Part 30
Just "sex" and Strategy
She told herself many hours Sunday night she was a FOOL an utter fool in being so crazy... she stepped back from the situation and analyized it clinically like an auditor she was
"I go to get some work done as a service provider and make out with the client?'
She cringed... ashamed at what she had done... she was thinking with her mind, not with her heart as she was the last three weeks
He had appeatred suddenly in her life... her life was not sad or tragic or barren
She loved Amma and Appa and Akka's fanmily,s he was almost over Subbu as well
she DID NOT EXPECT R&B
Did not, what was MAINLY a professional rivalry had begun growing arms and legs of attraction, intense sexual attraction she had never experienced before She channeled conevrsation with Akka on the swing on Saturday...yep... it was goddamn new... He made her heart race at the very thought... she carried his love making bruises like it was the most prized posession... she had begun dreaming about him I HAVE TO SHAKE THIS THING OFF
I AM GOING TO DO MY BEST TO GET OUT OF IT Work work work work...
she did great in college and Grad school and preparing for CPA she COULD DO IT she didnt bring the word LOVE into any of her self recriminating thoughts
PHEW!! So far so good!
Its just SEX... Hes a bum... hes a good looking bum... that must practice the art of laying the net and making catches
II U are an idiot
R&B U are a Rakshasan she lay back tired and weary... at 2 AM ish...
She got in to work early to compensate for slacking off during the weekend... no emails from R&B on the cost structure or on the benchmark. All is well... or I will hope it is
Baldev and her were going to Gurgaon, the IS folks were there already, the Gurgaon showroom was BIGG they had over 30 people in Accounting alone,there were a lot of emails exchanged about the
new infrastructure Excelsior was investing in had invested in a phased manner to support the deployment... it was goingt o take a while, but Gurgaon was priority
Ashwini was already spending mornings there...
They were going to test on a "sliver" this week, she had meetings all week with Excelsior and the Gurgaon accounting folks, she would "test" the deployment by porting legacy transactions in the new system
Go live was not until after Pongal/sankranti.. where when some one came into the Gurgaon showroom for example to buy an automobile, everything related to transaction processing/oayments/receipts/credits would all be seamlessly performed by the new KMPG Software
Wishful thinking? Maybe? But just like any software project, things were going to get pushed out
She had a serious braid today... not a hair out of place, even her newly acquired sexy locks were pinned away she wore a navy trouser and a watered down blue Gap shirt
All her Western outfits were acquired during trips to Georgia Tech... over 20 or 30 of them... she still had some new shirts put away
Desi? Boutqiues, street, regular stores... ALL OVER TOWN.. and some were definitely stolen form Akka's closet
They got to the shoroom around Noonish her C report Chanchal Sharma was with her... Chachal was erratic... was involved with a married man and had broken up so was a mess usually
II shuddered thinking how that must be
She ignored texts from Akka and Amma all morning just plugging away
They had a meeting at 1, Baldev was already there.. with bad news
She was FURIOUS
She walked into the meeting room, Ranjan was not there, just the showroom head a couple of other chela types...
"We EXPECTED you to be prepared, aisa nahi chalega sir" "We have a SET schedule, its a HUGE company, workshops bhi hain aapke, this is not the only showroom hamey yahan se end of Jan nikalkar baaqi jaana hai"
The man mumbled, Mr Bhatia was there too the Acctg head
"Sir aap sab apne apne intranet par hain? YEH NAYA SOFTWARE HAMARA WEB BASED HAI... ur connectivity reports are so BAD... kaise kaam karte hain aap log"
the door opened
She turned to look
Rakshasan... she was HOPPING MAD
whether he UNDERSTOOD SW deployment or not she did not know but she was going to give it to him today
He wore navy cargo shorts and a grey blue stripy tee... and flip flops
That made her SO MAD
AND HE WAS CLEAN SHAVEN
REALLY? she asked in her mind...
"Whats going on?" he asked casually
They were in Ranjan's conf room every showroom had ONE such room
"Your connectivity is bad, Ashwini has been here a week none of the reports indicate its this bad"
He walked over slowly to see the paper reports, in his defense HE HAD NO IDEA how Ranjan ran the ship or ships
He was never interested in any of this, after grad school he never returned seriously, he didnt care for the automobile sales biz
Didnt excite him, didnt appeal to him at all
She stood up and furiously handed him a sheaf of papers
"We dont even have digital records Mr Bhalla"
Ashwini walked in shaking her head... "Us par bhi kaam nahi kar raha, that other section, jahan Accounts payable waale hain"
Baldev and her started to talk
Mr Bhatia looked like he couldnt care less
"I will let Baldev decide since he is my boss but we are pushing EVERYTHING out because of this, Gurgaon wont be deployed and functioning until Feb and the cost sheets I gave u on Wednesday" she said
"Thursday at 3" he corrected...
IDIOT HOW COULD U FORGET WHEN U MADE AN ASS OF YOURSELF II?
HOW COULD U
He remembers it and he is throwing it on your face
"sorry that was a SLIP, Thursday from 3:00 to 3:15? u think" she challeneged
"More like 3:20" he said "Oh I can play this game!" tone
"Mr Bhalla you may not get the who purpose behind this exercise, your Dad says u live in Paris... (wonder what u do there besides steal from Louvre) but this is like a giant puzzle, every piece has to fit JUST RIGHT
One thing moves slightly it throws the entire Project's calendar off
The connectivity reports u gave us for this showroom were inaccurate, yahan din mein 17 ghante reliable internet rehta hai, KAISE deploy karenge? Raat ko systems run kaise karenge?
Roz raat ko crash ho jaayega...not possible
Mr Bhatia mumbled :Wog Airtel se hum log is month, Khurana ji Jan ya Feb, kab change karne ka plan hai?
Whoever this Khurana was DIDNT KNOW
He watched her agitated, angry and using every opportunity to give back to him
She was furious for being insulted about the benchmarking stuff
"Have u discussed it with Mr Ranjan?" he asked
"He was supposed to be HERE" she said
Baldev "I got a text, he cant make it hes in Chandigarh"
"Can we stop here today and reconvene?" Ashwini asked
"Aisa hi karna padega" She nodded
Baldev tried to pacify, he suspected II was really MAD about something
REALLY MAD R&B watched her unperturbed... he was neither emotionally invested in his Dad's biz nor financially
She had won this round... he wondered how he could win the match...he was definitely intrigued
