"Yo, Bro! What are you doing! Are you man or an animal?!" Abhi said, staring at Armaan in horror as he stuffed the final paratha in his mouth. Armaan looked up and gave Abhi a murderous glare, daring him to say another word. Abhi just shrugged his shoulders and went back to eating his breakfast, calmly.
"Armaan! What are you doing? Hurry up and eat the food na!" Armaan looked up and saw Riddhima looking at him with a small smirk playing on her lips which made him glare at her.
After their little moment in their room, Armaan had quickly taken a shower and had rushed downstairs and had full plans in his head to break through all the traffic sections to reach ME, but Riddhima had different plans in her mind. As soon as he had gotten down, she and Bi had dragged him to the table saying he needed to eat something or else it'll affect his health. Armaan tried explaining them about the important meeting he had with his clients but Riddhima said he needs to eat. What made it worse was Riddhima kept adding paratha after paratha on his plate which annoyed him to no extent, adding to his misery. He wanted to scream and tell people he was getting late for his meeting, but everyone would just look at him and then go back to laughing. So to hurry up, he started stuffing the parathas in his mouth. He wanted to pull his hair out in frustration. He saw Riddhima talking to others with a wide smile on her face and glared at her.
Riddhima... I hate you so much right now! Tumhari vajah se main apni meeting ke liye bohat late ho chuka hain. Damn you! Bohat ho gaya Riddhima. Ab tak har baazi tumne jeeti hain, lekin ab nahin. Aaj ke baad, harr baazi meri hogi.
He looked around and once he saw no one looking at him, he stealthily scooted his chair back. He pretended to eat the paratha while picking up his laptop bag. Once ready to take off, Armaan stood up and ran out the door, shocking every single person in the room.
"Armaan!" Riddhima yelled his name, but he just got into his car and was out of their eyes within seconds. Riddhima, who was still standing at the door, shook her head slowly with a small smirk.
Sigh... Armaan, Armaan, Armaan... tum bilkul pagal ho. Tum dekhna. Yeh baazi bhi meri hi hogi. You're going to lose, once again.
She thought to herself with a smirk and then went inside the house.
****
Even though the office was quite at a distance, Armaan reached ME in no time. He was so late for the meeting that he felt he was going to lose the contract today. He wanted to kill Riddhima for making him so late. As soon as he parked the car correctly, he jumped out of the car and almost ran into the office. Getting in the elevator, Armaan quickly reached the top floor and ran to the conference room for the meeting. Entering the room, he saw everyone getting ready to leave. He saw of the employees of the office walk up to him and heard him talk.
"Sir, aap kahaan the? Yeh sab kabse aapka wait kar rahe the. Now they want to leave without signing the contract. Please kuch kijiye sir, warna yeh contract humare haath se nikal jaayega." Armaan looked at everyone and heard someone speak.
"Mr. Mallik. Yeh sab kya hain? Hum approximately aadhe ghante se aapka intezaar kar rahe the. Where were you?" A lady questioned.
"Humse toh kaha gaya tha ki Mallik Empire ke log strictly professional aur bohat hi punctual hain. Is this how professionals behave?" Armaan carefully studied all the men and women in the room to get an idea of how everyone was. His eyes scanned the young man who just dared to questioned his professional behave. Only he and God knew how brutally he murdered that guy in his mind in under a second, but made sure he didn't let that show on his face.
"Well, to know how professional we are, you first need to speak with us. Am I correct Mr..." Armaan said with a small, challenging smile.
"Vivek. Vivek Singhaniya." Vivek introduced himself in a very proud tone. Armaan wanted to go punch the hell out of that Vivek guy, but knew it wouldn't be right at the moment.
"Right." he said and looked at the main person who was his client. "Mr. Singhaniya. I apologize for coming here so late. I know this isn't right but I have a very valid reason." Armaan tried explaining himself.
"Which is?"
"Mr. Singhaniya I've recently gotten married. My wife has been trying to adjust to the new environment and I've been trying to help her out. She cares a lot about me so I had to stay back for a while and that's the only reason I got late. And you know the traffic of Mumbai. I would've gotten here earlier but the traffic held me back. I'm sure once you see my presentation, you won't be disappointed." Mr. Singhaniya thought over this for a moment and then nodded.
"Ok Mr. Mallik. You have once chance to impress us. If we think your presentation is worth it, then we shall sign the contract with you. But remember. You don't have that much time." Armaan smiled at his reminder.
"Don't worry Mr. Singhaniya. I'm sure you'll love it."
"I like your confidence." Armaan smiled and walked up to the front while the others took their seat.
The lights went off and Armaan presented his presentation. He explained every single thing with great detail and care which managed to impress everyone. Armaan knew everyone was really getting impressed by his presentation and became even more confident every passing second that they were gonna get the contract. Very soon, he finished his presentation and the lights came back on. Everyone clapped as he finished the presentation and then stood up.
"Wow Mr. Mallik. I'm very impressed. I must say the plan is very good. What do you think son?" he asked his son, Vivek.
"Yeah Dad, I guess it's alright."
"So it's done then. The contract goes to you. Congratulations." He extended his hand for a handshake, which Armaan gladly accepted.
"Thanks."
"And Mr. Mallik. A big congratulations to you for your wedding. Hope you have a happy married life." Mr. Singhaniya said happily, which brought another smile to his face.
