Maneet FF-Love finds its way!Ch18-P147-22/07*updtd - Page 21

Chapter 5

"How much time do we have, to present our designs?", asked Geet.

Naintara thought for a while and said, "You can take a week's time".

"A week?", interrupted Sasha. "Well well, I don't think I would need that much of time".

Naintara raised her eye-brow and answered very politely since she did not want to disrespect a woman in front of others, "Well, then Miss Shergill- I'll see your design first- how about tomorrow evening 5:30?"

Geet and Dev smirked while Sasha's eyes opened wide in shock and anger. Since, Maan was watching her she had no choice but to say, "Ok", after a fake smile.

"Wonderful!", said Naintara, happy that Sasha had fallen for her own trap. "Shreyasi, tomorrow 5:30, Maan Veerji, Dev and Me, will see Sasha's design. So please ensure that Maan Veerji has no other meetings that time".

"Yes Mrs. Khurana", said Shreyasi, smiling wickedly. "What would I not do, to disappoint her?", thought Shreyasi, silently penning down the appointment for Maan in her ipad.

"I hate this Khurana, if only she wasn't a Khurana- I would have assassinated her by now", thought Sasha, gritting her teeth.

"Well then, I'll see all the designs in the next few days. The final decision will not be made until all the designs are reviewed", said Naintara, shocking Sasha once again.

"What the hell?", said Sasha in a hushed tone, "I sit all night today and slog over the design and my deisgn will be treated at par with the others?What non-sense?", she thought, her face turning red in anger.

Naintara loved it and it couldn't get any better. Her scores with Sasha were always 1-0. Sasha never had the brain to show Naintara down and Naintara wondered how Maan accepted Sasha and her juvenile behavior.

All the architects, Sasha, Adi and Shreyasi left the board room. Geet picked up her books and designs too and was about to leave then Dev called her, "Miss Express, ek minute".

Maan looked at Geet and then at Dev, "Dev calls her an express?", he wondered and got back to looking at some emails on his phone.

"Naintara, meet Geet Handa, our architect for the northern region", he said, pointing to Geet- while turning to Naintara. "And Geet" he was about to introduce Geet to Naintara when Geet spoke, "Meet your pretty wife", she said and winked.

"Ofcourse", said Dev, smiling and blushing. Naintara smiled and shook hands with Geet, "Nice meeting you Geet. Have heard quite a bit of your naughty pranks".

Maan looked up again at the people in the room blankly.

Geet laughed, "Oh well, I love playing pranks on everyone and these days, I love playing them of Sir-D, since he's jovial and never takes things that seriously. The best part is he's always smiling and getting along with others", she said, not realizing even for a minute that Maan was in the same room. She had not realized that she had indirectly and unintentionally taken a dig at Maan, for being serious and never smiling.

Maan raised his eyebrow and looked closely at the woman dressed in a white chudidar- with her curly hair left loose. She had minimum makeup and a smile paying on her lips at all times.

However, he felt offended at what Geet at said, but he did not say anything. He simply cleared his throat, gesturing that the conversation must end and that Geet must exit.

Geet got the cue and she quickly spoke up, "Ah well, I'll leave now. By the time I reach home, it would be really late", she said. "It was nice meeting you, Mrs. Dev Khurana", said Geet, smiling.

"Call me Naintara", said Naintara, winking at Geet, "I think that would be easier than taking Dev's first and last name", she said.

"Ofcourse, Naintara", she said, feeling a little embarrassed and immediately added, "Naintara ji".

Dev smiled at the discomfort and Naintara smiled back too.

"Okay, we should catch up sometime", said Naintara, "I like how you speak".

Maan took a deep breath, "In aurton ko koi kaam nahin hota kya? The minute they say a "bye", they start talking something else. I guess one "bye" will apply to only one topic and gives them the permission to start the next topic, "Ki haan bhaiyya, ab ek topic khatam aur us topic ko bye bhi bol diya, ab chalo dusra shuru karo. Gosh, I cant and will never understand women".

"That's what everyone says", said Geet, smiling wickedly.

Maan knew this was going nowhere. So, he finally stood up and packed his laptop and swung the laptop bag on his shoulder.

"I'm leaving", he said, looking at Dev, "Will wait for you two in the car".

"Ok Bro", said Dev and Maan walked out of the board room.

"Chalo, let's go! He wont like to wait too much", said Naintara.

"Yep", said Dev. "I'll pack up too".

"Geet, it was nice meeting you. You must come home for lunch/dinner sometime", said Naintara, while Dev put all the papers in the folder and his laptop back in the laptop pouch.

"Sure. And you must come visit me too", she said.

"Sure", said Naintara, smiling.

Dev finished packing and was ready to leave. He turned to Geet and asked, "Chalo Geet, tum be nikhlo ab".

"You guys go on. I'll just organize all my stuff and put back some papers and designs in my cubicle and then leave", she said, picking up her folders.

"Ok, see you then", he said and both of them walked out.

While Geet took all her stuff, she was about to turn off the lights. She turned back to ensure nothing was left behind and found a pen on the table. She walked back and took the pen. It was a black colored pen which had "MK" inscribed on it. She remembered this was the pen Maan used only to sign stuff.

"Arey pen to yahin hain. And looks like an important pen too", she thought, quickly picking it up and running out of the room, while turning off the lights. She tried calling Dev but could not reach him. She ran to the elevator so that she could stop them from leaving and give Maan's pen to him.

