Page 24 of That Same Old Love

“Mahi, may I speak to you for a moment?” he asked evenly.

She looked at him and broke into a wider smile. “Sure. What’s up?”

He felt hot and bothered, watching her lips with bright red lipstick. “Follow me please,” he grated out and went into one of the unoccupied conference rooms and said, “Close the door.”

Mahi closed the door shut and looked amused when he sat down, looking at her sternly.

“Any form of inappropriate behavior will not be tolerated in my office. This is not like our college campus where you can rule or behave in any way you want.”

Her smile slipped a little. “Excuse me?”

He watched her coldly. “I need you to behave like a professional and not flirt with your co-workers. If you want to have any unsuitable interactions, take it outside work. Take this as your last warning or your hiring manager will be notified. Do you understand me?”

She looked angry and was almost fuming. She went closer to him and took the seat right next to him, even though there were at least ten other seats remaining free.

“Thatwasmy hiring manager, you fool. We were just joking around. He’s getting married in a month, and his fiancé, who by the way was sitting right next to me, was asking him to keep up his oath of not eating any sweets until they got married. They are dieting together so they look good in the wedding pictures. I wasn’t flirting!”

He did feel like a fool after listening to that explanation. He didn’t know why he was so upset about a silly harmless office flirtation. He felt that he must have reacted that way because it was Mahi, and he was trying to protect his male employees from distractions or heart breaks. He felt that maybe it could affect the company performance in a long run.

Even he didn’t exactly believe in that baseless logic, but grabbed on to it anyway, to avoid thinking too much about his irrational behavior.

“Well… I didn’t know that, and I jumped into conclusions, for which I’m sorry,” he said with dignity.

She looked at him with an exaggerated shocked expression. “Wow, you’re actually apologizing for your mistake? I’m touched, really, really touched. So did you want to see me for anything in particular?” she asked, knowing well that he wanted to thank her for the land sale.

He was feeling uncomfortable with her saying the word ‘touched’ so many times.

“I wanted to thank you for the land sale, and maybe take you out for a quick lunch, as an appreciation for your help,” he told her a little sheepishly, since he had done the exact opposite a few minutes ago.

“You are most welcome. Can we take a rain check on the lunch though? I have a meeting in a few minutes that I need to attend. Maybe some other time when you’re in the office and free for lunch?” she said.

He just nodded and left the room not liking the feeling of being beholden to her somehow.

After a few weeks, he saw her at the Stimmulus product lab. He was checking how the testing was proceeding.

She was there along with some of her team members, exploring the Stimmulus product. She saw him and began to wave at him with a smile. She also did that each time she saw him outside his house or when he was on his balcony. And he acknowledged her the same way each time, with a chin nod. But this time, she came towards him, looking very enthusiastic about something.

“Isn’t this the coolest place! Wow Samrat, this is going to be the best producteverto be released into the market. A virtual game where one can feel the things happening! How I really wish I was a part of the product team or even had one of theStimmulus consoles at home. I’ve heard that you have one at home. No wonder, Srishti is visiting you often,” she said.

At the mention of his niece, his good mood vanished. He didn’t like that Mahi was maintaining contact with Srishti. It wasn’t behind his back, but it was blatantly in his face.

Srishti had joined as an intern for the summer and often came to talk to him and Mahi during her breaks. She had also joined Mahi and him for the thank you lunch that was overdue from his side. And sometimes, Srishti even insisted that they have lunch together with Mahi in the office cafeteria, which he did because he didn’t want to leave Srishti alone with Mahi.

Mahi and Srishti also spoke to each other near his home, usually about harmless things like music or some books. But he was upset at Mahi, because he had explicitly asked her to stay away from his family.

He looked at Mahi’s eager face. “We only allow the brightest and the best to be involved in the Stimmulus project. It is a very important product for our company, and I’d prefer it if you don’t flirt or charm your way into any of these teams,” he warned, staring at her indecent lips.What is with her bright red lipstick? Didn’t she own any other less bright colors?

Her smile dropped. “You know Samrat, people do change. I’m not that same girl I used to be. But you… you are not the guy you used to be either. You’ve become into someone who is patronizing, judgmental and mean spirited. I’m beginning to pity you.”

Her furious gaze swept over him and she walked away. He felt offended and guilty at the same time. That was almost a week ago.

Considering the whole of last year, he was in the corporate office for maybe a maximum of thirty days, his presence in the office almost thrice a week from the past two and half months had raised some eyebrows and people were speculating. He wasannoyed at their looks; especially since he was the chairman and could go to work whenever and wherever he damn well wanted.

Currently, he was sitting in his new office space which was right across Mahi’s team. She interacted with her team and he could see that most males in her team always paid a lot of attention to her. And she had just blatantly hugged one of them. He left a message on her office email asking her to come and see him about something important.

Her time in his company would soon come to an abrupt end.

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