"Thank you once again."
With that, the clients left and Armaan gave himself a pat on the back.
Dekha Riddhima. Yeh baazi bhi meri hui. Ab dekhna. Aaj ke baad, harr baazi meri hi hogi. I promise you. Ab mujhe sirf ghar aane ka intezaar hain. Tumhara defeated chehra dekhne ke liye main bohat utaavla ho raha hoon. Just wait up sweetheart.
Armaan thought to himself and left the conference room.
****
As the sun succumbed into the horizon to light the other side of the world, the streets of Mumbai became quiet and Armaan drove back home. He went straight to his room to change and quickly went down for dinner after freshening up. He was totally famished since he didn't even have lunch because of his busy schedule. As he walked down to the kitchen, he heard his stomach growl smelling the delicious aroma of the food. As he came near the table, he was surprised hearing the significant laughter of Muskaan and the other girls.
"Muskaan, Nikki, Anjali? Tum sab yahaan?"
"Jeeju. Riddhima ki shaadi aapse ho gayi, isska yeh matlab nahin hain ki hum Ridzi ko dekhne bhi nahin aa sakte. Aajse hum roz yahaan aayenge. Dinner ke liye. Kyun Ridz?"
"Of course!" She replied with a big smile.
"Oye Ridz. Tu kya kabse sab ko serve kar rahi hain? Baeth ke khaa na!" She smiled and nodded and took her seat beside Armaan .
"So Armaan . How was your presentation?" asked Anjali.
"Mm.. guess what?"
"You lost the contract?" Riddhima asked sadly, trying to mock him which made Armaan laugh on the inside. With a small smirk, he turned to Riddhima and spoke.
"No baby. In fact, we got the contract." As he said this, the smile faded from her lips and she looked at him in shock.
"Wow! That's great! Lekin kaise?" asked Rahul.
"Simple Rahul. Main vahaan par pohanch gaya aur situation sambhaal li. Unnko meri presentation bohat achhi lagi so we got the contract." he spoke, not moving his eyes from Riddhima even for a second.
"That's awesome!" exclaimed Atul.
"Haan. Aur yeh sab sirf meri Riddhima ki vajah se ho raha hain. Thanks a lot Riddhima. Tum meri zindagi mein mere liye good luck ban kar aayi ho. Thanks a lot." He winked at her and she gave him a tight, angry smile. She was so angry because her plan failed. She rested her cheek on her hand and started eating.
"OMG Riddhima!" She jumped in her seat hearing Anjali.
"Kya hua?"
"I don't believe this yaar!" She exclaimed, confusing Armaan and Riddhima.
"Armaan! Maine kabhi socha bhi nahin tha ke tum meri behen ke saath aisa karoge!" Armaan got scared hearing Muskaan. Did she find out about them? But if she did, then how? Did Riddhima tell her?
"K-kya matlab?" He stammered.
"Ridz ki gardan ko dekho yaar! Kitna achha mark hain na Armaan ?" Armaan looked at her neck and was somewhat relieved seeing nothing but the love bites, but his face turned red as he recalled their hot moment from the morning.
"Hmmm... love bites haan?" Nikki said in a teasing tone and Riddhima became embarrased as she realized everyone had seen those bites. She had tried to hide them using her long hair, but it obviously didn't work since they had seen her hickeys already. They all laughed seeing Armaan and Riddhima's flushed faces.
"Shut up guys! Aur Muski. Tu kya mere inn love bites ki baat kar rahi hain? Tere bites ki baat karun?" She wiggled her brows and as expected, she immediately closed her mouth. For a while, they talked about other random things like the festivals when Riddhima suddenly exclaimed.
"OMG! Guys! Tum log kuch bhool rahe ho!"
"Kya?"
"Guys! Kal Christmas hain! It's Christmas time!" Riddhima said in a very happy voice but was surprised when everyone suddenly became quiet. She looked at everyone, trying to find someone else excited and happy about Christmas time, but saw nothing. In fact, she saw everyone's eyes flickering towards Armaan , which confused her. Turning her head, she looked at Armaan and was shocked seeing his face all hard and strangely emotionless. His eyes were bloodshot red and she could see a thin line of water in his eyes, which was really scaring her. What happened to him? He was fine a moment back. What happened to him suddenly?
"Mujhe ab aur bhook nahin hain. Main uppar jaa raha hoon." Saying this, he stood up and walked up to their room. An awkward silence prevailed at the table as she saw him walk back to the room.
"Riddhima. I think you should go up. He needs you right now." Abhi spoke to her and Riddhima nodded, not sure of what Abhi meant by that. Why did he need her now? What was wrong with him? Nevertheless she stood up and walked up to their room. As she opened the door, she was confused seeing Armaan sleeping on the bed. Of course she didn't want to sleep on the same bed as him, but a part of her trusted him enough. Wondering about what was going on with him, she switched off the lights and laid on the bed, staring at his back.
Yeh achaanak Armaan ko kya ho gaya? Kuch daer pehle toh sab theek tha. Toh phir yeh... pata nahin. Lekin mujhe pata lagaana hoga. Zaroor kuch hua hain. Pata lagaana padega.
With these thoughts in her mind, she drifted into a deep sleep.
****
-Complete-
Udne Ki Aasha
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