Translucence - Finished. - Page 73

Originally posted by: mystique_girl

I am officially lost again... 😲

You know Sookie, after your story started...I have started to hate this dialogue about making choices...it seems everybody has been making their choices in their lives in full supply and now we are getting a super complicated family drama with not an ounce of guesswork possibility anywhere😆

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Ok, some more: However human Mitalee might be, that doesnt make me pity her in the least bit...If she had expected the presence of her brothers in her life, she should have made the effort also...it doesnt seem she has tried it..

Well, the allegations against Maan were gross - but again, everybody has their POV. I would agree with her in that Maan needs to go a long way to prove himself ... he is almost worth nothing at present...

"It was more of a meeting than a dinner actually," replied Maan.

"Then we need a debriefing," said Emily who was five feet away from Maan's desk picking up printouts. "Maybe there is something that we can utilize for our benefit," she added.

"Vaidehi dumped me by the way," said Maan quite happily. Emily and Satya exchanged amused glances.

"You look awfully happy about it," said Emily chuckling.

"She called me a workaholic and found me quite boring since I am not the same guy who she met years ago - a fun guy who talked about art and poetry and appreciated fine cuisine," shrugged Maan.

"Poor girl," Satya, the ever kind person, sympathized with a stranger. Emily rolled her eyes.

"What did Geet say?" Emily asked.

"What's Geet got to do with it?" Satya asked Emily. Emily didn't bother an answer and merely shook her head. Satya could be terribly obtuse sometimes.

"You are asking as if you don't know about it," said Maan wryly.

"You know about it?" Satya said totally clueless. Emily grinned.

"Geet debriefed." She said cryptic about the conversation she had with Geet.

"You mean - gossiped," corrected Maan. Satya simply looked at both of them without fully understanding what was going on.

"What did Deshmukh want?" Satya asked several moments of silence later.

"He wants to work with us." Maan said and watched their reactions. As expected, Emily and Satya shared a look of disbelief.

"Has he forgotten what happened before? The board isn't going to agree to it," said Satya.

"I know that Satya and so does he. He doesn't want an alliance or any kind of arrangement. He wants us to start off with him like any other vendor," said Maan. Satya frowned.

"I don't like it, honestly. We are Khurana Heavy Transport belonging to Khurana Group and not some startup company that has to compete by responding to an RFP (RFP: Request for Proposal). We don't do auditions." Maan said.

"Deshmukh is requesting for a proposal for a job that needs to be done for his company. It's not only us but there will be other vendors too who will be submitting proposals to Deshmukh. Based on the commercials (price) and the extent of offered services, Deshmukh will decide which vendor will be doing it. Most probably this decision will be made public. Am I correct?" Emily asked.

Maan nodded. "That is correct." He replied.

"So we aren't responding to that RFP then?" Satya asked trying to keep surprise in his voice to a minimum. He didn't know what Maan was thinking.

"What did you tell Deshmukh?" Emily asked her voice hard guessing what could have happened by looking at Maan's stance. Maan swallowed. He didn't answer immediately. Emily patiently waited.

"I told him subtly that we aren't interested in this pursuit." Maan replied.

"We?" Emily asked her voice hard. "What the f**k are you doing Maan?" Emily erupted. Maan looked up, shocked at her outburst.

"Here we are trying our best to save the company, retaining existing clients, managing crappy clients who have dozens of invoices not yet honored, vendors and subcontractors to who we haven't paid for their services yet and not to forget we have a huge workforce that is greatly dissatisfied with the management. Amidst all this you refuse a potential client without discussing with me or Satya." Emily said in one breath.

"Look Emily, this isn't so much of a big deal given the contract they are offering isn't even big. Besides, am not interested in leveraging my resources to work on a proposal which eventually may not give us even a decent operational margin," said Maan.

"But sir it would be a good entry point for us to be in the market again competing with everyone else instead of chasing contracts which may or may not work in our favor. I know that it will raise lot of eyebrows in Dalal Street but why bother about it? Why can't have this parallel thread running without hindering the set of people who are working on bigger deals." Satya tried to see a ray of light in all this confusion.

"Satya, we have enough funds received from chairman to substantiate business for another quarter or so till we receive all the invoices that haven't been honored by our clients' yet." replied Maan and frowned. "Why are you two hung up in taking this offer anyway?" He asked them.

"Because it would mean that we still care about being in business and not chase around hollow contracts. It would motivate our employees if they see us rolling up our sleeves and doing everything in our power to be in business even if it means we work like any other smaller company would. It means giving an indication to the rest of the vendors in this industry that we are their competitor," said Emily.

Maan stared at Emily for several moments.

"The answer is still no. It's going to be colossal waste of time. And besides if we lose the deal, which I think what Deshmukh wants, the media will have a field day." He said flatly.

"Sir I should have brought this up a while ago but we will have to start responding to RFPs at some point. Yes, it is possible that we may lose on this one and that may even be Deshmukh's ulterior motive to get even with us for calling off the deal in the last minute. However in parallel and immediately we can spawn off responding to RFPs that have been pending with us for ages and those we know we can easily win because of our old associations. In worst case scenario even if we win only 50% of them, losing Deshmukh will not impact us much. I think this is a good opportunity for us to get back into the game." Satya tried to mediate between Emily and Maan whose argument was dangerously escalating.

"What's the deal price?" Emily asked before Maan could formulate a reply to Satya.

Maan handed her over a sheet of paper. Emily's eyes widened when she looked at the numbers.

