Yes Boss: Part 13
"Vijay, tum?!" Asad began to yell, about to delve into the intricacies of tehzeeb and tameez with regards to knocking before entering a room, but found his position with Zoya a little awkward to start on that. He quickly let go of her wrists and Zoya removed her hands from his chest as well.
"Hi Vijay, actually I was about to tell you to come to my cabin anyway. Miss Farooqui, this is Mr Vijay, the head of the technical department. And Vijay, this is Miss Zoya Farooqui," Asad introduced the two, suddenly regaining his composure as the boss of the company. Zoya stared at him weirdly. Not only did he make no attempt to reprimand the rude intruder, he also made no attempt to elaborate on her introduction. She sighed before plastering a smile on her face, stretching her arm out to offer Vijay a handshake. Vijay looked at her hand briefly before turning back to Asad, ignoring Zoya completely.
"Mr Khan, I just heard the buzz around office that we've clinched the new mall project. But I fail to understand how, since the proposal didn't even pass through me," Vijay stated haughtily, a hint of irritation lacing his voice.
"Fail to understand...? Well Vijay, it's not like the proposal for our last major project, which did pass through you by the way, earned us the project either, so I would like to clear with you that proposals don't get accepted solely because of you," Asad replied, a sickeningly sweet smile on his face as he put Vijay in his place. Vijay grit his teeth in response, as he tried to bite back his words.
"Alright, I'm sorry Mr Khan. It's just that this project was very important to all of us, and I really wanted to contribute to it, so I was really shocked to find out that we already got the project," Vijay tried to explain, in a weak bid to save his job. To his relief, Asad shrugged and nodded, accepting his apology pretty easily.
"I understand Vijay, but don't worry there is still plenty of opportunities to contribute to the project. We just clinched it; it is now that the real work starts. And everything will pass through the technical department henceforth," Asad promised, as the tension on Vijay's face eased a little.
"Department...? Mr Khan, I know I'm the head of the technical department', but you and I both know that in reality the department is just made up of one person, me. So why don't you just say it'll pass through me?" Vijay asked laughingly, as he walked up to Asad to shake his hand, relief flooding his system.
"Oh I know that, but now the technical department will have one more person, and that's why I wanted to have a word with you in my cabin. From today, Miss Farooqui will be joining you in the technical department," Asad replied, blatantly ignoring Vijay's hand just as he did Zoya's. Zoya pursed her lips to suppress her laughter. Asad's silent support for her was pretty heartwarming.
"Kya?! Mr Khan, I've been working for your company since the time you started it, and I've always worked alone. I'm not sure if I'll be comfortable with anyone working under me," Vijay insisted, his voice sounding a tiny bit whiny. Zoya rolled her eyes openly, earning a scowl from Vijay. Asad watched the exchange in amusement.
"Oh don't worry! You won't have anyone working under you. Miss Farooqui will join the department as the co-head. So she'll be working with you, not under you," Asad put forward decidedly, earning a squeal of delight from Zoya and an even bigger scowl from Vijay.
"Mr Khan, I've been working for this company loyally for all these years, and you've hardly ever had any complaints about my work, so I just don't understand this... I didn't even know you were hiring for my department!" Vijay prodded further, trying his luck even though his voice was beginning to sound rather defeated.
"Vijay, I don't see a need to explain my every move to you, but for your peace of mind, I will. Miss Farooqui was working under another department earlier, and she was the one who did the proposal conversion which did not reach you. While it was out of her line to do that, and I have informed her that it was, it turned out to be for the betterment of the company. I believe that sometimes things just happen for reasons that are beyond us, so this was one of those things. Now after taking a look at her work and her accomplishments, I feel Miss Farooqui is an asset to the company so we definitely won't let her go. And she would be better-suited in the technical department. In fact, do you remember the voice-enabled password incident that you were unable to solve? Miss Farooqui was the one who programmed it. I'm starting to think she should be your head, so being co-heads should already be a good enough deal for you from my side," Asad explained, putting it as gently as was within his capacity. He watched Vijay's shoulders drop, in a sign of defeat.
Zoya stared at Asad open-mouthed, finding all the compliments he'd just paid her a little hard to digest. Asad turned to her after a while, sensing her gaze on him. He shook his head slightly as he took in her expression, and then lightly gripped her elbow, breaking her out of her trance.
"Chale?" Asad asked politely, as Zoya nodded dazedly in response. He held onto Zoya's arm as he led her out of the office behind Vijay, who was exaggeratedly dragging his feet as they walked towards Vijay's cabin. No, it was Vijay and Zoya's cabin now. Asad found himself frowning a little at that thought, realizing that he might not have thought it through completely.
"I'll get someone send in your desk from Miss Mishra's cabin. In the meantime, maybe you could show Vijay that AutoCAD thing that you used in Miss Narges' proposal," Asad suggested, much to Zoya's happiness and Vijay's chagrin. Asad continued staring at them awkwardly for a while, before deciding that it was time for him to leave them alone. It was time to leave them alone in a cabin. It was time to leave them alone in a single cabin all by themselves. Asad clenched his fists slightly as he made his way to the cabin door. He was going to drive himself crazy.
"Right, so should I show you the conversion of the drawings I made?" Zoya asked excitedly just as Asad walked out of the cabin. Vijay rolled his eyes upwards before grabbing his laptop and opening it up, typing something up furiously.
"There's no need for that. I know what AutoCAD is I'm not an idiot. And I saw what you guys were doing in Mr Khan's cabin before I announced that I was there. That's why you even got this job so stop acting all smug about it. The whole office knows that you come and go with Mr Khan in his car, isn't that a little much for a mere employee?" Vijay snapped as he kept his eyes trained on his computer. Zoya gasped, horrified at his straight-forwardness.
"Look mister, aisi koi baat nahi hai..." Zoya began to explain, walking over to the front of the desk to stand in front of him and get his attention. But she found herself getting cut off by Vijay's exaggeratedly loud sigh.
"Look, I don't want to hear it. I don't give a rat's ass about the lame excuse you're about to give me, so why don't you do both of us a favour and just save it," Vijay retorted, before rolling his eyes in her face and resuming his work on his laptop. Zoya crossed her arms across her chest, biting her lower lip as she stopped herself from saying anything in response. Whatever she said wouldn't help anyway, Vijay seemed pretty set on his judgment so there really was no point. Besides, she wanted to do some work, not sit around and argue with this stubborn man.
"Fine, aapki soch aapko mubarak ho. Now can we do some work? What are you working on?" Zoya asked, as she shifted over from the front of the desk to stand behind Vijay and see what was on the laptop screen. But Vijay immediately minimized everything and locked the screen as soon as she stepped behind him, snapping the laptop shut.
"It's five, I'm going home now," Vijay announced, ignoring Zoya's questions intentionally. He picked up his laptop and stuffed it into his laptop bag, before picking up the bag and walking out, leaving Zoya standing in the cabin, staring at his back with a stupefied expression on his face. Was this man for real?!
XXXAlright, this is my last update for now. Next update will be when/if I find the time this coming week! Till then! (:
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