AbhiGya Fiction - FROZEN - CHP. 10 C & HAPPY ENDING UPDATED - COMP - Page 3

Hi Guys! Happy Reading! And looking forwards to more feedbacks about this one - this story is special to me 😳

------------------------------------------------

Chapter 2: Prags Arora

Prags - Well, that was who I was all those years back. When I was this young, silly, monkey out on a journey of self-exploration. I still believe it was hard work that landed me with that internship at MMH, and it was hard luck that he came there too.

Well, maybe I could argue on the hard luck bit for various reasons, but I guess I will leave that for you to decide whether it was hard luck or good luck that we met and shared the moments we shared!

I met him for the first time in the office elevator on my first day at work. I was just twenty and it was my first brush with the corporates. Everybody around was formally dressed and looked intimidating. I had tried my level best to be at my formal best, but damn my memory for missing out on picking up formal shoes! With a lot of convincing from BB and Poo, I decided to team my formal dress with a toned down grey stilt. There I was in the elevator with a bunch of others, I was so intimidated that I stood with my head bent, staring at my shoes - that was when I noticed - from the array of five pairs of shiny polished formal shoes, peeped a pair of red and white clumsily tied sneakers. I frowned and followed my gaze up to the pair of blue distressed denims that popped out of the shoes, they were ripped at places, and held together by an exorbitantly flashy belt. I saw a pair of hands tucked inside the denim pockets - one hand had a lot of different wristbands while the other sported a broad brown leather band, with a guitar graphic on it. My eyes slowly moved from the blue t-shirt with a huge bling question mark printed on it to the two metal dog-tags dangling from the owner's neck, to the black ear studs, to the face finally!

My jaw dropped. Standing there beside me, in the now empty elevator, and sporting the exact opposite of formal wear, was ROCKSTAR ABHI - Poo, BB and Daadi's Abhi! He had finally noticed me staring at him - he looked back at me and smiled a little. For some reason, at that moment all that was playing in my head was his stupid song "Happy Love!" that BB and Poo made me hear countless number of times! Then I had said the weirdest thing! Between attempting to say Good Morning Sir' and trying to tune out Happy Love' from my head, I blurted out,

"Good Morning Love" with a nice smile!

And, just when I was about to kick myself for the stupidity, our rockstar responded!

"Good Morning Darling!" and he winked at me mischievously!

He didn't seem to mind my mistaken flirting at all! He already earned a minus point from me for unnecessarily flirting back with me, I had made a mental note to inform BB and Poo of this. As I stood their staring at him thinking all this in mind, he started walking out of the elevator which had halted at his destination floor. He walked out, and turned back to look at me, then when the door was shutting between us, he pressed the button again and the door opened again.

"Unless you are planning to guide the elevator to Mars from here, I think you reached your destination."

"Huh?"

"Babe, this is the top floor!"

"Oh" and I walked out clumsily tripping over God knows what, and he held on to my elbow to make me stable. I darted a quick look at him and murmured a "Thank-You" to which he nodded briefly and walked away from sight!

***

My God, he was short tempered! Now when I think of it, maybe he was in as bad a soup as I was. At least I was trained in management, but him? He was a singer, how was he to handle the daily business affairs with dexterity? On that he had me interning and over that he thought I was crushing on him! So he also had a reputation to protect before me I guess - So whenever I brought up a tricky issue that needed tackling, he used get so mad at me! Then I hated him for his arrogant hot headedness, but looking back I feel, maybe he was only hiding his ignorance!

"Sir, there is a copywriting issue with the CD's in the last lot"

"Damn you chashmish! Why can't you fix it yourself?"

"Sir, I am an intern, I don't have the permit"

"Uff, you couldn't even manage to get permits!"

"Sir, it's against company policy to grant permits to interns!"

"Don't teach me chashmish! Leave now!"

That was how erratic our usual day-to-day conversations were. Seeing this who could predict the future.

