant nothing to him. Starting the ignition of the car, Shlok put on his black shades and drove off in a mad rush.
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