Love Digger's Husband [2] - Ch36 Pg7 NOTE Pg9 8/6 - Page 3

Hi sweetie pies,

I have been really busy with office work and hence the late updates. 😭.

Lots of Love!!

Chap 35:

Geet:

She stood in a corner and looked at the handsome man flailing his arms and his lips moving. She even saw a dribble of saliva eviscerating from him like deep seeded venom of a hooded king cobra. But all she heard was static.

"Hello lady! Are you sleeping?!!", Dev thundered as she opened her eyes to prickly moisture.

Dev spat "You were actually dozing when I was talking?"

She needed to reign in a little drool at the corner of her mouth back to know she had indeed nodded off and had missed Sir's monologue. What a pity!

Dev let out a deep sigh of breath in pure exhaustion "I don't understand. Anyway why don't you just go out now and let Yash in. I will think about you later."

She blew out some air through her ears to clear the blockage and ringing there. She walked out of the room to find Yash already walking in through the door even before it had been sucked into its place.

She came back to her seat and tried to figure out what she had actually spoken, heard and realized. She remembered having uttered a word 'Sasha' out of nowhere. But it was unclear whether it was in her sleep or Dev had actually heard her say it. She gave a deep jaw breaking yawn as she unlocked her computer.

She looked at the various icons on the screen and moved her mouse frenetically. The mouse pointer had been set to drag and so it made interesting patterns. She tried to draw Dev's face with it but failed. She then looked at a few pictures of Sir that she had photoshopped to have uninspiring fangs. She rotated his picture at right angles and then stopped when his face was upside down.

Now when looking at a person upside down the oddest things pop up. The face becomes the least looked at part. Instead what catches the eye would be the way they position their hands. Their posture and indent suddenly talks a whole lot louder. She zoomed into his face more. He did not look handsome upside down of course but his chin was more pronounced. There were dark circles around his eyes and his nose looked a little crooked. Did he have a deviated nasal septum?

Vow that was something neat and new. Probably this was why people liked having their pictures taken.

She thought about her goals and writing. She looked around her at all the busy bees droning on and their enthusiastic faces. Somewhere along the way she felt frustrated. Frustrated that she did not really have any concrete aims or aspirations or for that matter even solid dreams. She desperately needed to eat tiramisu – layers of caffeine, alcohol and chocolate. She hit the word on the Google search bar. She liked that Google ad where a search caused the said object of interest to ring the door bell. Instead she was burned with mouth watering pictures and a literal translation of the word which was 'pick me up'. She sighed in acute discontentment.

After more aimless surfing and still no goal in sight she gave up. Instead she decided to focus on the mountain of work that was sitting on her desk. She called Naintara.

Geet "Hey Tara, how did it go? Are you in office today."

Tara "I am working but I have come here to this god forsaken lake which was supposed to dry up last winter so it could be converted into plots. But nature smiled on us and it has become a wet marsh right now."

Geet "But don't lakes belong to governments?"

Tara "Ha! Not this one. It is a long story. Anyway I have some lame pictures of Goa but I think we should not be going for this shipping stuff now. I travelled on a couple of ships and spoke to a couple of people. Turns out we are in fierce competition from another construction firm which is making its own – get this – shipyard just for making cruise ships. It seems cruises are going to become the next potential money spinner among Indian elite and everyone wants their share in it. We are looking to get into an alliance with a European player but I don't know how far we would get with that approach. I am not seeing anything big in it if you ask me. This is the gist of my report but of course I have to write it nicely."

Geet "Ok…"

Geet was starting to wonder why Tara was telling her all of it. Geet stared at her watch which was slowly inching towards lunch.

Tara "Geet if you don't mind can you draw up a nice report stating this?"

Ah! There we go. This was just like college where the seniors ragged their juniors into making lab reports. There was a brief thoughtful silence and a rapacious wind blowing over the line.

Tara "You can even put down your name as the transcriber."

A trans what? Geet looked it up while Tara dangled shamelessly. Apparently transcriber finally meant intelligent typist.

Geet "Sure Tara, I will type it up if you can get me the details."

Geet hung up and then thought long and hard. According to her responsibility she was supposed to get a status update on high priority projects for Sir's quick reference. It did not include making detailed status reports for other teams. But Geet did not want to incur the wrath of anyone as of now. She needed all of her colleagues cooperation in making the book happen.

She typed out a report that was surprisingly quick. When one didn't think too much and the story was at hand the words just flowed. She fired the mail to Naintara.

Tara "I owe you one. Thanks!"

Geet then sat down heads on knuckles and thought about her goals. Her responsibilities as a punching cum deflecting bag with a leaking mouth was pretty clear. What else a goal was even possible? She was not qualified enough to help either the architects or the finance peoples. Not crafty or clever or street smart enough to help the PR folks like Tara. She was good at just two things: a. theorizing, b. writing about theorizing.

