KaYa FF: Everything is fair in love and war - Updated Chap 5:Page 9 - Page 6

Chapter 5

Eagle Publishers Office

Ananya enters the Eagle Publisher's building and goes to the reception area.

"Hi, My name is Malini Sharma. I am the temporary replacement for Secretary position" says Ananya to the receptionist.

"Ma'am, please take a seat and fill in this form, I will let the concerned person know" says the Receptionist.

Ananya fills in the form with her fake information and waits for the receptionist to call her. As she waits in the waiting area, she watches as a man enters in loose jeans and tucked in shirt, hair pushed back with thick glasses and mustache. Just as the man opens his mouth to talk, the receptionist calls Ananya.

"Ms. Sharma! You can go to fourth floor. Ms. Neelima Singhania is waiting for you" says the receptionist.

Ananya makes her exit and goes to the fourth floor.
Meanwhile the man standing at the reception says "Hi, I am Nikhil. I had an appointment with the editor for my book".

"Ok, sir you may go take the card and go" says receptionist.

Kabir takes the card and wanders inside the office. Having seen Ananya going to the fourth floor, he decides to stay clear of her path till the time he figures out what she is upto. It was hard to recognize her with her grey eyes, spectacles and bushy eyebrows. Concentrating on the task in hand, he pushes thoughts of Ananya out of his mind goes to the fifth floor where all the cabins of the partners are.

Ananya knocks at the door of Mrs. Neelima Singhania who is the PR head of the publishing house.

"Hello ma'am, I am your Secretary on temporary basis till the previous one comes back from her maternity leave" Ananya says to Neelima.

"Yes, come Mailini, we have much work to do. A statement has to be issued regarding Mr. Rai who was one of our writers. Due to his untimely death and his alliance with us, it is now high time that we issue our condolences to shut all the murmurs" says Neelima.

As she starts speaking, Ananya fits a recorder on the desk so that she is able to record everything that is spoken in the cabin. "Ok so show this to Mr. Hari (one of the partners) and get his signatures on this".

Ananya exits and goes to the Mr. Hari's cabin. As Mr. Hari reads the statement he gets angry and stalks to Mrs. Singhania's cabin with Ananya following him close behind.

"Neelima! What the hell is this! We can't give this statement to the media. Yes, we had our legal issues with Keshav but don't forget that he was one of our best clients at one point of time. This is such a disgraceful statement to his memory, blaming him for the loss that our company has to bear. This is ridiculous!" Mr. Hari bellowed.

"Oh please Mr. Hari, don't be so melodramatic. Sach hi to likha hai maine statement mei. Main is publishing house ki PR hu and I think I know how to handle such a situation."

"Oh, I don't think so! I think yeh tumhara tareek hai apni personal dushmani nikalne ka Keshav se. For God sake! He is dead. Uske marne ke baad to uska naam mat kharab karo."

"Malini, go outside and shut the door behind you"

Ananya leaves her cabin and goes in the corridor and takes out her earpiece to listen to their conversation going on inside.

"How dare you say that and that too infront of my Secretary! Mere aur Keshav ke beech mei koi dushmani nahi thi. Jo kuchh tha vo 3 saal pehle hi khatam ho chukka tha humare divorce ke baad. Media ko yahi statement jayegi and that's final. I am capable enough to know what is right and what is wrong.

Ananya smiles with the knowledge that Tinu was correct and indeed Mrs. Neelima Singhania is Keshav Rai's ex wife. Tinu had told her the name of Keshav's ex-wife which led her to come at Eagle Pubisher's office for investigation.

"Neelima tum capabilities ki baat na hi karo to achha hai. Office mei sab ko pata hai kit um aaj jis position par ho vo sirf isliye kyunki tum Raman Singhania ki wife ho. This statement will not be issued. I will talk to Raman"

"Mr. Hari, Raman is on vacation and he will not be taking any calls. He trusts my judgement"

Having heard enough, Annaya decides to go to the fifth floor where all the cabins of the partners are. As she boards the elevator, Kabir exits from the next elevator on the fourth floor without seeing Ananya. He had not found anything in Raman Singhania's office and now he hoped to get some clue from his wife, Neelima.

Kabir's phone pings with a new message from Laxman informing him that Raman's driver who was in an accident, has confessed that Neelima was with him in the car when accident happened but she had left the car with the driver and had fled the scene. Kabir smells something fishy in all this. Neelima and Mr. Hari exits her cabin and starts walking towards the end of the corridor. Kabir ducks behind a wall so that they cannot see him and then makes his way to Neelima's office in search of some clue.

Ananya exhales sharply as she comes out empty handed from Raman's office. She thinks to herself that there must be some clue somewhere. May be I should search Neelima's office as she knew the cabin is empty having heard both Neelima and Mr Hari leaving from the cabin through her earpiece. She makes her way to Neelima's office. As Ananya approaches, Kabir hears her footsteps and hides behind the cupboard. Ananya enters and directly goes to the desk to search the drawers. She sees a bag and picks it up.

