FF(Arhi): Lavender [Thread 2 link - p. 159] - Page 43

Originally posted by: -publicenemy-

*Whew* - back after being away this weekend, ladies...

And now onto regularly scheduled programming... ;)

Halfway through the update, will be up in another hour or so...

-Devi

Chapter 14: Ill-Begotten

The next morning, she found out that a meeting had been called by ASR for the Mohan Industries team. The email was sparse in details and merely said that there will be a short meeting for the new Mohan Industries team in the conference room during the lunch hour. She saw Sushant briefly between her morning meetings for other projects and found out that he didn't know any more than she did. She didn't see Rajeev at all. Work did its best to keep her busy and even though her mind strayed to the trepidation that lingered below the surface, each time she redirected her energy by channeling a strength that only came from remembering with painful clarity where unprofessionalism and impulsivity had gotten her yesterday.

Before long she heard the knock on her door and grabbed her laptop and folders and walked out to meet Sushant. He must have read her mood because aside from nodding a greeting, he allowed her the respite of silence as they walked to the conference room. Minutes after they sat down, John and Laila entered, followed by Rajeev. She gave him a nod and he reciprocated in kind and it made her glad that he at least played at civility today as opposed to the belittling that he had thrown her way yesterday. Just as she exchanged greetings with John and Laila, the door opened once again and she was surprised to see four more of the techs, Rakesh, Lisa, Sujatha, and Faisal, walk in. Rajeev looked confused as well and she felt relieved that this was not evidently something that only she was in the dark about. Lisa told them that she had received an email last night from ASR assigning her to this team; evidently, so had the rest of them. They waited another five minutes before ASR walked in with the client rep, Simon.

"I take it everyone here know each other. You have all been on at least a few projects together before and generally work well together." He began the meeting by addressing only the techs. They all nodded. He turned at last and briefly looked at her and then at Rajeev before looking at the rest of the group. "You may be wondering why there are two leads here. Due to the expanded scope of this project, I have decided to differentiate the positions of project manager and business analyst rather than assigning the project manager to work in both capacities." She looked at Rajeev in surprise yet again and saw her surprise mirrored on his face, but ASR continued on even as they digested this turn of events. "Khushi will be the project manager and Rajeev will be the business analyst."

By then, she had schooled her expression into impassiveness; it wouldn't do to alert the team of the strife between her and Rajeev. If some of them guessed at it, it was never acknowledged. She figured that ASR must have guessed at it as well, although from his perspective, some professional rivalry between project leads was not without its benefits. However, she and Rajeev had never actually had to work together on the same team before. Speaking of professionalism, working with Rajeev was bound to push hers to its limits.

"Khushi has been on this project from its initial phase, so she is quite familiar with the basics. Simon here is going to go into more detail about the additions that were recently made. I want to meet with you both at some point during this week once you have your initial plan worked out." He said now, once again looking back in her and Rajeev's direction. They both nodded. Anything else was really not an option anyways. "That is all for now. Direct any questions you have to the project manager, obviously. Enjoy the rest of your lunch." And just like that, he was gone. She didn't realize that she was holding in her breath until the self-closing door gave that last lurch and shut without a sound and a silent exhale released from her lips. The techs chatted with her and Rajeev briefly before they rushed off to make what they could of the remainder of their lunch hour. Sushant looked back at her by the door and she nodded to him and then he too left. She waited a moment and collected herself before looking in Rajeev's direction. She saw him return her look, but then heard Simon speak. "If you both could stay a bit later today, then we could go over the specs. There's a bit of a rush on when the client wants the updated plan." She nodded and was surprised when Rajeev nodded as well. She wouldn't trust him to not throw her under the bus at some point, but at least he wouldn't take the risk of screwing with the actual project and putting the quality of his own work in peril. Not to mention risk ASR's wrath.

The meeting that evening with Simon went as well as it could, considering that it was mostly information gathering. She sat back listening to what questions Rajeev asked, what he emphasized and what he ignored. The meeting did not last quite as long as she thought it would and Rajeev was surprisingly amenable to setting up times for the next day when they could meet further so that he could start on his end and she on hers.

She knew Rajeev met with ASR on Thursday. Her meeting with him scheduled for Friday morning. She didn't realize how much of her energy had gone in to preparing herself to meet one-to-one with him until she received an email from him bright and early Friday morning letting her know that he wants to reschedule until the end of the work day. She cursed out loud before pulling her feet up on the couch and hugging her knees to her before looking at the email again. All it said was, "Khushi, Cannot make the morning meeting. Can you meet from 5:30 to 6:00?" Nothing else. Not that he was any more verbose in any of his other emails. She briefly considered telling him that she has a previous engagement and wouldn't be able to stay late. But that would only delay what could really not be delayed, especially given how soon she needed to prepare the first draft of the modified plan.

