Aarzoo followed Sahir into the building and into the office. Joe had disappeared to carry out a few errands for Sahir so she was pretty much working on instinct alone.
He was approaching the door to his office when he stopped in his tracks, causing Aarzoo to bump into him as she wasn't watching where she was going and was instead familiarising herself with her new workplace. He turned to face her slowly and when she realised what she had done, she stepped back, embarrassed.
"Linda" he called, watching Aarzoo intently and she appeared in front of him instantaneously. "Yes Sir?" She had the same fear that Joe had in his voice.
"Show her a desk and give her something to do" He said gesturing to Aarzoo, who just stood there in between the two of them.
"Yes Sahir Sir" she said and waited until Sahir disappeared into his office before turning to Aarzoo. "Hi" She smiled warmly "I'm Linda, you must be Aarzoo"
"Yes" Aarzoo smiled, taking the lady's hand, relieved to finally come across a more welcoming person "How did you know?"
"Joe let me know"
"Oh. Okay"
"Come this way, I'll show you your desk"
"Sure" Aarzoo followed Linda past a row of desks, occasionally staring at the office door incase her new boss decided to appear out of nowhere to scream at her.
They approached the desk and Linda caught Aarzoo watching the office door. She lowered her voice and checked to make sure no one around her could hear. "Sahir Sir's a bit scary, huh?" She asked, getting her attention. Aarzoo made a face and Linda smiled "Just a bit. How long have you worked here?"
"Long enough!" It was her turn to make a face.
"Has Sahir Sir always been...?" "Strict?" Linda filled in the blank "Well, yeah?"
"Since I've been here, yeah. Joe says he wasn't always like this though" "Really?"
"Yeah" she nodded, "anyway. Here's your desk. Take a seat, I'll be right back" She smiled and Aarzoo nodded and sat down, getting used to her new surroundings.
Sahir had busied himself in reading a couple of files as soon as he had entered his office.
A while later he heard some chatter and laughter coming from outside his office. At first he attempted to ignore it but it was of no use, it just got louder. He sighed, frustrated at the interruption into his day and got up at once, throwing the file onto his desk as he walked to his door.
He opened his door to see his employees at their own desks but listening to Aarzoo as she continued her story.
Linda looked up and saw Sahir and her face fell. Her colleagues caught on to her look and the office lulled as Aarzoo was too busy doing her work to notice her boss's presence.
"Er Aarzoo" Linda began.
"Yeah?" She replied, her attention only half on her colleague.
"Why don't I show you how to do it the way Sahir Sir wants?" She asked and Aarzoo looked up.
"What's wrong with the way I'm doing it?" she asked looking down at the documents in front of her.
"No, nothing! It's just that Sahir Sir has a certain way of doing things"
"Why am I not surprised?" She muttered "Control freak" She added but unfortunately for her she was loud enough for Sahir to hear her as he approached them.
"Is there a problem?" Sahir asked and Aarzoo made a face at Linda when she realised that he had heard her. And Linda slowly nodded in reply, answering the question that was written all over her face.
"Er, no Sir" Aarzoo slowly got up and turned to face him.
"Good. I suggest you get on with whatever Linda's telling you" he told her and she nodded silently before Sahir turned to make his way back into his office.
Aarzoo breathed a sigh of relief then looked up to see Linda opened mouthed.
"What? What is it?"
"I can't believe he was so polite to you!"
"That was him being polite!?" She asked Linda
"Yeah! If it was anyone else he would have yelled until you were in tears"
"Wow" She was baffled "I wonder why he didn't. I was half expecting him to"
"Who knows" Linda replied, clearly in awe.
Sahir sat back and sighed, his phone rang. It was his secretary calling him to remind him of his important meeting that was scheduled for later on in the afternoon but had suddenly been rearranged for an early lunch.
Sahir proceeded to yell at his secretary for her incompetence, when in actual fact it wasn't her fault before slamming the phone down on her mid-way through her sentence.
"Sahir!" A familiar voice called and he looked up to see Anam walked into his office, unannounced.
"Anam!" He seethed. "How many times do I have to tell you to knock instead of barging into my office!?" He exclaimed
"What?" She replied, confused. "I thought that only applies to employees"
"Exactly" he replied "It does. And what are you?" He asked, and she glowered at him.
"Anyway" She chose to ignore him this time. "Here. For our meeting later"
"Did you make the corrections?"
"Yes Sahir" She sighed, irritated "All done"
"Good" He replied, going through the file
"So what time are we leaving?" She asked and he looked up from the file to see her looking at herself in her compact mirror.
"What?" He asked, raising an eyebrow
"The meeting. What time do we have to be there?" She continued. "I have a salon appointment but I can move it forward if we have to leave early" She put her compact away to look up at him.
"What gave you the assumption that you'll be going along to this meeting with me?" He asked her
"What??" she asked "What are you talking about? I thought..."