***

Radhika had come to Delhi for a wedding. She was Animesh's sister - Animesh, my neighbour, who I was crushing on for a very long time. So, BB had told Radhika that, I was reporting to rockstar Abhi, and once in Delhi, she literally ate my head, begging me to help her meet him in person. For any other friend, I wouldn't have bothered even considering, nothing was worth Abhi's dismissals, but this was Radhika, keeping her happy could go a long way in impressing Animesh, I thought. But how was I to convince that ass to meet my friend as a favour, when he scolded me for pretty much breathing even!

I was talking to Radhika over the phone, some ten minutes before leaving from office, we were supposed to meet up for dinner, and I was making up random excuses for not being able to help her in the Abhi situation. When most of my excuses were failing, I tried one final time.

"Actually Radhika, I am sure Abhi would have met you in person, but he has a serious throat problem, that makes him worried. He is a singer after all right? So he is taking as much rest as possible, so this time round, he can't meet you buddy. I am so sorry."

A disheartened Radhika hung up. I sighed out loudly, it was time to bid Animesh goodbye I thought and turned around. He was sitting on the work station opposite, on the table. He had an amused look over him.

"So you attacked my source of bread and butter huh?"

"Sorry, what?"

"Throat!! Couldn't you site some other disorder?"

"Woh..I couldn't think of anything at that moment"

"Who is she? Your sister?"

"No, friend's sister."

"Guy friend or girlfriend?"

"Guy - Animesh"

"What kind of friend?" he smirked

"Excuse me?"

"Think about it, if your answers please me, I might consider meeting her"

"Like that's likely. You just want to know and then ditch" the words escaped me before I gave it a thought. His smile faltered.

"You have serious misconceptions about me girl! Anyways, I have a special appointment tonight, can't make it, so.."

"As much as I thought" I spoke more to myself then him and rolled my eyes. But he continued after a second pause, "SO, call her in the office tomorrow morning! We have a cafeteria coffee promise here!" then he winked once and left. I stood there dumbfounded as to how he became so cool all of a sudden!

After that, he was more or less, always humorous with me.

***

He was the chief accountant at MMH, his name was Rishi. He was infamous among all the women employees at MMH for his letching activities. I had noticed him giving me weird looks for the last two days, I avoided him. But that day I had to stay back at work for long, I needed to raise a few bills and submit to the accounts department before leaving. I knew it would take time, hence I had dropped a mail to the accounts department, to keep at least one person waiting, such that I could submit the bills to be sent.

It was around eleven thirty at night, when I finally made a neat pile of all my bills and headed to the accounts floor. Rishi was there waiting for me. I looked around, the entire floor was empty, and most lights were turned off or dimmed. There was only one strongly lit station at the far corner, I sighed in relief. Rishi followed my gaze and seemed to realize what I was thinking. He smiled and said that was his work station not anyone else's. There was something in that malicious smile of his that got me worked up. I felt my palm sweating, I handed him the bills and turned around to leave, but he groped my elbow. I froze. He let go of my hand, and told me that I need to sign in some register stating the bills have been submitted. Relief ran down my spine, I slowly turned around followed him to one of the darker corners of the room - he opened a register and offered me a pen, I took it with a curt smile and turned around and bent to sign - suddenly I felt a pair of hand grope my waist and spoon over me - his mouth was near my neck, and he was trying to force kisses on my neck and hair - I was shocked and stupefied at first, and then he was trying to turn me around, that is when my spell broke! I tried screaming, but my voice got choked, I couldn't make any noise, feeling desperate I tried pushing him - it worked to a certain extent, because he lost balance and fell on the floor. I took advantage of the moment and made a dash from there - I saw him staggering up and following after me - I came out and thought it was pointless waiting for the elevator, as he would catch up with me, I took the steps - but instead of going down, I climbed up - I realized, Rishi would expect me to run down and he would follow suit, that way he could catch up with me, hence I dashed up - I was in the "Client Entertainment Floor", I ran down the brightly panelled and well maintained corridor and entered through the first conference room door and shut the door behind me. I was breathing heavily and standing with the door as support, as the horror of the situation of settling in - This was when I felt a man's hand on my shoulder.

I was rooted to the spot in fear - how did Rishi manage to reach here before me? I was choking again, and now my feet were giving in, I was shaking uncontrollably - this was when I felt he gruffly turned me around to face him - it was Abhi.