She was rubbing her eyes when she heard an impatient rap on her desk. She looked up to find a blurry Maan talking with a sense of urgency "Geet, arrange for a conference room for a meeting with me Dev and Gauri."

Geet "But he is busy all day with meetings today."
Maan "Then push back everything. All of them are just internal meetings right?"

Geet nodded "Yes goal setting meetings."

Before long they were all seated in the conference room; the attendee list included Maan, Dev, Gauri and herself. A heated discussion began on some design for the store at the mall. They were well into it for about ten minutes when Dev received a call.

Dev "Excuse me, I have to take this."

After a few seconds Dev was back "Bro I need to get back to my room now. The supervisor is on site right now relaying live feed on the status. There has been some flooding apparently. Geet arrange a conference bridge from this room and I will dial in from my cabin."

Hey Babaji, Geet hadn't handled a bridge before. She closed her eyes in prayer to recollect the right commands. She slid the desk phone towards herself and dialed a bridge which could host calls and entered the passcode. From then on anyone in office or elsewhere ought to be able to log on to the same call using that passcode. With every person joining in and leaving there would be an indicative beep on the line. She quickly punched away at the phone and Eureka! A beep was heard on the line in a few seconds.

Dev "Bro I am in."

Maan "Geet go and see if he needs help with anything."

She quickly made her way to Sir's cabin but was waved away.

Dev "Go to your desk and join the conference call. I will message you if you need to come in."

Geet followed suit and sat at her desk with ear phones plugged in her ear. She joined the conference call and was about to announce herself when she heard voices already.

Dev "…..yes, yes undoubtedly. I completely agree. Bro, keep the bridge on. I am going to be joining back in a few minutes. I have to join another call."

A beep was heard and obviously Dev had hung up. Geet's beep for joining had been missed evidently in the midst of all the chatter. Before Geet could even un-mute talking began.

Gauri "So Maan I was talking to Dev the other day. Can I be honest with you?"

A couple of clinks on glass and then Maan's voice "Sure Gauri. You can always be honest with me."

Gauri sniffed once "You see Maan. The other day I spoke to Dev and I know you guys since childhood. It is always my opinion that Dev is not suited for handling business oriented things. I don't know how else to put it. But you get what I am saying right? It is just my opinion. Not everyone is suited for everything. I am sure Dev is good at certain other things."

On one side Geet was more curious than a dead cat to know where it might lead. But this was getting awkward by the second. Gauri had waited for everyone to leave to speak about this with Maan. Clearly she intended to keep the conversation private. If she were to realize Geet had heard all those things no telling what could happen. Maan would skin Geet alive for misbehaving in front of a client. She decided to play dead mute cat for lack of a better idea.

Maan was also apparently on mute. He let Gauri continue.

Gauri "You are a mature young man who knows what he wants and I am just an old aunty. But still being an aunty gives me certain rights which I am exercising now."

Geet heard Maan laughing abruptly and heartily most likely to diffuse the argument "I am sure Daadi will not agree with you on the mature part. She has some nice names for me. The big bad boy, mera rascal, mera namoona, durbuddhi, daanav etc. It is a long list."

Vow Geet liked Maan's Daadi very much. The naming ceremony was perfect. Gauri was laughing too.

Gauri "I swear to God. If I was even ten years younger I would have fancied my chances with you, you handsome rogue."

Maan laughed "I am not getting any younger either. Our pairing sounds interesting."

Gauri "Shut up! But she is worried about you, you know. I am not exaggerating. I think I saw some eye moisture and believe me it was not from the dust outside as she said."

Geet had decided against emotional investment of any kind in the man. She did not even have a picture of him. Yet he had left an indelible mark on her mind. The way he moved and spoke, his aura dignity wit and sarcasm had her bowled down leg stump. She did not want to know why his Daadi was worried.

Gauri "Maan you are 31, what 32? It is high time you start thinking about things other than your career. I know what you are thinking: One more aunty started lecturing me about marriage. But Maan…"

Geet did the math involuntarily and obviously. Maan was almost a dozen years older than her. She wanted to reverse his aging process. Was there a talisman for that?

Maan "Gauri I don't like to discuss personal stuff in office."

Awesome! He was not one to get carried away after all.

Gauri "And you are never there at home when I stop by. Maan look at me. Is there some sort of issue that you cannot share with any of us? I swear I will not tell a soul. Not even your Daadi. I understand that sometimes one cannot share things with family members. But it helps to share."

Maan gave his trademark smirk "Gauri I don't have any problem. I just am not interested in marriage. Who wants all that unnecessary burden. I don't even have a girlfriend."

