Kalyani's POV past
After getting beaten by Atharv and gang, Malhar was fondling the wound on his arm.
"Is it hurting too much?" Malhar was shocked at seeing Kalyani.
Malhar just kept looking at Kalyani with his tear-filled eyes. Kalyani felt so bad seeing him like that. She brought some cotton and a mini Dettol bottle her mother kept in her bag in case of any emergency.
Kalyani held his hand, unintentionally touching him where Atharv had hit him.
"Ouch!" he cried in pain.
"I'm so sorry."
"It's OK."
Kalyani poured Dettol on the cotton, and being the master of clumsiness Kalyani was, she poured a lot of Savlon on her own arm. It stung so bad.
"Aah! Aah!" Kalyani cried. The burning sensation was so intense.
"Arey, who told you to bring Dettol? How can you hurt yourself like this?" Malhar scolded Kalyani, "Is it burning too much?" Kalyani didn't know earlier that Malhar had it in him to scold anyone but it felt cute at that time, to be scolded by someone for hurting herself.
"G...g...give me the cotton," he said. Kalyani handed over the cotton to him. She had just realised he didn't stammer when he was scolding her.
Malhar cleaned Dettol off the skin of her hand and arm. It was a facepalm moment for Kalyani. She came for tending to Malhar's wounds but instead hurt herself.
"You too apply Dettol on your wound," Kalyani said.
Malhar's POV
Hinjewadi Canteen and Catering Association had organised strike against sub-par working conditions. When Pulkit from Administration called the catering company responsible for their office, their head told him that he had no complaint from the company's side, but for the sake of association call, they had to respond. And the worse thing was, Hinjewadi being 40 kms from the main city, no other arrangement could be done at such a short notice.
Malhar went outside my cabin to just see if everything was going smoothly. Employees were carpooling or sharing two-wheelers with their friends as there was no restaurant or food stall nearby. Malhar thanked God that he used to bring his own tiffin!
The canteen with its glass walls looked like a haunted house from outside except a wandering ghost standing listlessly in the empty canteen. Malhar should have known...Everyone would get wind of what's happening in their office but Kalyani Deshmukh would have zero clue even if a raccoon starts a rock concert in front of her. Malhar know he had zero business in concerning himself if she's hungry all day or all year. After all, she never looked back or cared about how he was doing. Hell, she didn't even talk to him after that incident with Atharv, Deepak and gang. Stop thinking like old Malhar! Behave as people expect a CEO to behave, Mr. Malhar Rane! Malhar smoothened his tie and the lapels of his coat.
Kalyani's POV
She couldn't believe the whole canteen vaporized just like that. People were leaving with their friends somewhere. There must be some kind of announcement she had missed. If only she had paid more attention to what was happening around her instead of reading about cryptid encounters on Reddit or digging into Teletubbies conspiracy in web articles. You know what's worse, life has made her halwa and it was Kalyani herself who sat on frying pan and had lit the gas flame to be cooked. Kalyani punched the wall in frustration, but like everything bad she did bounced back at her, there was no impact on the wall but her hand definitely got bruised in the process.
"Why do you always hurt yourself like that, Kalyani?" She heard a familiar voice. Oh no! Not again! Did she always have to embarrass myself in such a cringy way before Malhar? Cool! Let this hotshot CEO think he was friends with a fugitive from Agra mental asylum posing as a high school student.
Malhar held Kalyani's fist which was still closed. Kalyani tried to get it out from his hold but he grabbed her wrist tightly and carefully opened her each finger as if he was unfurling the petals of a flower. Damn! Even Sofia the Robot would swoon if she were in Kalyani's place. Just for the sake of curiosity, Kalyani wanted to ask Malhar, when did he become so adept in making a woman swoon in addition to updating his looks and financial status? Vaise to, Kalyani swooned at him even when he was that chashmish, taar wale daanton vala seedha-saada darpok Malhar (Trans. Bespectacled, braces over teeth, simple, timid, Nikhil) who everyone used to bully and make fun of. So you can say Kalyani was being biased, but even from a perfectly impartial view, khair leave it!
"You're smiling, seriously Kalyani? I mean who beams like that after hurting themselves?" Malhar arched his eyebrow and it was cute.
"No one ever died of punching a wall?" Kalyani waved.
"You yourself told me at school about a man who punched a wall and then the wall, being ancient, collapsed on him, cracking his skull and his dead body was found in the rubble afterwards."
"Arey, it was in a movie. The man ordered a child to be crushed by elephant so that was kind of a poetic justice. When the wall was falling on him, his face was zoomed in three times with a woosh woosh sound and in the background were the wails of the murdered child."
"But you never told me about the movie. You simply said you know a guy who punched a wall..."