He was looking at me with a serious frown on his face. "How dare you breach our privacy?" There was a lady behind him who was trying very hard to zip up her dress, she was successful in a moment and then she barged out of the door with a hard glance at Abhi. Then I looked at him - I saw him looking at me carefully and soon the frown and anger was replaced by genuine concern.

"Pragya what happened? Why do you look so dishevelled?"

But I couldn't control my emotions at this point, I couldn't talk, I couldn't move, and I couldn't explain, so I gave in to sobbing before him. He seemed to understand something, so he immediately picked up his phone and ordered security to block the exits and detain everyone in the building. Then he gently held my shoulder and walked me to the chairs, he made me sit and pulled another chair opposite mine, he sat down and patted my hands gently and tried to calm me down - but it made me sob harder as fear tightened my heart - what if Abhi was not there today, then? After a while he got up and came closer to me, sat on the table next to my chair and gently patted my back, till I calmed. Then he first made me drink some water and then enquired about what had happened, when I recited the entire event, he clenched his fist in anger and called the police.

It took another hour and half to finish all the formalities, then he personally drove down to drop me home, and had even bought me stress relief medicines on the way - when I got out of the car, he told me to take two days leave and then come for work, till then he would get it all sorted. He even waited in the car till I got inside my house and only then he drove away - something inside me had changed about the rockstar that night.

***

After the Rishi incident, I don't know whether it was out of some misplaced sense of guilt, or his worry over my vulnerability, but he kept me close to him - it was very evident. I worked more as his personal assistant than an intern. Then his manager went on a week's leave and I officially became his manager. He had appointments spread across two diaries - the appointments diary and the damsel diary. I was in charge of both - it was my work to remind him for his meetings and contracts, send bouquets to his girls, make excuses when he bunked one date for another and even fix date venues for him. He would only tease me for the exasperated look I gave him when I handled his damsel diary.

One day he asked me to come shopping with him, it was his sister Aaliya's birthday, he wanted to buy her a neckpiece - I was to help him choose. We had gone to Delhi's most posh jewellery outlet and he hassled through hours to pick something for his sister - I liked it - flamboyant and commitment phobic though he was, he had this other side too - that of an out and out family mans - a man who spent hours from his busy schedule to pick a birthday gift for his sister.

Once he was done picking his gift, he went to pay, and I was standing at a corner facing some stuff on display - I was not really seeing them, I was thinking about him.

"Hey chashmish, do you like that pendant?"

"Huh? No.no. I wasn't looking, I.."

But he didn't wait for me to finish, he motioned the sales lady to bring the piece out and before I could react he swiftly took the chain from the lady and placed it on my neck from behind, as the lady placed a mirror before me. I couldn't help feel that he was deliberately brushing the back of his fingers on my neck, when he was helping me try the chain - then I looked at mirror and saw him staring at me with an odd expression - I don't know why, but I had this strange sense of butterflies in my stomach - I realized I was finally falling for Abhi - in a way I hadn't fallen for anyone - it was so gradual that it felt inevitable - I think I was always meant to fall for Abhi

Hello guys!! So here goes Chapter 3! I am just a little bit sad, because so many of my favorite readers have not stopped by for this story because it has a sad ending! 😭😭

But of the one's who are reading, please leave behind your views of the story and let me know how you feel about the story line..I really look forward to your comments 😳😳

Happy Reading 😳😳

------------------------------------------------

Chapter 3: The Deal

It was adolescence all over for me again - that typical feeling, when you realize you are changing and there is nothing you can do about? I was going through that again! My foolish romantic instinct was slowly starting to cloud my rationality and I was happily letting it happen with a fluttery belly. Once the metamorphosis was over, and I had bowed down before my love for Abhi, I decided to tell him about my feelings.

There were two things I was absolutely sure about. One, I was as much in love with Abhi as Simran was with Raj in DDLJ. Two, I knew, if Raj ever existed in real life, he would just be like Abhi. I thought these were reason enough to go ahead with.

To this date, no one ever got me - but, I NEVER proposed to Abhi. Proposing him was never my intention. I didn't want to know what he felt for me - it wasn't important for me, I wasn't looking for reciprocation. I just felt overwhelmed by my feeling for him. It was the strongest I had ever felt so far for anyone - and I simply thought he had the right to know, that someone loved him thus.