Gauri "I…"

Maan "I appreciate your concern Gauri. But when I find the right girl you will be the first one to know."

Gauri "Sure, if it is there somewhere in the corner of your mind that is good news for me. But the office is not all swan and song dance routine either. What is going on here Maan? Dev getting to be CEO and you are just shuttling between cities."

Maan "It is as you see it. This arrangement works for us Gauri. It is not just my decision. Even the board agrees with me."

Geet could hear Gauri snort "Who are you fooling here Maan? You are the board. Dev is there because you want him to be there. I just want to make sure you have thought this through."

Maan "Of course I have. With my experience it is better if I work with new people and bring in more business. Dev is doing a good job with customer service and existing clients. With him being at the helm people know that projects are getting due notice from a person that counts. It works for us."

Gauri "Hmm if you say so. But you are only thinking short term. A successful businessman or any woman will think long term."

Geet was intrigued and apparently Maan was too.

Maan "What do you mean Gauri? I don't get it. I am thinking long term."

Gauri laughed "That is the mistake men always make. They look at things one dimensionally. There is a problem to be solved, just solve it. Who cares what the after effects are."

Maan "What after effects?"

Gauri "Have you ever thought that perhaps one fine day cupid might strike and you would have a girl friend? I am sure Dev already has one. What would be their say? Trust me it will become very complicated. Your wife or girlfriend will not appreciate you playing second fiddle. Take my word for it."

Geet was stunned. That had been her exact first reaction. Gauri was a freakazoid genius. Not that Geet was implying anything about Maan and her to herself but still, Gauri was very right. Any girl would react that way. Maan did not have any counter words.

Gauri continued "Your Daadi is not in a position to say anything because of course she loves both of you equally. I cannot sleep peacefully until I have tried everything from my end. And I don't mind saying I am partial towards you."

Maan was still silent. Geet could not wait to hear his views. Would he make a 'maahaan sanyaasi' speech in front of Gauri too? Geet had an inkling that it wouldn't fool the sagacious lady any though.

Gauri "Maan of course you might tell me, this is a temporary arrangement. Once you have enough business you will sit in the saddle. But do you think your brother's girlfriend will sit quiet biding her time till then? She will make things happen. You have no idea the kind of repercussions this can have. This is the kind of stuff that breaks up homes. Why wait for the rift to happen to take measures. If you sit in his chair now no one will really think much of it."

Maan still wasn't saying a word. So was Sapna the girl Gauri was referring to? She seemed nice enough; not the noisily biding types.

Gauri "Do you think women are only capable of being wives and emotional support? They are balance Maan. They will help you think in directions you never thought of before. You want an intelligent beautiful woman by your side. It is the right time. Not everyone is as sweet and innocent as you. I know your nature. When your right hand is charitable even your left hand does not know about it."

Geet's heart was pounding selfishly. She wouldn't qualify in either intelligent or beautiful categories. She was forgetting to breathe. Finally Maan ended her agony.

Maan "Gauri, your concern for me is great. My brother might seem like a brat on the surface but has a heart of gold. I am sure these kind of petty issues will not come between us. Yes he has his habits and nature and I have mine. But that does not mean he will listen to some airhead and act on it stupidly."

Geet heard a couple of muffled noises which seemed like pats on the shoulder.

Gauri "I understand Maan. Everyone thinks of their brother and sister in the same way until they are proven otherwise. It is getting late. Is Dev going to be joining us anytime soon?"

Maan "He must be busy. Can you wait for ten more minutes?"

Gauri "Sure. Although Maan I don't get one thing about you. I mean what is your philosophy in life? On one hand you think so practically about business and your brother. Somewhere else you don't want to get married even though that is practical and the right thing to do. You can expand your empire if you marry the right girl. But there you choose to be philosophical and say you don't believe in that institution. So what do you actually follow, your heart or your mind?"

Geet wanted to give a standing ovation for that question. But it also pushed her into an abyss of darkness where there was no oxygen and the only things visible were her in a saree and he wiping lassi off his face with it.

How foolish had she been! The right girl for Maan would have something to add to the equation like money, power or a company. Geet was so young and naive that she had begun to sow the seeds of a dream where Maan was friends with her for reasons other than 'charity'. In her defense it was not something that was under her control. How could anyone help liking anybody else?

She dreaded in anticipation of his voice. And worst part she did not even get to hear it. She heard Dev in the room and the next thing, the phone line was disconnected unceremoniously. Geet stood up with an unbelievable wave of anger and irritation washing over her.

She slowly towards the conference room; all the while contemplating about Dev and Sapna.

She was more inclined to follow her heart and that little aortic pump was boiling her blood right now unable to share Maan's affections with his brother. She didn't know or give a damn about the political correctness of it. That was just it.

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