"Leave it, na," Kalyani said. Kalyani was fond of telling tall tales at school. Actually, she still was but now there was no one to listen to her nonsensical talks.
"Have you had lunch?" Malhar asked me. Kalyani knew for sure he definitely knew that she was clueless about this canteen's vanishing act and now was purposefully goading her.
"Actually, I...," Kalyani fumbled. How was she going to tell him that she didn't know of a restaurant nearby and she didn't know to drive a scooty and she didn't even have a friend who would ask her- Kalyani, are you hungry? Sed life is fun only in the world of memes not after you meet a friend/crush you abandoned years ago after his mind-boggling glowup.
"Come, let's eat," Malhar said.
Is he going to take her to a seven-star restaurant from where she'll be kicked out because she didn't know yet how to eat chowmein with chopsticks without dropping them on floor and her clothes?
"Where to?" Kalyani said horrified.
"What do you mean by where to?" Malhar said, "We'll eat in the amphitheatre. Let me bring my tiffin."
The amphitheatre was in the centre of our company's quarters built primarily for cultural functions but it was majorly used by employees for dhoop-senkna(getting sunlight) during winters, gapiyana(gossiping) and apne seniors ki buraai karna(bitching about seniors), you get the picture.
Vaise, Kalyani was very excited. She just wanted Nishigandha ki bacchi to see her with Malhar once and then she would scare her all the time dropping hints how good friend she was of the CEO. Every girl in her team would die to talk with me...Bwahaha!
Kalyani's reverie was broken soon though. Malhar was coming towards her. He had ditched his expensive navy blue suit and Rado watch. His sleeves were rolled up, his hair was messy and to Kalyani's surprise...he was wearing thick glasses similar to the ones he used to wear at school. Shit! Malharji never liked someone making stories about him and Kalyani even in the past and if someone saw Kalyani now eating lunch with him, they would all tag her being favoured unfairly. But impression jamaane ka itna accha mauka chala gaya iske proper behaviour ki vajah se!
Believing that Kalyani was caught up in some kind of weird time loop, she asked Malhar as he was spreading his handkerchief to keep the tiffin box on, "Are Malharji? Aapko fir se chashma lagne laga?"
"Mujhe to hamesha se hi chashma lagta hai," he said nonchalantly.
"So how are you able to see without it?" Kalyani asked, "I started wearing glasses in college but I can't even see my fingers without it."
"Lenses," he said softly, "Come eat na!"
Kalyani tore a morsel of chapati and ate it with a bite of malai kofta. Kucch bhi kaho bande ke haath me swaad to tha hamesha se hi.
"So, you have, like," Kalyani said, her mouth full of food, "your own chwwwartered wlane?"
"What?"
Kalyani ate her bite completely and asked, "Do you have your own chartered plane?"
Malhar looked at Kalyani as if she were the Doraemon who jumped out of the TV, "What? I'm just a CEO, madam, not a business owner. Itni bhi salary nahi milti hame. And if someone better comes in the scene, we are sacked just like that." Kalyani appreciated that at least he had the decency to speak after chewing his morsel completely unlike her.
"You must be kidding," Kalyani said. Who could sack a CEO afterall?
"No, I'm serious. Once someone expert in a new technology, someone more favoured by the board of directors due to his connections, someone who could ensure better turnover comes, a CEO is asked to step down to a much low-level post in the name of giving him rest and making him spend more time with his family. Sab chaar din ki chaandni hai, Kallu madam, fir ghana andhera..."
He cleared his throat, and said, "Sorry, I meant Kalyani. I didn't mean to call you by...by that name."
"You don't stammer anymore," Kalyani said with a smile. Their lunch was over by now.
"When I got into IIM Ahmedabad, each morning I would wake daily at 2 AM and practice speaking a sentence without stammering."
"It must be hard," Kalyani exhaled.
"It was," Malhar gazed at the horizon, "But what other choice did I have? I no more wanted to be the timid loser who gets spooked at his own existence."
And finally Malhar had repeated the words Kalyani been dreading since she saw him again. The saddest part was, it was not these words Kalyani regretted the most, it was what she did with Malharji afterwards which haunted me till now.
.....
Malhar's POV
Malhar had tried his best to not dig up old graves, but he just wanted Kalyani to get a glimpse of the extent to which she had hurt him ten years ago and he could swear, this was just the surface level. But Malhar knew, though Micky was wrong in every way in what she did with him, it was not as if he was completely blameless either. He always expected her to be his knight in shining armour yet he never realised how she was crumbling into pieces of herself. She needed him, and he was busy in his own pity party. They were just two selfish youngsters then, oblivious of how their actions were affecting each other and maybe, they were just two selfish grown-ups even after ten long years.
Please let me know your feedback about this chapter.
Edited by Autumn09 - 3 years ago
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