By then, Abhi and I had started interacting outside office too. We had gone for coffee a couple of times - while we were on the way to meet clients or while returning. We had gone for his sister's birthday shopping and that day we had lunch outside too! I had even accompanied him to one of his endorsement shoots - and I had noticed that, though he always made it look accidental, but he had held my hands a number of times, and every time he would let go, I always felt a slight reluctance in him.

Thus when I decided to tell him about my feelings for him, I wasn't worried about extreme consequences.

It was a Saturday evening, when I had met him for coffee. I wasn't shaky or formal when I told him the biggest truth of my life - you can blame my childishness or my innocent vulnerability for it - your choice - but for me, my love for him was the most precious gift I could offer and I was just being generous.

"You know what Abhi, I love you." I smiled.

He stared at me for a second and then flashed his adorable smirk, "Love you too babe"

"No. I mean the serious-wala love"

"As in?"

"As in not the fan girl love, or the crush love - DDLJ love"

"DDLJ love?"

"Okay, I will explain - it's not the way you love the chef's special Risotto at Benjamins, it's the way you love daadi's handmade aloo parantha!"

"Ah. That's a lot of love..but chashmish..the thing is, I...you know me, you handle my damsel diary, there is nothing hidden from you..so"

"Oh, don't get me wrong, I am not proposing to you!"

"You're not? Then what was this?"

"I just needed to tell you. It's such an overwhelming feeling that I couldn't just keep it to myself, and not share with you. I had to tell you. But it was just information for you. I am not expecting a response from you. I mean I know your exploits man, after all I handle the damsel diary" I finished with a laugh

He looked startled for the first time, "I don't need to give you an answer.." he mumbled to himself. He was then quiet for a few seconds - I was watching him and sipping coffee. A few moments passed, then he looked up brightly, "Okay, you told me, so I know. Now, you want to have another peanut butter muffin?"

***

Our equation, both at a personal level and at work had not been affected at my announcement - we were both very comfortable with each other, he still joked around and I still laughed at his jokes - however there was one tiny negligible change - the activities related to his damsel diary had reduced drastically. When I questioned him, he joked around it, but never gave me the real reason.

It had been sometime since I told him about my feelings, I was leaving from work, when Abhi offered to drop me home. I told him it wasn't very late and I could manage, but he insisted I let him. I finally agreed. I noticed he was not behaving the usual way, he looked a bit grim - once I thought of enquiring, but later decided not to, it could be personal. Even when he was driving me home, he was quiet all the way. It was only when we reached my house and I was about to get out of the car, he spoke.

"Why?"

"What why?" I asked confused.

"Why do you love me?"

I stared at him. Of all the reasons I assumed, that could have made his mood foul tonight, I never thought it could be me. And then I wondered, why indeed did I love him?

"Because" I replied.

"Because?" he questioned again.

"Not because? Its because."

"Prags, please be serious, I need to know."

"I don't know - I guess, I love you because I love you. I feel at home around you. I don't miss my folks around you - why so, I don't know"

"Thing is Prags, I like you too. I feel the same comfort around you. I don't know from when I started feeling differently for you, but I did. I like spending time with you - but I don't believe in the institution of relationships."

"Then Tanu?"

"I had told her this, but she still wanted to be with me - the deal was, she was in a relationship with me - I was single. But over time, she couldn't handle it, my philandering ways, so she left"

"So, your point is?"

"My point is, I like you because, I feel comfortable around you in a way, I haven't felt with anyone else. You're like daadi's aloo parantha - you know what I mean?" asked Abhi earnestly. I almost laughed at the deduction.

"Now, what do you want to do?" I asked.

"I still don't believe in long term commitments, but I think this is special and don't want it to fizzle out - but for all you know, this might be just another casual thing - I cannot tell - I can't promise you a future together - but I can promise a happy present - as long as that lasts"

"I love you, but I am not like you - I can't imagine us being friends with benefits"

"I know. How about us both going up till a midway? Let's give this a try - we will be in a relationship, as in your type of relationship not mine, but let's time it beforehand? Let's just be in your kind of a relationship till we both are here in Delhi, then we part ways as good friends - I will make no fake promises to you."