Kabir chooses that moment to show himself "Kisi ki personal belongings ko search karna achhi baat nahi hai Ms. Sharma or should I say Ms. Kashyap".

Ananya shrieks and drops the bag on the floor and puts her hand to her chest to calm her heart. As she sees the man standing before her, at first she is unable to recognize him but when she looks into his eyes, she recognize him and her mouth drops open as she gazes at him from head to toe and says "Aap! Aap yahan kya kar rahe hain?"

"Wahi jo aap kar rahi hain Ms. Kashyap" Kabir replies calmly with his mischievous smile.

"Aap bhi is lead par kaam kar rahe hain? Ya aapko pata chal gaya ki main ye lead follow kar rahi hu isliye mujhe outdone karne ke liye aap khud yah aa gaye?" says Ananya trying to ruffle his feathers.

"Oh please! Apne aap ko itni bhi ehmiyat mat do. Ye story har news channel par hai. Mukhe to tajjub ho raha hai ki itni important story pe News 29 walo ne aapko kaise laga dia" taunts Kabir.

Ananya's cheeks turn red from her anger as Kabir once again pulls her leg. "Aapko kya pata meri ehmiyat sir. Waise aapko yaha kuchh mila kya?" asks Ananya.

"Kuchh nai. Aur agar mila bhi hota to aapko lagta hai ki main aapko bataunga?" replies Kabir.

"Nahi. Aur mujhe janna bhi nahi hai" Ananya huffs.

Kabir rolls his eyes and thinks how her friends tolerate her with her constant mood swings.

Ananya drops to her knees and starts collecting the things that had fallen from Neelima's bag when she shrieked and Kabir also starts helping her. As they both start putting things back into the bag, they both reaches for a piece of paper at the same time and their hand touches with Ananys holding the paper and Kabir's finger wrapped around hers. Both of them stop breathing for a second as a static electricity run through their hands igniting various emotions. They both look into each other's eyes before Kabir carefully retracts his hand and starts collecting other items. Ananya opens the paper in her hand and see that it is a home delivery bill from a restaurant in the name of Keshav Rai with his house address on it. Her eyes widens when she see the date that matches with the date when he was murdered. "Mil gaya!" she exclaims.

"Kya mil gaya?" asks Kabir

"Kuchh nai... ppen pen mil gaya" answers Ananya picking up the pen off the floor.

Kabir snatched the paper from her hand and scans through it. "Ye bill Neelima ke purse mei kya kar raha hai. This is amazing" says Kabir.

"Ananya snatches the bill back and says "Hey! Ye mujhe mila tha"

"Kabir holds the bill and says "No, I got it".

They both start fighting over the bill trying to snatch from one another when Kabir hear footsteps coming closer to the door. Kabir loosens his hold on the bill and Ananya snatches the bill putting it in her blazer pocket. Kabir puts his hand over Ananya's mouth to shut her noises and presses her body to the wall. He shuts off the light so that whoever passing think that there was no on inside. Mild sunlight pouring through the shields of the window illuminates the room somewhat. Ananya is being held captive between the wall and Kabir with Kabir's one hand covering her mouth and other holding her waist lightly. Kabir tries to look out the window to see who is outside while Ananya becomes hyper aware because of the tingles running through her body. She keeps looking at Kabir's face in the dark trying to believe that it is real. Kabir realizes that he is being stared at and looks at Ananya becoming aware of their position. He marvels at her childlike innocence and enthralling beauty. Looking into her eyes he whispers huskily "these grey contacts do not suit you Ananya. I prefer your beautiful brown eyes. Waise aapko kisi ne kaha hai ki aapki aankhen bahut khubsoorat hain?"

Ananya shakes her head slowly unable to form any coherent thought at the moment. Kabir's hand that was on her waist slowly travels up to her side where he can feel the bill through her pocket and very slowly pulls it out. He uncovers her mouth and his eyes drops to her lips seeing them this close to him for the first time. He had strategized to make her nervous and distracted so that he could take the bill from her pocket but seeing her lips, his plan backfires. He feels a desire burning through him. He desire to kiss her lips but tries to squish it because he feels what he will do is wrong. He does not understand what is happening to him. Why does he feel so much attracted to this innocent and beautiful girl. He does not want her to be tarnished from his rough reality. He is a person who is a realist and uses everything and everyone to get his way but yet Ananya is his undoing and he cannot imagine ever using her for his selfish motives. Deciding this, he takes a step back exits the cabin leaving Ananya trying to calm her heartbeats. She shakes her head to clear her disarrayed thoughts and puts her hand in her pocket to pull out the bill only to realize that it is empty. She now understands what Kabir had been upto. He had intentionally flirted and made her distracted so that he could get the bill. He had proven that he will do anything to win the war.

"Oh, Kabir sir, you are an enigma. I will never understand you" says Ananya.