The elevator was stuck in the ground floor and she was on the eighth floor. "Hey babaji, isko bhi abhi stuck hona tha", she thought. "Hmmm, looks like I'll have to give the pen tomorrow.They would have left", she thought and waited for the elevator to go to the fifth floor and leave all the designs and head home.

She was about to walk into the elevator, thinking it was empty when she saw someone suddenly walk out. She almost ran into that person, who caught her arms and stopped her from dashing into her. The hold was tight and she quickly looked up to see a beautiful set of eyes, staring at her.

She regained her senses and quickly moved back and Maan took a deep breath and looked away.

"Excuse me", he said and walked away. She noticed the arrogance in his voice and raised her eye-brow and was about to walk into the elevator when she realized she was holding his pen.

"Oh no this pen", she said, leaving her handbag and the folder on the couch there and walking in the direction he had headed a couple of seconds back.

She saw him walk into the board room where they had their meeting. By the time she reached, he was already searching and talking to himself, "Yahan bhi nahin hain. How could I lose it?", he slammed the table hard and heard the door open.

"Sir", she said softly. He looked at her and said, "What is it?"

She walked to him and slowly showed him the pen ,"I suppose you were looking for this", she said.

He looked at the pen and grabbed him from her hand, "Yes", he said.

"You had forgotten it here", she said.

He was about to walk away. When he turned back and said, "Miss Handa, I don't forget anything that is important to me".

"But it was here and I'.", and he cut her, "If you hadn't found it, someone else would have".

"Tum yahan kya kar rahe ho?", this question brought Geet back to reality. She turned in the direction of the voice and stared blankly while answering, "Kuch soch rahin thi".

"Achha? Andar jaake sochni hain, ya yahin bahar baitke sochte rahogi? Kahin aisa na ho ki chalte chalte tumhari soch disturb ho", he said, sarcastically.

She rolled her eyes, "Aapka outhouse ka kaam ho gaya? Ya aapko bhi abhi uss outhouse mein jaake thodi der aur chupna hain?", she asked, smirking.

"Main chupta wupta nahin hoon, kisi se. Maan Singh'"

"Haan haan jaanti hoon. Maan Singh Khurana naam hain aapka. Agar aapka kaam bhi ho gaya, to chaliye andar chalte hain", she said, walking ahead of him.

He raised his eye-brow and stared at her retreating figure. As she walked, her long curly hair swung slowly like a pendulum. Her sari revealed her fair back and hips making those curves look perfect from behind. He smiled and walked slowly maintaining quite a distance from her so that he could see her without getting caught. She suddenly turned back to see if he was coming and smiled and turned to look in the front.

This was the smile he had fallen in love with, this was the beauty he fallen for two years back and she was the one who took his time in the outhouse. Since, he refused to acknowledge her presence and his love for her in her presence or in anyone else's presence, he spent time staring at her photos and remembering those few happy days of his life, that just flew by so soon, never wanting to return. She was and is his first love and she defined love for him. He never told her how much he loved her and no one knew what his inner feelings and emotions for her meant. Only one person- he had confessed- how much he loved Geet.

"Jaldi ayenge aap?", she said loudly, while still looking in the front.

"Kya jaldi hain?", he asked, sternly, still admiring her from behind.

"Kya jaldi hain?", she repeated turning back to look at him. "Kyun? Subeh paanch baje hi aapko koi meeting nahin hain kya?", she taunted.

He smirked and said, "HAan Sasha chahti ki hum breakfast ke liye mile Hyatt mein, par mujhe breakfast pe nahin jaana tha". Now It was Maan's turn to tease her. He knew the effect Sasha's name had on Geet. Somehow, both these women never got along that well, since Geet's internship days and it just got very evident as time passed.

"Ohooo' bechari. Kyun disappoint karte ho aap, usse? Akhir woh aapki most trusted aur valuable employee jo hain. Kisi aur ho ya na ho, Sasha na ho, tuo bhai Khurana Constructions bandh ho jayega", she said, angrily.

"Geet, maine usse disappoint nahin kiya. I just told her a no for breakfast", he said, with a lopsided smile.

"Haan same thing. You said no to her".

"Geet, I told her dinner was a better idea", he said, chuckling.

Her mouth dropped open and she stared at him as though she would eat him up. "Excuse me? Dinner?"

"Haan. Dinner. So that we could spend more time, you know. See, mornings if we meet for breakfast- we'd be in a hurry to make it to office, client's calls, office people would call and disturb etc etc so on and so forth, so isn't it better to meet up for dinner. No calls and no disturbance and ofcourse no time constraints", he said, smirking wickedly.

"Ofcourse", she said, "Dinner's a better idea to spend more time and have no one disturb". Saying so, she turned to walk away when he called her, "Geet!"

"Haan", she said, not turning to look at him.

"So, since you're okay with the idea. Please inform Shreyasi and tell her to book a table for 2- that is Sasha and me, tomorrow at Hyatt- 7:30pm", he said.

She turned back angrily and walked close to him, "Mr. Khurana, Shreyasi is your secretary, not mine. Therefore, you call and inform her. On the other hand, why even inform Shreyasi- just call Sasha and tell her about the idea she might book the entire Hyatt for you instead of a table".

She turned to walk away in a huff and stopped again. He knew she would come back. He waited patiently.

She did come back. "And by the way- I am your wife- not your servant or your secretary or your most trusted and valuable employee".

This was the line Maan waited for. This was what he wanted her to remember. She is his wife and not his employee or servant.

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