When she found herself chewing her pinky nail to a short stub, she got up off the couch to walk around her flat. Pretty soon it became evident that pacing the flat had replaced chewing her nails, which made her decide that some morning yoga was in order to face the rest of the day. It took her ten minutes to stop her mind from wandering to the email, but she was able to focus for the last twenty minutes and by the time she returned to her laptop, she was calm enough to reply, "5:30 to 6:00 works, sir." She deleted and retyped the "sir" five times before finally deciding to leave it in.

She got his reply back an hour later when she was just about to leave her flat for work. "Great. Thanks. –A"

Ah, this time, he had included his classic signature. "A". She used to joke around with Lee years ago that ASR must have some misguided notion that he was Aryan from Dhoom 2. And once upon a time, when she had been in a particularly frivolous mood, she had even sent a reply to one of his emails asking whether he also carries a steel-plated "A" just like Aryan's signature from Dhoom 2. He had written back with a single line, "I don't follow." And that had been that. The man evidently did not watch movies, which back then had seemed like a travesty to her, although in hindsight she wondered how she could have once thought that a man who easily put in 90 to 100 hour work-weeks had time to go see a movie about a hot couple committing grand larceny while paragliding, bunjee-jumping, and romancing with Russian Roulette.

She couldn't tell how time passed that day until 5:30; at times it seemed a blur and at others, each second seemed to pack the weight of eons. The one thing that kept her occupied was preparing the file on Mohan Industries for her meeting with him. She did find time to practice her impassive face a million times over, imagining any sort of shock that could come her way and training herself not to react. If there was one thing she abhorred the higher up she climbed in the company, it was unprofessionalism. And she had already made several gaffes with him in that regard that she was determined to revert the gear back to neutral. It wouldn't do to linger on awkwardness to make it more awkward... particularly given the direction the Mohan Industries project had taken. She really couldn't afford unnecessary distractions.

Before she knew it, it was 5:25. Of all the small things to be grateful for, she was glad that her deodorant was holding up under such extreme pressure. She told herself to remember to send a thank you note to the lovely people at Secret as she arrived outside his office at 5:29. She gazed at her wrist-watch until the last second struck down to 5:30 before knocking on his door.

"Come in." he called out. As was usual, when she entered, he was standing by the window staring out its wide panels without seeing an inch of the view outside as he spoke in rapid-fire hybrid English-Hindi into his earpiece. He turned around for a moment and gestured at her to sit before turning back around and continuing along with another set of directions for two more minutes before finally ending the call.

He turned around and said, "Khushi" just as she saw his phone vibrating on his desk. He couldn't see the caller, standing as he was by the window, but she could see the name that flashed on the screen. It kept showing Vaibhavi as the phone jumped with the force of the vibrations.

She looked up at him just in time to see him click on his ear-piece to answer.

For a moment, he appeared confused, but then she saw recognition on his face. She turned away to look out the other window but not before she saw the quick look he shot in her direction before he turned back to the window to say, "Yes. Of course I remember. The reservations are for 7:00 sharp or they won't hold it." Pause. "Yes." Pause. "Indeed." Pause. "See you then." Pause. "No, I won't be late."

She was glad that she had trained herself so much for absorbing... unexpected and slightly unpleasant surprises.

Evidently it had taken him but a mere two weeks to move right on.

Good to know...

"Ready?" she heard his voice and looked up to see that he was done with his brief phone call confirming his dinner date with Vaibhavi.

"Yes, sir." She answered, opening her laptop.

She just had to get through another half hour before this ill-begotten week ended.

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I don't get ASR at times - but then in hindsight I get him so well...

firstly like everything you write this is fast becoming an addiction...

Long tym since d last update!!...i now officially hate sat-sun...no arhi and even d writers here take deir weekend off on IF...

NewAys gr8 update...

Btw who z dis vaibhavi??? And wot is ASR upto?? Has he really moved over hher

poor her... i loved the update.. there is something about your writing.. It is damn good.. please update soon

LOVED THE UPDATE!!!!!! I suppose ASR is going to pretend that he feels nothing towards Khushi!

*sigh* poor khushi.. is it really his new gf ?

i always wait for ur update!!!!!1 whole weekend i was looking out for ur update...its the most unusual FF on Arshi!!!!!

ah! so much heartache here, but i'm glad Bee is holding on to herself, she's really playing well.

Ps. i've finally made peace and the photos did help a lot ,thanks.