"This isn't substantial? Okay, it may not be the biggest source of revenue but this isn't a small amount. But it's not the deal price which is important here. If we win this it's going to give us the entry in petrochemical transport domain Maan, something that can possibly turn this company around." Emily controlled her anger and replied.

"I don't care a shit about this company Emily. I accepted my father's offer to run this company because I had to find out about the past. All I want to do now is, somehow manage this company so that it doesn't get completely ruined while I am here," Maan replied in obvious anger.

"So once we figure out what happened between your father and Geet's father, what are you going to do Maan? Make a huge scene out of it and drag your family and friends to be slandered by the media? After that, what? Go back to the same party scene drowned in alcohol and casual sex? Live off your inheritance after screwing up employment of thousands of people in the process?" Emily yelled. Satya got up and tried to calm Emily down.

"Emily..." Satya started but was cut off by Maan.

"My personal life is none of your business; what decision I take now or what I intend to make tomorrow is not your concern. Don't forget that you are an employee here." Maan hissed in cold anger.

Emily removed her company identity card attached to her blazer and slammed it on his table.

"f**k you Maan."

She didn't look back as she walked out of his cabin. Satya excused himself a moment later and walked out. Maan collapsed on his chair and sat that way for several hours. No one came in to his cabin and his office was suddenly quiet.

What have I done?

-- o00o --

"What are you doing here Maan?" Geet asked Maan who was leaning on the wall. He was standing in shadows near the main entrance of Khurana hospital hoping that he would catch Geet. His mind was a mess for three days now and he still hadn't figured out completely how it went wrong between the two of them.

"What happened to you?" She asked worried after taking a look at his appearance. He hadn't shaved his hair unkempt and his clothes were rumpled. He looked exhausted. He didn't answer her immediately but searched the floor for something only he knew. He swallowed several times trying to answer her but closed his mouth shut as soon as his eyes met hers.

"I think I hurt Emily really bad," he said after moments.

"Let's go to cafeteria," she replied and walked in opposite direction. He followed her several steps behind. He couldn't bring himself to step in next to her.

"What did you tell her?" Geet asked handing him a cup of coffee.

Maan slowly explained the incident that happened in his office three days ago.

"Mitalee was right then," Geet said slowly. Maan looked appalled. "She said that you were in the business to avenge whatever you think has gone wrong in your life. I actually defended that it wasn't the case," Geet shrugged.

"I don't know what I want Geet," Maan replied after moments. He looked confused, torn, exhausted and a kid left alone in a crowd.

That was it then. Geet chuckled without humor.

"Have you ever?" She asked him. Maan looked at her sharply, hurt evident in his eyes.

"Don't look at me as if am purposely making this difficult for you Maan. You know that you have brought this on to yourself. Your continuous indecisiveness, impulsiveness and whimsical ideology have brought you in this state today. You hurt Emily much worse than what you have imagined, do you know?"

Maan didn't respond.

"The woman who slaved every nonworking hour to find out about your parents and mine was reduced to a dispensable resource. She didn't do it because she is your boss Maan. She did it because she genuinely likes us." Geet replied. Maan averted his eyes and looked at his coffee.

"How do I apologize to her?" He asked her.

"Figure it out. If you consider her as your friend, I am sure you will know what to do," said Geet not bothering to induce kindness or softness in her tone.

She honestly wanted to beat him up for his atrocious behavior.

-- o00o --

He knocked the door hoping that she was home. But there was other part of him which hoped that she wasn't. He didn't know what to tell her or even face her for that matter. But like Geet said, he had to do this on his own. He didn't realize door being opened as he debated with himself.

"What do you want?" Emily asked looking at a thoroughly haggard Maan.

"I came here to apologize for my pathetic behavior." Maan said watching his shoes. "I am sorry Emily," he said softly finally looking up.

She sighed, stood aside and opened the door.

"Come in," she said. Maan let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. He knew that he was off the hook for the moment but she wasn't done yet.

"Here," she said handing him a cup of tea that smelled like herbs and flowers. He inhaled the scent which made his head swim in calmness and took a sip. He sighed in content when the liquid warmed his insides.

"What's going on Maan?" Emily asked without beating around the bush. Maan sipped his tea and didn't answer her immediately. She didn't ask him again and waited patiently.

"I don't know Emily. I spoke to Geet before coming here. She called me whimsical, impulsive and..."

"...indecisive," Emily cut him off. He looked at her in surprise.

"Debriefed already, huh?" He asked chuckling. She nodded, smiling.

"How do I fix this Emily? How do I fix myself?" Maan's voice was hoarse and lost.

"You can't," she replied a moment later. Maan looked at her, wounded. "Things that are damaged between two people don't fix that easily Maan. When one hurts another there is a whole process of coming in terms with it, dealing with it and then healing. Whatever happened between us cannot be forgotten but can be overcome. We both have to work towards overcoming it. Do you understand what I am saying? She asked.

"I think I do," he replied. "I wonder if it's same with Geet too," he added.

"Probably. Take rest of the week off, go on a drive, switch off your cell phone and tune away the rest of the world. Burn your energy, yell all your frustrations, dissolve all your confusions, run as if your life depended on it and when you find yourself too tired to even move your eyelids, think what is that you want from your life." Emily said.

"Will I know then?" Maan asked hopefully.

"Nah. I just said it cause those lines sounded cool in my head," she said with a straight face.

Thirty seconds later both of them burst out laughing.

To be continued.