I sat there a little stunned. The deal was simple, a two weeks long relationship was what he had to offer, now the call was mine. I know many of you will judge me for this, but I will be honest here - this is what I felt - I truly loved Abhi, and if two weeks are the most I can get with him as mine in this lifetime, I couldn't let it go. I wanted to live my entire life in these two weeks he offered me. And then there was a childish pride that said, my love for Abhi will not let him leave me after two weeks, he will want to stay.

So, if you think Abhi was being a brat by timing our relationship, you can call me a s**t for accepting the relationship with a pre-fixed lifeline. So, yes I had accepted his proposal.

***

It was like a coin had flipped - One small conversation while he was driving me home one evening, and suddenly, the Abhi now was everything that Abhi wasn't a day before. I will explain, he was still the humorous arrogant brat with bling clothing, but his attitude towards me had taken a three sixty degree turn.

He was like a shadow that never abandoned me, he was the fierce protector keeping me safe from the world. He didn't need to say much, his body language said it all - the way he sat hunched towards me baring out his bulk to the world, it reeked of privacy, the way he firmly gripped my wrist as we walked, it showed his authority over me - I was his. As for me? I was the dry autumn leaf that was caught in a strong breeze, going wherever the breeze took me - but I loved the journey.

Sitting in a conference room with a bunch of people discussing sales figures, I used to blush - because I could feel his eyes shamelessly fixed on me, not hearing a thing about what else was going on. The thing with Abhi was, when we had privacy, he would joke around, we would engage in a banter and laugh like friends, it was never romantic - but whenever there were people around, I could see his claim in his eyes - I was his - every moment was personal - my every wakeful moment had to belong to him. I was the happy prisoner of his eyes - He was all I knew, he was all I saw and he was all I ever wanted - my Abhi

I still remember that late afternoon, it was raining heavily. I was in his cabin, we were discussing the last quarter's report - he was in his seat and I was standing behind him, leaning on the back rest of his chair, when suddenly after a tremendously loud thunder, there was a power failure in the office - the weather outside was stormy and dark hence there wasn't much light coming from the huge panelled windows, and obviously we were stuck inside his cabin as the password controlled electronic door lock wouldn't work either. We were quiet for a few moments, hoping the generator would run any moment now, but a call on his phone confirmed that there were technical issue because of which, it would take a few hours to restore power to our building. I sighed, and went near the window and stood watching the stormy rain outside, I wished I could open the window a bit to feel the wet breeze on my face - I loved the rain!

I heard a creak at one end of the window and noticed Abhi was opening it a little bit from there, I rushed next to him and from the light of the thunder that rang, I saw a content smile on his face as he watched the rain.

"You like the rain?" I asked.

"No, it's the storm - I love storms. You?"

"I used to just love the rain until now, but recently I learnt, I prefer storms"

"Explain that please"

"Are you any less than a storm?"

He simply looked at me for a while, I couldn't read his expression and it was also very dark, then I felt his towering frame bending towards me and at the same time felt a pair of gruff hands holding my waist from both sides and pulling me towards him - then our lips met, he wasn't kissing me immediately, he just stayed like that for a few moments, simply touching my lip with his, and then ever so slowly and so very gently he was licking my lips, there was no pressure and simply no demand, he was happy where he was, softly taking in my lower lip with his lips - it was my first kiss. I was in a daze, and slowly the slow and softness of the kiss was starting to heat up my nerves, I felt a desire so unknown to the rest, I wanted more of his lips, I slowly started responding and parted my lips to allow him inside - there was a gentle tug and then his tongue was soon exploring my mouth. Then the rhythmic movement of the mouths became faster and soon we were hungrily kissing each other with teeth, tongue and lips - when we broke apart we both were breathless and he had me safely tucked between his strong arms. As I hugged him tight, I was exploding inside with content - but his reassuring heart beats calmed me, it was soothing - I looked out of the window happily, I had finally found my paradise on earth.

"Hey look the storm has passed." I pointed out.

"That's the thing about them, the always pass."