Hello Dearies!
Hope you all are doing good and having a great day. If not, then finally, next part of the story is up. Hope this cheers you up. Here, we go then:
Part-3
If Viaan had thought that he still had one more day to extract answers from Katha, he couldn't have been more wrong. She ignored him and his presence completely. He knew she was doing it deliberately. Whenever he would try to start a conversation, she would always escape from there, quoting the pending work and the approaching deadline as an excuse. And he didn't have any other option than to comply. The idea he came up with to get a chance to talk to her seemed to work in the exact opposite way.
It was about time, and as expected, Katha knocked on his cabin door. "Ya, please come in.", he responded. "Here are the designs and the project files needed, all within the given deadline." she declared, keeping them on his desk. "Katha, I want to ask you something", he tried again. "Whatever you need, it is there in the files, Sir", came her clipped reply before he could say anything more. She was not going to relent, was she? "Actually, I wanted to..." he attempted yet again. "Can I go home now?" she cut him, completely disregarding what he had to say.
"No, you can't go.", he replied before she could walk out. "There is a client dinner at eight. You have to come along for that.", he elaborated, seeing her glare at him pointedly. "Why am I never pre-informed if there is anything like this? Every time I get notified at the last moment.", she blasted, her pitch going a note higher than usual. "If it is not absolutely necessary to go, please excuse me", she finished, ready to leave. "Yes, it is needed. Our star architect has to be there. They want to meet you, Katha. Don't worry. It's a business dinner. You will be free by Ten.", It was not Viaan who replied, but Ehsan, who had just entered his cabin.
"Unless you have something important or personal to do. You can let me know if there is.", Viaan added, trying to figure out why she was in such a hurry to go home. "No, there is nothing. I will come.", she replied. Did she concede just like that? Was it because of Ehsan or because she didn't want to tell him what was bothering her? "Are you sure, Miss Katha?" he asked, somewhat confused by her sudden change of decision. "Yes, I am sure, Sir. I will come.", she confirmed. "Okay then. We still have some time before dinner. If you want to freshen up or change, you can do that but let's meet at sharp Seven.", Viaan proposed, to which she merely nodded and left his cabin.
Throughout the dinner, Viaan had been observing Katha. She was distracted. He could clearly see that something was troubling her. She was continuously checking the time and was texting someone, but the question was, who? Someone in her family? Or maybe, a friend? Or was it the blackmailer, who she arranged that one crore for? Was there something serious going on? Why did she agree to come to the dinner in the first place, then? "Viaan! Viaan!" a slight nudge on his arm from Ehsan brought him back from his trail of thoughts. That was when he noticed that Katha was missing from her seat. When did she leave?
She must have gone to call that person whom she had been texting for the past half an hour, he mused. Instinctively, he too wanted to leave and go, look for her but remained seated against his will, waiting patiently for her. She returned, looking more at ease visibly when compared to earlier, which only confirmed his assumption. The dinner did come to an end eventually, and it was time to go home. They walked out to the exit, but before Viaan could offer to drop Katha home, Ehsan did, "Where do you live, Katha? I have brought my car, let me drop you".
Viaan looked at Katha, anxious about what her answer would be. "Thank you, Sir, but I have already booked a cab. It will be here soon." she politely declined Ehsan's offer making Viaan's tensed shoulder loosen up. Soon her cab came, and she left. It was the second time this evening when Viaan felt tempted to go behind her but restrained himself. He knew he was not getting any answers from her, at least not today. He sighed. These two days have been tiring for him. He wanted to go home and rest before he could think of some other strategy to talk to her.
Katha had her eyes closed and head resting on the cab window as she pondered over the affairs of today. Though she felt happy at successfully completing her tasks within the challenging deadline, the guilt of not getting enough time to spend with her recovering son weighed more. As a mother, it wasn't her who was present there for her son during his therapy sessions today. And even tonight, for the small celebration she had arranged for him on his win over Cancer. "He must have been waiting for her" the thought made her miss him more than she had the entire day. The cab came to a halt, and without any further ado, she leapt out and was on her way towards her son's hospital room.
So, how was it? Hope you all liked it. Initially, I planned to write just a OneShot but your appreciation motivated me to continue. Thank you for that. ❤️
Edited by adsh - 2 years ago