"Exactly. You thought. I didn't say you'd be coming with me?"
"But I did the presentation"
"Yeah. Because that's your job. And you'll do many more" He told her sitting back. "You can go" He told her and shook his head as she walked out, fuming as she slammed the door behind her.
"Linda" Sahir called as he closed his jacket's buttons, with Joe following behind him with the file in his hand.
"Yes Sahir Sir?"
"I'll send the car back to pick her up so make sure she finishes what I assigned before she leaves" He instructed as Aarzoo looked up from her desk.
"Yes sir" She nodded
"Good" He said "Let's go Joe" he said and they began to leave when someone called him from behind.
"Sahir Sir?" Aarzoo called and he sighed.
"Aarzoo. Sahir Sir doesn't like it when..." Joe began to explain but Sahir raised his hand for Joe to remain silent.
"What is it?" He asked
"I just wanted to apologise for the cont-" she paused. She was better off not repeating it. He had already heard it once. "The comment I made earlier"
"Forget it" He said and began to walk off but Aarzoo continued to follow him. She walked beside him and rambled on.
"I promise it won't happen again" She said "I want to make a good impression. I know how much it means to my mum that I do well and I just want to make her proud... and I just" She continued and Sahir stopped to face her but instead she tripped and fell but this time he caught her. She looked up at him and their gazes met. Sahir was the first to look away and helped her regain her balance before stepping away.
"I'm getting late"
"Thanks" she replied and he left with Joe in toe.
__
"How dare your son speak to me like a low class employee!" Anam confronted her mother-in-law back at home later that evening.
"Anam.." Alvira began but Anam interrupted her. As always so Alvira let her daughter in law go on her usual rant until she found a moment to talk some sense into her.
"Do you know Ammi, he's gone to that meetingalone! Even though I worked on that presentation!"
"Anam" Alvira smiled mockingly. "Saiyara is Sahir's company. If he doesn't want to take you, he doesn't have to. It's as simple as that." she shrugged
"No! It's not Ammi! I'm your eldest son's wife!" It's my right. Not his!"
"Anam" she interrupted her daughter in law firmly. "You may be my son's wife but that does not make you the rightful owner of Saiyara" She watched as Anam folded her arms and glared in response. "Sahir has worked incredibly hard on getting Saiyara to where it is today. If it wasn't for him, it would have sunk under your temporary ownership"
"Ammi!" She exclaimed, irritated
"What? Am I wrong? Was Saiyara not at the brink of collapse when I gave you the responsibility?"
"It was just a bad time in the market"
"Sure" She nodded sarcastically
"I can't believe him" Anam continued on her rant. "I mean who does her think he is!?"
"The owner of Saiyara" a voice announced behind her and Alvira smiled upon seeing her son. Anam also turned to face Sahir as he walked in followed by Aarzoo and Joe.
"How did it go Sahir?"
"It went well. We finalised the deal. We just have to wait for the paperwork"
"Good" She said
"There were some mistakes in the presentation but I managed to cover it" He added and Alvira turned to Anam to give her a knowing look.
"Is that right Anam?" She asked
"No!" Anam replied. "I went through the presentation myself!"
"I've made some notes if you want to see" He said "Joe" he gestured and Joe handed him a piece of paper and he offered it to his sister in law.
She snatched the paper from Sahir before walking off, seething.
"I'll take your leave Sir" Joe told him and Sahir nodded before he left.
"So how was your first day Aarzoo?" Alvira asked as Aarzoo approached her.
"It was great Aunty. I learnt alot"
"Good. I'm glad" She smiled
"I'll be in my room" Sahir told his mother as he was about to walk off.
"Wait Sahir. Don't you want to eat? Dinner's nearly ready?"
"I'm not hungry" he said and Alvira watched him disappear.
"That boy" Alvira shook her head and sighed. "When will he stop punishing himself?"
"Punishing himself for what Aunty?" A voice interrupted her thoughts, making her realise that she had been thinking aloud.
"Oh!" She was caught unaware. "Nothing. Ignore me. A mother never stops worrying for her child" she smiled "Speaking of which, have you called home to tell them about your first day?" She asked, wanting to divert the topic of conversation from Sahir.
"No!" she remembered "Not yet!"
"You go and do that now, while dinner is nearly ready"
"Do you need any help setting the table up?"
"No, don't worry about it. It's under control" She smiled
"Okay, I'll be right back Aunty"
"Okay beta" she said and watched as Aarzoo left her to it.
She took a sigh of relief. She had managed the situation for now. She needed to be careful in future. She couldn't let Sahir's past come back and haunt him. Despite the effect it was already having on him internally.
She saw the pain on his face as he relieved the same moment over and over again and blamed himself. She just hoped that maybe one day her son would be able to move on. Maybe one day Sahir could be happy.
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